The art of eclipse photography

What do you think a picture of an eclipse should convey to the viewer?

I usually aim to translate the feeling of how grand the world is around and above us, and how lucky we are to stand in it and under it. I also want people to understand the immense amount of effort and planning that goes into this kind of work before you even get to capture it.

Even if my work does not represent exactly what you see with your eyes, if it makes someone want to experience an eclipse, or stand under a night sky, I consider that a really nice achievement. Experiencing those things makes people care more about that beauty, and when people care more, they want to preserve it, protect it, or share it further.

You mention the importance of planning, what did that process look like for this project?

In total, the planning started around two years ago. It began with me knowing the date of the eclipse, then finding the location. My rule was that it had to be on the path of totality, which was over Spain and Iceland. As I didn’t trust the weather in Iceland, I decided to go to Spain.

What creative choices did you make early on, and how did these affect the practicalities?

I decided to capture the landscape and the eclipse separately because I really needed to be fully focused on the closeup of the eclipse when it happened. The landscape is central to the piece. It was actually difficult for me to find somewhere that resonated with what I usually capture in places like the Alps or the Andes – big peaks and mountains. But using Google Earth I had that moment of, “This is it. This is the place I want to have in my image”.

The location didn’t really matter so much for the closeup of the eclipse itself, because it doesn’t include the landscape. All I needed was a clear horizon line, so I needed to be either high up with access to the horizon or in a place that was flat in the direction of the eclipse. So after capturing the landscape, I moved to a more deserted area, around Valladolid for the eclipse portrait alongside other photographers, which also ensured a much higher chance of clear weather. With weather, you can’t do much in advance, but checking historical data when choosing the area is an advantage.

What creative goals did you set yourself?

Because it was my first eclipse, I had to be realistic about what I could confidently achieve. I made choices based on different factors, including the complexity level, the kind of challenge and the final output I had in mind. That led to two main goals, and two different set-ups. One was a closeup of the eclipse around totality, just before C2, when we got into totality, and after C3, when we got out of totality.

The other was more in my realm and closer to my creative style. The goal was to convey the passage of time in the sky and in the landscape proportionally to each other, which is usually not something that is done. You often find eclipse images that move from the partials into totality and back to normal, but the landscape is fixed.

What were the main emotions you felt in the run-up to the eclipse?

Stress, for sure, and excitement. It was stressful because of the amount of things that I needed to nail, to get right and to be sure of before the eclipse actually happened.

But the closer I got to the eclipse, the more the excitement and anticipation took over, because I knew I had done everything I could to be as ready as possible. Anxiety diminishes the more prepared you are, or the more you have practised. Using a tracker, for example, was something I would have freaked out over three or four years ago. But because I now use it all the time at night, I did not feel so stressed using it during the day.

But how is it possible to practise for an eclipse when they are so rare?

I practised photographing the sun, especially getting my timings and settings right, to make sure I had the perfect combination of ISO, aperture and exposure time, even though nothing is happening. The sun is going to be the sun – it’s not going to change much in brightness if you have the same conditions and clear skies. So I practised first by making sure all the gear worked in the heat and that the solar filters were working. Then I practised doing sequences, without removing the filter. It helped me to calculate the timings and practise them as much as possible. The only thing that could have been a little different from when I was practising in Switzerland to doing the real thing in Spain was the atmospheric conditions. Usually, when you’re lower on the horizon, you have a bit more distortion in the lower sky, but I had my settings worked out, and those settings remained the best ones to use.

Capturing the sun can be extremely dangerous. How did that threat impact how you worked?

You cannot just set your camera towards the sun and wait for a couple of minutes, because you will burn your sensor. I use specialist equipment and filters, and even if you also have certified gear, you need to know what you are doing, and even then, you never really know if it will work until you actually aim at the sun and see that it is working.

How did you ensure your own style and artistry came through in such a technical process?

In most of the images that I capture or create, the sky is where most of the technicality lies. The artistic component usually translates more into the landscape, and in the way I blend both in post-production. That is where the creative part is really carried out, because I have all the time in the world to get to the details that I want to bring forward, compared to capturing the eclipse itself, which is highly, highly technical.

What did you hope to see in the final images for your creative goals to be achieved?

I would say colours, especially in the artwork. The closeup was always going to be more about what came out of the camera but, for the wider artwork, colours were really what I was looking for.

Because this eclipse was happening at sunset, and already close to the horizon, there was the possibility of even more colour during, or just after, totality. Usually at sunset, you have warm yellows, oranges and reds, with one direction of colour and then a gradient, almost like a 360° sunset, with colour all around you.

But there was also another layer of possibility. As the eclipse fell around the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, during totality, when the sky became dark enough to reveal the brightest stars and planets, there was a chance that a meteor might pass through those 103 seconds of darkness.

Either way, if I could get that extra wow element, I knew I would definitely consider it an image of a lifetime.