Posted by Mel Ladewig on August 28, 2007 at 9:23 AM
Hope everyone was able to see the eclipse last night. I personally found it extremely difficult to shoot. The earth's rotation was causing some blurring in my photos over 1 second. While that was causing problems on one hand, the total eclipse was so dark that it was almost impossible to focus with my setup and required exposures in the 4 second range.
Rebel XT, 70-300IS at 300mm, f5.6 cropped to 1/3 of the frame.
Posted by Brian Jackson on August 28, 2007 at 10:21 AM
Wow nice shot. Not sure why you would have problems focusing as you could of just set it up for infinity. I've shot the moon with 400 and 600 mm lens getting some really good results. But I'm sure it was a little harder with the 4 plus second exposures.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on August 28, 2007 at 10:48 AM
Thanks Brian.
A couple things came into play with focus. First, the 70-300IS has one major drawback, no focus scale. Focus has to be made with either the AF system or by eye and the XT's viewfinder isn't the best for this. The moon became so dim during totality that AF couldn't be achieved. Second, infinity focus on long lenses can be affected by temperature changes, so the lenses are usually designed to focus beyond infinity by a small amount. You can't just crank the focus out to the furthest point and call it good.
Cool shot, Mel. I didn't realize there was going to be an eclipse until I saw the 10 o'clock news last night, and I wasn't keen on the idea of getting up in the middle of the night. What time was this?
Posted by Mel Ladewig on August 28, 2007 at 2:25 PM
This would have been slightly after 4:52 when the moon left totality. I woke up at 3:00 and got to my spot. I'm a tired sack today.
Posted by Derek Sedillo on August 28, 2007 at 2:55 PM
Mel,
Nice shot. I know what you mean about being tired.
I had a chance to look at the images I took from the Garden but not process any before work. I was hoping to get some landscape in the frame. But it was just too dark and the moon was too high when it was that cool orange/red color during totality. Even at moonset it was pretty dark out.
I look forward to seeing more of your shots later.
I will try and post a shot or two after processing tonight.
- Derek
Posted by Tony Bouchard on August 28, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Hi Mel. Nice shot. I had the same problems as you with trying to focus with no light. It probably didn't help that my eyes weren't working right that early also! This was shot at 5:03 this morning. Shows how quick things happen...
5D, 500mm with 2x, f8, 30 seconds. Adjusted in Lightroom, 3/4 crop.
Posted by Pat Sampson on August 28, 2007 at 8:15 PM
Another vote for poor focus. I got over to Cherry Creek at about 5:30. This was my best shot of the evening and it's been sharpened considerably. By the way. This is the first time I've joined a thread out here. Hello to all. I do mostly avian but wanted to take a shot of the eclipse last night.
Discussion
9 repliesRebel XT, 70-300IS at 300mm, f5.6 cropped to 1/3 of the frame.
A couple things came into play with focus. First, the 70-300IS has one major drawback, no focus scale. Focus has to be made with either the AF system or by eye and the XT's viewfinder isn't the best for this. The moon became so dim during totality that AF couldn't be achieved. Second, infinity focus on long lenses can be affected by temperature changes, so the lenses are usually designed to focus beyond infinity by a small amount. You can't just crank the focus out to the furthest point and call it good.
Nice shot. I know what you mean about being tired.
I had a chance to look at the images I took from the Garden but not process any before work. I was hoping to get some landscape in the frame. But it was just too dark and the moon was too high when it was that cool orange/red color during totality. Even at moonset it was pretty dark out.
I look forward to seeing more of your shots later.
I will try and post a shot or two after processing tonight.
- Derek
5D, 500mm with 2x, f8, 30 seconds. Adjusted in Lightroom, 3/4 crop.