We all know that a total solar eclipse will happen across most of America on April 8, but you may be asking yourself how to get a perfect photo of the natural occurring phenomenon with your own phone.
How to watch: Special coverage of Monday’s ‘Great Texas Eclipse’ from KPRC
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The quality of cameras on smartphones has only gotten better and better as each version of an iPhone or Android device comes out. From recording video to taking crystal clear photographs, it’s almost like you don’t need a professional camera to have high quality images these days.
However, every summer when the Fourth of July comes around, I still see incredibly blurry photos of fireworks pop up on Instagram or Facebook, and they always look like garbage. Using a phone for a point and shoot is pretty easy, but when it comes to taking photos of the sky, it still looks absolutely terrible.
And sadly, I’m predicting to see a lot of blurry and unfocused photos of the eclipse on Monday, and I have a feeling those photos will hurt my eyes more than looking directly at the eclipse without eye protection!
So what can you do if you have little to no photography experience? Luckily, after I did some sleuthing on the internet, I’ve found a few tips that will hopefully allow you to capture a semi-decent image of the total solar eclipse.
If you do decide to take a photo of the eclipse (or you in your fancy eclipse glasses), submit them here with our Pins feature! You may see yourself on a future newscast of fellow viewers watching the historic total eclipse.
1. Don’t zoom in too much on the sun
The sun is obviously going to look a lot smaller on your phone screen than it will in real life. The natural temptation is to start zooming in, which isn’t necessarily a bad idea. That being said, if you start to zoom in too much, you are just going to end up with a blurry photo of the sun that no one is going to want to look at. If you zoom in just a little bit, your photo of the sun may turn out better.
2. Set the focus and exposure
Your iPhone or Android will automatically set the focus and exposure on your phone, but that can often be wrong, which can make photos (especially photos of the sky) unfocused and with weird colors.
There are ways to set the focus and exposure before you take a photo on your phone, so try and do that! Do some experimenting with exposure times on your phone beforehand. That way, when the big day comes around you’ll have a brieg idea of what you need to do.
3. Get some fancy equipment...aka extra eclipse glasses
Who knew that a spare pair of eclipse glasses could help you take a better photo of the eclipse? Just like how the eclipse glasses will protect your eyes from looking at the sun, shading your phone’s camera with a pair of eclipse glasses will help with the exposure on your phone. You may look a little silly doing it, but it’s not a bad idea for a great photo! The eclipse could even ruin the camera on your phone, so it’s not a bad idea to try it!
4. Take a photo of everyone watching the eclipse instead
This is a fun idea that I wish I could take credit for, but I saw this idea popping up all around the internet, and it’s such a smart one. Instead of taking a photo of the actual eclipse, take a photo or video of your surroundings. How often are you surrounded by people just staring up at the sun in the middle of the day wearing funky paper sunglasses? Not very often!
5. Or better yet, don’t take any photos and live in the moment
What a novel idea? The truth of the matter is, your photo of the eclipse is probably going to look pretty terrible, and it’s going to be even worse once you post it on Instagram or Facebook. So instead of doing that, why not just live in the moment, look at the eclipse for a little bit, and move on with your day? There will be plenty of professional photos of the eclipse taken by people who know what they’re doing, so leave the hard job to them and just enjoy seeing this natural occurring phenomenon in the moment!