The brevity of a total solar eclipse makes it unlike any other photographic subject. You can photograph wildlife every weekend, revisit a landscape whenever you want and take hundreds of attempts at deep-sky astrophotography.
A total solar eclipse offers no such luxury. The event is geographically very specific, it unfolds quickly, and the most spectacular phase lasts only a few minutes or even seconds.
That rarity is what makes eclipse photography so compelling. During totality, when the moon completely covers the sun, daylight fades to twilight, the temperature drops, shadows become strangely sharp and the solar corona emerges around the silhouette of the moon.
The challenge is to come home with memorable images without spending the entire brief event staring at the back of a camera. It’s a challenge many fail at because they don’t make decisions or prepare in advance.
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Why it’s so special
If you want to image a total solar eclipse, you must be within the narrow path of totality – the moon’s central shadow – which on 12 August 2026 is about 180 miles wide and will move over eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain.
Once you’re in place, photographing a total solar eclipse requires two very different approaches. During the initial and following partial phases, the sun remains intensely bright and must be photographed through a certified solar filter.
During the brief totality, that filter must be removed because the faint corona is only visible when the sun is completely covered.
The transition between those two states happens remarkably quickly. For most photographers, the challenge is knowing exactly what to do and when to do it, while the clock is ticking.
This isn't about expensive gear. A photographer with modest kit who knows exactly what images they want, has rehearsed in advance and has read Alan Dyer’s brilliant How to Capture the Coming Solar Eclipses book will typically outperform someone with expensive gear they've never tested. Don’t be in that second group!
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Staying safe
Before even thinking about cameras and lenses, it's essential to understand eclipse safety. Whenever any portion of the sun is visible – even 1% – you must use proper solar protection for both your camera and your eyes.
For visual observing, wear eclipse glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 standard. For photography, use a secure front-mounted solar filter designed specifically for solar imaging.
The solar filter must be as close to the sun as possible in any setup. Never look through an optical viewfinder at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun. Use Live View or an electronic viewfinder instead (doing so also helps you manually focus for a sharp image).
When photographing a total solar eclipse, you put a filter on during all partial phases and take it off only during totality. After totality ends, you put the filter back on immediately.
It’s worth noting here that the partial phases on either side are not rare and can be imaged from hundreds of miles away. You’ve traveled to the path of totality to experience and photograph totality – that’s the shot. How you take that shot, and with what, however, is up for grabs.
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Composition
Do you want a close-up of the eclipsed sun or an image of it set against a landscape? One of the biggest mistakes that first-time eclipse photographers make is unthinkingly focusing exclusively on the sun.
They see a beautiful image of the solar corona during totality and want to replicate it. In some ways, it’s classic “Instagram gaze” – a copycat composition that uses an existing image as a template rather than responding freshly to the scene in front of you.
There’s nothing wrong with this, mostly because the eclipsed sun is unique – you’ll likely capture loops of red plasma leaping from the surface of the sun around the silhouette of the moon, sparkling Baily’s beads of sunlight and a tenuous corona that is always unique.
However, it’s more of a science image. Is that what you’re after? If so, go for it. Or you could ask what the place you’re in is actually offering you – and that goes double for the 2026 total solar eclipse.
Close-up images of the corona are spectacular, but the eclipse transforms the entire landscape. Your surroundings, the changing light and the reactions of observers around you tell a more complete story. You can choose one approach – or you can attempt both.
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Equipment
For detailed solar images, a DSLR or mirrorless camera paired with a telephoto lens works best. A camera phone can record the experience, particularly during totality, but it will not give you close-up images of the sun.
Think about your goals before eclipse day. Broadly speaking, there are a handful of approaches:
- Telephoto photography of the partially and totally eclipsed sun and corona on a tripod (400-600mm lens).
- Telephoto photography of the partially and totally eclipsed sun and corona using a solar tracker on a tripod (800mm lens).
- Wide-angle images showing the landscape during totality (wide-angle lens / GoPro / smartphone) on a tripod or handheld.
- Documentary-style handheld photographs capturing people experiencing the event (smartphone)
Many experienced eclipse photographers run two cameras: one with a long lens and one with a wide-angle lens. Consider which type of image will be most meaningful to you.
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Smartphone
Look at the image above, taken from a cruise ship in 2023. It includes the ship, the people on it and the eclipse. It’s a unique image that can never be replicated – and it was taken using an iPhone.
A smartphone can do a lot during an eclipse, capturing documentary-style photographs of people wearing eclipse glasses during the partial phases, as well as a silhouette of a loved one staring skyward during totality.
In the final minutes before totality, search for crescent-shaped projections beneath trees, where gaps in the leaves act like thousands of tiny pinhole cameras.
A good way to use it is to engage the RAW or ProRAW mode, if your phone offers it, and switch off the flash (unless you want to annoy everyone). Just before totality, focus on something in the distance by touching it on your camera, then lock the focus. For polish, take the brightness slider down a touch.
Now you’re ready to take lots of wide-angle images in the first few seconds of totality – before putting your smartphone in your pocket so you can just enjoy the remaining seconds.
If possible, mount the phone on a small tripod and consider using hands-free time-lapse or video modes. Note that the super-wide lens on your smartphone is much less sensitive than the main lens.
Photographing a partial solar eclipse: Settings
If you’re using a telephoto lens, you need to practice focusing in advance. Autofocus can struggle with a filtered sun, so manual focus is usually the safest option.
Before eclipse day, practice taking images of the sun through your solar filter. That way, you’ve nailed the partial phases before you even get to the path of totality. Focus carefully on the sun’s edge and then leave focus untouched. You could even consider using masking tape to keep the lens in place.
It’s important to practice because solar filters differ in how much light they let through, so exposure lengths vary from around 1/25 sec for Thousand Oaks SolarLite filters (which give the sun an orangey look) and ND 1,000,000 filters, and 1/500-1/1000 sec for Baader AstroSolar filters (which give the sun a whitish look).
Exposure settings vary depending on the filter used, but a useful starting point during the partial and total phases is ISO200 and an aperture of f/8.
Review your images and adjust as needed. The goal is to preserve detail in the solar crescent without clipping highlights. Some photographers take an image of the partially eclipsed sun every five minutes so they can assemble a composite later (above).
Photographing a total solar eclipse: Settings
As a 99.99% partial eclipse transitions to totality, everything changes. Light levels plunge in seconds, a diamond ring hangs around the moon and tiny Baily’s beads of sunlight dance on the limb.
Seconds later, the corona can be seen spraying into space. It spans a huge brightness range, from the brilliant inner corona to faint outer streamers extending far from the sun.
There is no one perfect image of the solar corona – there are dozens of different exposures that will create a different image. Eclipse photographers tend to take hundreds of photos to process, blend and stack to create composite images that try to show as much of the corona as possible.
For that reason, exposure bracketing is highly recommended. If you capture a sequence of images ranging from fast shutter speeds (such as 1/1000 sec) to slower exposures (around 1 second), you’ll have a good chance of recording both fine detail and the outer corona.
For example, 1/1000 sec will get you a nice image of the bright diamond ring, but 0.5-1 seconds is how to get a big corona seconds later. A few minutes later, totality will end with a second diamond ring.
Exposures vary. The above image from Alan Dyer of the end of totality as the second diamond ring emerges is a composite of two images taken seconds apart – a 1/15 sec exposure for the corona and a 1/1000 sec exposure for the prominences and chromosphere.
It was taken with a small refractor telescope and a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera. In this case, a polar-aligned equatorial mount was used so the camera was tracking the sky.
Consider programming an exposure sequence, or using bracketing, so that the camera works for you and makes everything as simple as possible.
When the first bright point of sunlight reappears, totality is over. Replace the solar filter immediately before continuing to photograph the remaining partial phases.
Photographing a total solar eclipse: The best approach
A total solar eclipse is such a dynamic, impressive and otherworldly experience. Instead of obsessing over the perfect image, make a plan that enables you record the event while staying present.
Prepare your equipment, rehearse your workflow and understand exactly when to remove and replace your solar filter. Then, when totality arrives, trust your preparation and take a moment to enjoy what is happening above you.
The best eclipse photograph is often not technically brilliant, but merely the one that forever reminds you of the very short time you had in front of one of nature’s most extraordinary spectacles.
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