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Old 02-13-2008   #11 (permalink)
lightandimages
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Default Re: Photographing the Eclipse

I disagree with the statement about "needing" at least 180mm lens. I have attached an image of the last eclipse I shot in my front yard with my Nikon D80 and the kit lens, 18-135mm.

A tripod is a must. Prefocus and manual focus is a must. I used the self timer to minimize the shake of my pushing the button. I shot at F8 which is the sweet spot for this zoom on my camera for sharpness. Remember that the moon is highly reflective so the sunny rule of 16 applies well here. My shutter was 1/800 at ISO 200.

I did crop the image hard but 10 megapixels lets you do that and get away with it. The longer lens would let you get a tighter shot without the hard cropping but it's not "required"

I would also add that shooting RAW is almost a must. You get about 2 stops either direction to play with on the exposure and you dont worry about color balance until you process it. I would also suggest that this a very good time to "expose to the right" where you want the hump of the histogram on the right hand side, not up against the end but in the right hand third. This will give you max data to work with after the shot is taken.

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Last edited by lightandimages; 02-13-2008 at 02:45 PM.. Reason: adding notes about raw
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