Accurate Calculation and Incomparable Beauty

[Timmeh]

Hi all,

It's cliche at this point to say that the photograph you take of a total eclipse can never compare to the experience. But I'll try anyway. The processing on this took a bit longer than expected and the radial grad took awhile to get right. Any and all suggestions welcome since I don't think I can tweak this anymore than I already have without feedback.

Technical details for those interested: The location was Detroit Lake, Oregon pretty close to the center line of totality. The smoke affected the mood without disrupting the show as far as I could tell. More smoke blew over as the day went on, but the sun stayed just above the smoke. I used a big stopper and little stopper together to get the detail within the sun since the lens I used wasn't long enough to destroy the sensor (except for during totality and the diamond rings which were bare). The base landscape was towards sunrise as the ducks swam by.

Tim

Edit

 

[JimFox]

Hey Tim,

Well you have been missed here, but it's great to see your time on the road was well worth it.

It's interesting to see your approach and it looks pretty good. Besides my totally misunderstanding that a partial eclipse compared to a total eclipse is like comparing a broken down car in the junkyard to a brand new Corvette... my other issue was how to shoot it in a landscape kind of way like you did here.

Myself, I just couldn't really figure out how I would do it. This is definitely a way to go about it. Is there anyway to do it without that darkened area in the sky? I know when I shot the partial one a few years back, even with that as I tried to blend it into a regular shot, I just could not get it to look natural, but I think ultimately, that's where I would have wanted to go with it.

With the approach you took. I am wondering if you could just have the darkest part be the upper right corner, don't let it lighten up along the edges, just graduate the darkness as it radiates out from that corner, with it being dark enough where the total eclipse is to help it blend in. Obviously in the upper right as its coming out of the eclipse it would not be naturally that dark, but a little artistic license I think would be fine.

I hope my rambling on made some kind of sense.

Jim

PS. Did I mention its great to see you back?

 

[JimFox]

Oh, and can you post it 800 px high? its a bit small I think.

Jim

 

[JimFox]

And..... its awesome to see you posted it in the Gallery first. I am hoping everyone takes advantage of being able to make galleries.

Jim

 

[Timmeh]

Yeah, I think you're right on the corner. I wanted the darker area to center on totality, but I think the corner distracts (Dori mentioned this as well). I had all the suns pretty well blended on the base landscape, but it didn't look quite right without the darker sky that came with totality (I added a radial filter from the center of the totality sun). Without the darkness it felt like an annular eclipse with two diamond rings

I guess I didn't quite figure out how to adjust the size. The file itself is 1200x800, and it looks great when I click on the media. I'll fool around with the embedding options some more. I'll also adjust the corner and post that as well. Also thanks for starting the forum and the invite. It already appears to be humming pretty well, and I'll try to contribute as much as I can

 

[Ryan10]

Nice Eclipscape. The blending looks challenging as totality approached. I like seeing some landscape in the picture.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Tim,

I like that edit. It's a subtle change but effective I think.

Jim

 

[Kyle Jones]

Great concept and execution - these take some good planning and patience and I think it conveys the eclipse feeling very well.

I ran into similar problems with a lunar eclipse sequence I shot a couple of years ago. Should I leave the eclipsed part of the moon black or should it be the same color as the sky around that? How do I adjust as the eclipse goes total?

Keeping the sky dark definitely helps alleviate the problem, and I'll agree with Jim that your edit handles this well. In the end, it is all kind of fantasy anyway so just go with what you like.

 

[Travis Rhoads]

What a nice location for this, I think it looks pretty good, and had to be a tough edit...I gave up on trying to shoot the eclipse in this manner...I really wanted to, but the sun was so high in the sky, getting anything in the foreground was going to be a real challenge...thanks for sharing it, good to see that someone was able to pull it off...