The solar eclipse is over, but the hype isn’t. As a matter of fact, some of us living far from North America are even more hyped after the eclipse – because now we get to see the photos. And where can you find lots of awesome photos of space? In NASA’s image library, of course. They have published the images of the 2017 solar eclipse right after the event, and as you can expect – they are simply stunning.
How to melt your camera sensor shooting the eclipse
You know how a tiny, toy magnifying glass can burn little pieces of paper? Well, the camera lens is a not a small, toy, magnifying glass by no means, it is a powerful well-polished tool of optics and using it in the wrong way – say to photograph the sun during an eclipse – can be devastating to the camera sensor.
The team at Everything Photography did a little experiment and showed what an unfiltered six seconds exposure would do to your sensor. TL;DR – it fries te sensor.
NASA to chase the eclipse with jets to capture “clearest images of the corona to date”
Well, it looks like the best view of this year’s eclipse on August 21st is going to go to NASA. They recently announced that they’ll be chasing it with WB-57F jets. For most of us here on planet earth, the eclipse will last around two and a half minutes in total. You can see here how to capture it from the ground. For the NASA scientists aboard the jets, though, it will last over seven minutes.
They’ll be following the shadow of the moon as it moves across the USA. Observing with twin telescopes mounted to the nose of the jets. Their aim is to capture the clearest images yet of the Sun’s corona. But that’s not all they’re looking for. They’ll be recording the first ever thermal images of the planet Mercury, too.
This Moon Terminator Illusion explains why light can appear to bend the wrong way
And no, the Moon Terminator is nothing to do with Arnold. The “terminator” in this case is the line between the lit and dark sides of the moon. During those times when the moon and the sun are in the sky together, there’s something odd about it. The line defining the lit side of the moon doesn’t line up with the sun, the thing that’s lighting it.
This video from YouTuber Vsauce attempts to explain the phenomenon of the Moon Terminator illusion. A camera is used to explain some of the various principles involved. It’s well worth watching, as it also goes some way towards also explaining some of the issues photographers hit regularly. Understanding the causes of them can help us to resolve them.
How to shoot amazing portraits in midday sun with only one light
Harsh and bright midday sun is definitely not the ideal time of day for portrait shots. However, you can even out the light and avoid the unflattering shadows using only one light. In his latest video, Manny Ortiz shares a quick tutorial how to do it and make stunning portraits even in the bright sunlight.
The new Godox AD200 flash takes on the bright Texas sun and wins
The Godox AD200 is the newest flash in the Godox line up. Around the world it’s sold under various brands. In the USA it’s the Adorama eVOLV 200. Here in the UK it’s the Pixapro Pika 200. Whatever it’s called, it’s been getting a lot of attention since it was initially announced. Last month we showed you Robert Hall’s quick hands on review.
Now, they’re out in the wild, shipping and being delivered as I type. One photographer who’s got his hands on one is our friend Francisco Hernandez. Francisco lives in South Texas, where the sun’s often brighter than average. As a consequence, he’s a big fan of high speed sync. So, he put the Adorama eVOLV 200 against the bright Texas sun to see just how well it performed.
Photo capturing the Sun, ISS and Mercury in a single frame
No, this is not a TIE fighter gong over the sun, it is the International Space Station. And while getting a shot of the ISS over the sun is competently doable, getting that shot with Mercury in the frame is an epic effort.
Engineer and photographer Thierry Legault took this composite of the ISS, Sun and Mercury at a carefully selected location and date in Philadelphia, USA. You see during the entire 21st century there are only 14 times that Mercury goes over the sun. Add to that the precision needed to capture the exact 0.6 seconds of ISS transit and you can start understating how hard it can be.
4K time-lapse from NASA shows the sun’s explosive corona in action
Six years ago, NASA launched its Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a mission and accompanying module designed to monitor the sun in an attempt to better understand its electromagnetic behavior and the various phenomena it impacts.
A major component of this was to capture consistent images using extreme ultraviolet imaging, a technic used due to its ability to capture the sun’s corona, an aura of plasma that encompasses the sun millions of miles into space.
Today, NASA has shared its latest video, showing the SDO’s view of the sun’s corona in action from from January 1st, 2015 to January 28th, 2016.
NASA’s Thermonuclear Art Shows The Sun in 10 Wavelengths, 4K and 30 Minutes
‘Thermonuclear Art – The Sun In Ultra-HD’ is the latest timelapse video released by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and it lives up to its name.
Capturing the sun in 10 wavelengths of invisible ultraviolet light every 12 seconds, and assigning a unique color to each wavelength, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory brings us the images required to create this mesmerizing eye candy.
According to NASA each minute of footage required about ten hours of work, so this 30-minute long video took approximately 300 hours to edit.
Creating A Midday Sun In The Studio – A Lighting Tutorial
As we know, shooting in harsh sunlight at midday is a portrait photographers nightmare! But, it can produce a very striking and edgy look thats fantastic. However this particular author lives and works in Northern Ireland – now, most will agree, this is a beautifully scenic part of the world unfortunately though we are not blessed with a lot of sunlight. In fact this year its hard to remember a day when its wasn’t raining!
Hence my project to create a wonderfully hard Mediterranean sunlight effect in the studio! In fact this is a fairly easy task and using the correct modifier can produce excellent results. For my first test I wanted to create a textured wall effect rather than use a seamless paper roll. I purchased a 4′ X 8′ sheet of plasterboard (Drywall) and produced a textured effect by liberally applying Spackling Paste to the board.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!