How to photograph the eclipse in Ceuta without missing it

Photographing a total eclipse has one complication built in: it is two radically different scenes separated by a single second. The partial phase is the brightest object in the sky and demands a strong solar filter. Totality is a faint object — the corona — that demands taking it off. You have to make that change at C2, at 10:45, and undo it at C3, at 10:50, in a hurry and with your pulse up.

The filter is not optional, and it is not an ND

For the partial phase you need a solar filter in front of the lens: solar film or a glass filter designed for solar observation. A photographic neutral-density filter will not do, even if the histogram looks right: it does not block infrared, and a telephoto pointed at the Sun can damage the sensor and, on a camera with an optical viewfinder, your eye. The filter goes in front of the lens, never behind it.

Which focal length

• 200–300 mm full frame: the Sun comes out small but with context, and it forgives tracking errors. A good choice for a first attempt.
• 400–600 mm: the disc fills a reasonable part of the frame and the corona still fits. This is the classic range.
• Over 800 mm: only on a very stable mount. The inner corona gets cropped and tracking becomes demanding.
• Wide angle: the best photograph almost nobody takes. With the Sun at 38° it will not share a frame with the landscape without a very generous wide angle and a vertical composition, but a wide shot with a darkened sky, an orange horizon and people looking up tells the story far better than an isolated black disc.

Planning specific to Ceuta

In Ceuta the Sun will be around 38° high at an azimuth of roughly 95°. That rules out the "eclipse right above the walls" telephoto shot from the start: at that altitude the Sun and any ground-level reference do not share a frame. The two compositions that do work are the tight shot of the disc, from anywhere, and the very wide landscape, where the Sun is small but the darkened scene does the work.

Bracketing totality

The corona has an enormous dynamic range: the inner part is thousands of times brighter than the outer. There is no single correct exposure — there are several. The standard approach is a wide bracket, 1/1000 s to 1 s, two or three stops between frames, combined afterwards. With 4 minutes and 48 seconds of totality there is time for two full brackets and still time to look up.

And with a phone

A phone is not going to take a good picture of the eclipsed disc: the focal length is short and the disc comes out as a dot. What it does superbly is the other thing: video of the atmosphere. The light collapsing, people shouting, the orange horizon. That is the footage nobody has afterwards and everybody wants. Set it recording on a small tripod a minute before C2 and forget about it. And do not point it at the Sun unfiltered during the partial phase: the sensor pays for it.

And the golden rule: give the first twenty seconds of totality to looking, with no camera in your hands. It is the one irreplaceable moment of the day; the photograph can wait twenty seconds.

Frequently asked questions