LIVE AMA with Autumn Schrock + Nate Luebbe

NateintheWild · March 28

Could you elaborate on your shooting process while using an equatorial mount? i.e. using guiding software or manually adjusting your setting as it progresses?

My process is very simple: I let Autumn do it

Morganhaysphoto · March 28

For your timelapses are you just setting the camera up via photopills AR when you get to where you are shooting?

NateintheWild · March 28

For your timelapses are you just setting the camera up via photopills AR when you get to where you are shooting?

Yes sir! PhotoPills is my favorite way to get an idea of the path the sun will take so you can line up your composition ahead of time. I'd recommend scouting a day or two ahead of time also so you don't end up running around recomposing while the eclipse is happening!

autpops · March 28

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What lens are u planning to use for shooting the eclipse?

Also, depending on the scene that we're able to find, I may use a Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II lens to capture a wider landscape during totality to composite all of the phases into in Photoshop.

karthz · March 28

Hello Autumn and Nate, love both of your work and thanks for doing this AMA. I've never photographed a solar eclipse before. How do you plan for an event like this - do you pick a location in the path, based on the landscapes, weather?

danielexmachina · March 28

My partner and I will be in a national park near Mazatlan and want to get a zoomed shot of the eclipse with some foreground (e.g. between rock formations). Obviously this requires knowing exactly where the sun will be in the sky relative to our position. Any recommendations for app/sites to help plan that?

NateintheWild · March 28

My partner and I will be in a national park near Mazatlan and want to get a zoomed shot of the eclipse with some foreground (e.g. between rock formations). Obviously this requires knowing exactly where the sun will be in the sky relative to our position. Any recommendations for app/sites to help plan that?

Oh that shot sounds AWESOME! My favorite app for that is called PhotoPills. It costs a bit of money (I think $20) but it's worth every penny.

autpops · March 28

Hello Autumn and Nate, love both of your work and thanks for doing this AMA. I've never photographed a solar eclipse before. How do you plan for an event like this - do you pick a location in the path, based on the landscapes, weather?

Aww, thanks for the kind words! We unfortunately only have 3 days in between projects for the eclipse, so we chose our location based on proximity to home and made sure it was in the longest part of totality to maximize our chances of capturing it!

steveagee · March 28

where in the path of totality are you planning to shoot the eclipse? (you don't have to give us the exact location, but like what state)

Laura Bradford · March 28

For your timelapse, are you planning a landscape timelapse or "just" a solar timelapse? Am I right in thinking if it's a landscape timelapse there would be a LOT of blending? Each partial eclipse image would have to be blended with the totality foreground? Is that totally a manual process or is there a nifty tool that would do that?

NateintheWild · March 28

where in the path of totality are you planning to shoot the eclipse? (you don't have to give us the exact location, but like what state)

We're going to be in Texas! Seemed like a good bet for clear(ish) skies this time of year, as well as decent proximity to our house compared with the east coast locations.

danielexmachina · March 28

My partner and I will be in a national park near Mazatlan and want to get a zoomed shot of the eclipse with some foreground (e.g. between rock formations). Obviously this requires knowing exactly where the sun will be in the sky relative to our position. Any recommendations for app/sites to help plan that?

Ok cool, we've used Stellarium before for astro planning, does PhotoPills have more features?

autpops · March 28

Hello Autumn and Nate, love both of your work and thanks for doing this AMA. I've never photographed a solar eclipse before. How do you plan for an event like this - do you pick a location in the path, based on the landscapes, weather?

We looked for a more remote location, partly to avoid crowds and partly to have more of an opportunity to include a wider landscape in the shot too. We'll be in Texas, so hopefully weather will cooperate! Weather is definitely the most difficult thing to predict when hoping to photograph an eclipse

NateintheWild · March 28

My partner and I will be in a national park near Mazatlan and want to get a zoomed shot of the eclipse with some foreground (e.g. between rock formations). Obviously this requires knowing exactly where the sun will be in the sky relative to our position. Any recommendations for app/sites to help plan that?

I haven't used Stellarium, but PhotoPills has every feature I could ever imagine and then several more!

NateintheWild · March 28

For your timelapse, are you planning a landscape timelapse or "just" a solar timelapse? Am I right in thinking if it's a landscape timelapse there would be a LOT of blending? Each partial eclipse image would have to be blended with the totality foreground? Is that totally a manual process or is there a nifty tool that would do that?

I wouldn't blend any! I think it would be cool to do a landscape timelapse that shows the foreground going from full sun to totality and back again and if you blend the foreground then you'd lose all that change.

NateintheWild · March 28

For your timelapse, are you planning a landscape timelapse or "just" a solar timelapse? Am I right in thinking if it's a landscape timelapse there would be a LOT of blending? Each partial eclipse image would have to be blended with the totality foreground? Is that totally a manual process or is there a nifty tool that would do that?

But we're going to be using an equatorial mount to do a close-up timelapse of just the sun itself since the foreground where we're going to be in Texas isn't suuuuuuper interesting haha

NateintheWild · March 28

Hello Autumn and Nate, love both of your work and thanks for doing this AMA. I've never photographed a solar eclipse before. How do you plan for an event like this - do you pick a location in the path, based on the landscapes, weather?

Hi Karthz!

Laura Bradford · March 28

For your timelapse, are you planning a landscape timelapse or "just" a solar timelapse? Am I right in thinking if it's a landscape timelapse there would be a LOT of blending? Each partial eclipse image would have to be blended with the totality foreground? Is that totally a manual process or is there a nifty tool that would do that?

OOOO!!! I didn't even think of it that way! I was thinking about using the filter the whole time, but it WOULD be so cool to show the effect of totality! I'll be MC'ing an event in Maine so that would capture that whole feel! Thanks!

NateintheWild · March 28

For your timelapse, are you planning a landscape timelapse or "just" a solar timelapse? Am I right in thinking if it's a landscape timelapse there would be a LOT of blending? Each partial eclipse image would have to be blended with the totality foreground? Is that totally a manual process or is there a nifty tool that would do that?

The solar filter is really only necessary if you're shooting up close on the sun, but if you're shooting the entire scene (at say, 16mm) then the sun won't be intense enough to need a filter. It'll be more like a standard daytime timelapse in terms of camera damage (basically none)

alpha-jessica-a · March 28

Another question from socials: How do you deal with clouds on special eclipse events?

NateintheWild · March 28

Another question from socials: How do you deal with clouds on special eclipse events?

Sadly that's just the name of the game with nature photography. Sometimes the weather cooperates and sometimes it doesn't. If it's cloudy I will deal with it by pouting and feeling sad.

autpops · March 28

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Another question from socials: How do you deal with clouds on special eclipse events?

Get really sad haha. But it can turn out to be REALLY cool in the end if the clouds are thin enough in spots. We photographed and filmed the annular solar eclipse that just happened this past October and I think the clouds ended up giving it a more ethereal, unique feel! You can see the video here.

hollywalterphoto · March 28

Could you elaborate on your shooting process while using an equatorial mount? i.e. using guiding software or manually adjusting your setting as it progresses?

Awesome! I had saw during your stories for the annular eclipse that you guys picked up an EQ mount and started playing with my azimuth mount crossing my fingers that it would work. Then my spouse surprised me with an EQ for this eclipse! Crossing my fingers for clear weather now!

steveagee · March 28

this might be more of an astro photography question, but how do you get your stars (or moon/sun) so sharp? Once we're dealing with infinity as a focal length I have a lot of focus issues.