Get ready for the Summer Solar Eclipse

June 10, 2021 will bring an Annular Solar Eclipse to a large part of Canada. It will be visible throughout the Territories and most of Manitoba all the way to the Atlantic Ocean!!

We cannot stress this next part enough: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN, ESPECIALLY DURING A SOLAR ECLIPSE. DO NOT POINT YOUR CAMERA AT THE SUN WITHOUT ENOUGH ND FILTERS TO PROTECT YOUR SENSOR.

You can burn a hole in your retinas and/or your imaging sensor when not taking the necessary precautions whilst photographing the Sun. You will more than likely not be able to use your viewfinder to compose images – Live View should work perfectly, after you have installed your filters.

Kenko created a handy PDF with lots of details and some tips.

The key to capturing perfect images of the solar eclipse is to use the right filter. In the past, I’ve used special solar filters designed for telescopes. They aren’t as optically correct as a photography filter due to the difference in resolution. For this image, I used the equivalent of ND100,000 filters on my Tamron 150-600 G2, plus Tamron 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters and Kenko 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters.

Why not stack filters?

I often stack filters – especially an ND1000 on top of a circular polarizer. C-POL normally only give you 1 to 1.5 stops of light darkening. Stacking filters multiplies their effect. Therefore, ND1000 plus C-POL will still only give me a maximum of ND1,500. To get close to the light blocking required for solar eclipse photography, I need to add an ND16 or stronger to my ND1000. That’s an equivalent of ND16,000 or 14 stops. That’s a useable combination. However, if want to use a wide angle lens, I run the risk of vignetting from the two filters. No matter which lens I’m using, there’s a further risk of reflections and double images.

Thankfully, for this June, I’ll have an optically perfect Kenko Pro ND100,0000 filter. ND100,000 is the equivalent of just over 16.5 stops of light. To put this into photographer’s perspective, if your ISO and Aperture remain the same, you would have to use a 256 second/4.25 minute exposure with ND100,000 to match a 1/400s exposure without the filter!!

This filter will allow you to photograph the entire solar eclipse without having to remove the filter. You can keep your aperture set to it’s sharpest – usually f/8 to f/11 – and adjust your shutter speed from 1/2000s down to 1/200 (ISO100, f/8). The Pro ND100,000 is a very versatile solution for any photographer who wants to capture a range of images of the solar eclipse.

Is the Sun the only thing I can photograph with ND100,000?

Absolutely not! I spent a day wandering around Oshawa taking photos with exposure times from 3 to 5 minutes, such as this waterfall.

I also took this image of Highway 2/King Street in Oshawa on a busy weekday. It’s a 300 second exposure in the middle of the day. If you look closely, you can see the two cars ghosted at the traffic lights.

The creative opportunities afforded by using one single filter that blocks 16.5 stops of light is astounding. I look forward to getting up early the morning of June 10 as I have a location picked out. Fingers crossed for clear skies! Share your photos to our Facebook and Flickr pages!

About the Author – Will Prentice (www.capturaphoto.ca) is a professional photographer based out of Whitby, Ontario and Brand Specialist – Lighting for Amplis.