Solar Eclipse Photos Processing

After taking a rest and having summer class, I can process the solar eclipse photos took yesterday. I want to make something special rather than post a lot of photos in my blog. Finally I made two photos. One is a close-up and the other one is a wide-angle. I used the photos taken by using C5, Thousand Oaks type 2+ filter, D90 and HEQ5Pro, to make the solar eclipse close-up photo. I used the photos taken by using 18-200mm VR, Baader solar film and D80, to make the solar eclipse wide-angle photo. I like the orange image produced by the Thousand Oaks type 2+ filter. It gives me a moody and warm feeling. On the other hand, the Baader solar film gives white images. It gives me cool and harsh feeling. Anyway, from the photos, one can see that some photos are interfered by clouds. The bloody clouds ruined the last few minutes of the eclipse! Life is like this! Never mind! Just enjoy the process and happily wait for the next solar eclipse.

I like this one the best. Sometimes clouds decorate the eclipse!

When I process the photos, I find I can do it better next time. First of all, I used the programmable shutter to shoot the photos. However, the time interval was two minutes and one minute when the eclipse was close to maximum. This strategy was not so flexible when I process the photos. At the end of the day, one needs to select constant time interval photos in order to give a dynamic feel of the eclipse. As you don’t want the photos to overlap each others, so the desired time interval would be three to four minutes. However if you do this, the noxious clouds or other unexpected event happened, say an airplane fly by, you are forced to miss one slap-shot! So if you set the time interval to one minute, then you can have better options to select from. In addition, if you have a chance to observe the total eclipse, it is better to use the full power of your camera. The corona is easily missing!