Want to Take Photos of the Total Solar Eclipse? Here’s What to Know

Monday’s solar eclipse is the talk of the town. During its trip across North America, the total eclipse will hit parts of Mexico, a long diagonal stripe across the US and a stretch of eastern Canada. It’ll be quite the event, especially since the next total solar eclipse to hit North America won’t happen until August 2044. 

Nearly half of the US population lives within a 200-mile drive of the event, giving many people a chance to catch a glimpse or a photo.

Remember you must wear solar eclipse glasses if you’re looking up during the eclipse. While the sun will be completely hidden behind the moon for a few minutes, the rest of the eclipse will be just as harmful to human vision as it would be if you stared at the sun on any other day. So you’ll want to make sure that your solar glasses will protect your eyes while you watch.

You’ll want to protect your camera and its lenses, too, if you’re among the throngs who’ll be aiming a smartphone or DSLR at the sun in hopes of capturing that perfect image to share on social media of the last total solar eclipse in the US for the next 20 years.

Here are a few things to know before pointing your sensitive and expensive devices at the giant fireball in the sky. 

Taking photos of the solar eclipse with a smartphone

A great many solar eclipse photos are likely to come from smartphones, given that just about everyone has one and that many are packed with very capable cameras. 

First things first, you’ll want to pick up a solar filter. You don’t need anything fancy. You can buy little solar lenses that you can physically hold in front of your phone camera lens for a little over $10 on Amazon with one-day shipping. That’s about as quickly as you can get one online that’ll still get to you before the eclipse on Monday. In a pinch, you could use one of the lenses from a pair of paper solar eclipse glasses to achieve the same effect. 

In general, your phone’s auto mode should take care of most of the heavy lifting. Phone makers have spent tons of time tuning the cameras to the appropriate settings to take the best possible picture. If you want to take matters into your own hands, you can always switch to manual mode — but do spend a bit of time before the eclipse familiarizing yourself with those settings. 

A few other helpful tips:

• Turn off your flash. Once totality hits, you’ll be taking pictures essentially at night and your flash isn’t going to help. Plus, it can annoy people around you.
• Only use zoom if your phone is equipped with an optical zoom lens like the Galaxy S24 Ultra or the iPhone 15. Check your phone model to see if yours comes equipped with it. Using digital zoom will reduce resolution and make the image look blocky and unappealing. 
• Most modern smartphones feature a burst shot mode. The crown jewel of eclipse photography, the diamond ring, is only visible for a split-second and a burst shot mode will give you better odds of capturing it than if you try to time it yourself. 
• Practice. Taking good pictures of the sun is no easy task and you don’t want to spend the entire time fiddling with your smartphone camera settings.
• Google also recommends bringing a portable battery bank. Camera use is a huge battery drain, and you may need some extra juice. 

Taking photos of the solar eclipse with a DSLR

Many of the rules for smartphone photography also apply if you plan on taking a DSLR or mirrorless camera to the event. The steps to get there are slightly different. Smartphones can use virtually any solar filter, but cameras require something that’ll fit on the end of your camera’s lens barrel since it’s very difficult to hold a filter while taking a picture with a regular camera. 

You may think you need a UV filter for solar photography. In reality, you’ll want an ND (neutral density) filter. ND filters reduce the amount of light coming into the lens the same way solar eclipse glasses reduce the amount of light coming into your eyes. K&F Concepts has a good one designed specifically for celestial photography. 

The next factor is size. Filters come in various sizes and the size you need depends on what lens you own. Check the barrel of your lens. You’ll want to find the ø symbol with a number next to it. That number is the millimeter size you need. 

If your lens doesn’t have that measurement on it, you can find the measurements on the box the lens came in or on the manufacturer’s website. If you get an incorrectly sized filter, it won’t fit on your camera properly, so make sure you look before you leap since ND filters can get quite expensive. 

Once you obtain a solar filter, the same general tips apply to a regular camera. Practice photographing the sun over the weekend before the eclipse so you can dial in your preferred settings. Use burst mode to capture the diamond ring, bring spare batteries, and make sure your equipment is in order before the event. 

Camera owners may also want to consider bringing multiple lenses to get different types of pictures, and you should definitely bring a tripod if you’re planning on long exposure shots, or just for stability in general. (A remote shutter release helps as well.) If you’re comfortable with it, shooting in raw image format can also produce some amazing results after some editing. 

Can I take photos of the solar eclipse without a filter?

Human eyes can be damaged in seconds when staring at the sun — and the same is true for eyes looking through an unprotected camera lens at the eclipse. Camera lenses themselves are a bit more resilient. They might be able to handle the occasional sun photograph, but the longer and more frequently the camera is pointed at the sun, the more likely it is that damage will occur.

This can happen in a variety of ways, including damage to the lens, camera internals and mounting hardware. Camera lenses are essentially fancy and expensive magnifying glasses, and anyone who used a standard magnifying glass to concentrate sunbeams as a kid already knows how dangerous it can be for things on the other side of the sunbeam. 

You may be able to get away with the occasional snap of the sun with an unprotected camera without damage as long as it’s quick and it’s not a long exposure shot (and you’re not looking directly at it yourself). However, given how expensive cameras, camera lenses and smartphones are, better to err on the side of caution and use a solar filter. 

In addition to safety, the solar filter can also help you take more effective pictures of the sun. Cameras — especially smartphone cameras — often have a rough time with super bright lights like the sun. A solar filter will reduce the brightness so you’ll be able to get much cleaner pictures of the eclipse. 

During the brief moment of totality, you might consider removing your solar filter. Everything will be so dark that it’ll be unnecessary, and it’ll help if you want a good shot of the corona. Just make sure to put it back on if you want photos as the eclipse wanes. 

Don’t forget to actually watch the eclipse

This is the last total solar eclipse to run through North America until 2044. It’s a once-in-a-generation event, unless you plan on traveling to Russia in 2026 or Egypt in 2027. Remember to put the camera down at some point and enjoy the moment. A celestial event like this doesn’t happen every day. 

While it is a singular event for us here on Earth, astronauts on the ISS will have three total opportunities to watch it.

If you live in the path of the solar eclipse, you’re also encouraged to leave pets indoors with lights on and shutters closed as the transition to nighttime in the middle of the day can cause stress to animals. And systems that run on solar power may experience significant impacts on solar generation, so that’s another thing to keep in mind.