Eclipse composite draft (plus final version)

Image Critiques Nightscape & Astro Critiques
1

Final version:

eclipse copy
eclipse copy2000×1333 219 KB

Draft:

eclipse_draft copy.jpg
eclipse_draft copy.jpg2000×1333 219 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I’m in southern Illinois, visiting some friends. Conditions were just about perfect, with nothing more than a few very thin high-elevation wisps of clouds. This was my first solar eclipse, and I came with some new equipment but no real plan. The biggest challenge was definitely camera vibration on the long lens! I could see sunspots in the live preview, but they were mostly lost in the actual captures.

Looking through my shots afterwards, I decided to do the kind of progressive composition I’ve seen elsewhere. But the timing of the shots was completely irregular, so the result feels a little asymmetrical. I also need to refine the position of everything.

Final version

Thanks for your feedback @Dennis_Plank , @Youssef_Ismail , @Diane_Miller , and @Ed_Williams ! I decided I like the color contrast. The orange feels like the sun, and the much cooler color of the corona stresses that the eclipse is special and different. I also kept the linear path, since a curvy bezier thing is just beyond my skills with Gimp. The only real difference in the final version is that I positioned things geometrically instead of by eyeball.

Technical Details

Sony a7 with a Tamon 500mm f/8 reflex lens and a homemade filter using Thousand Oaks Optical material. Filtered images were shot at 1/640, ISO 1600. Totality was shot at 1/400, ISO 2000. Only postprocessing was compositing in Gimp.

4 Likes
2

Nice, Dan. I don’t mind the asymmetry at all. I could see some position changes, but I certainly don’t find the current ones objectionable. I suspect a slight arc whether realistic or not, might me more artistically pleasing. I think you might want to try copying the color of the others into the center corona image, but I could be wrong on that.

1 Like
3

Dan,

Great job! I like the diagonal arrangement and keep it on the straight line as it is as the sun and moon moved along the ecliptic in southern Illinois. I particularly like the toenail slivers just before and after totality.

1 Like
4

Very nice! The asymmetry is because you were well off the center line. The color of the total phase is correct — the corona is basically colorless. The color of the partial phases is due to the solar filter. There is one that gives a neutral cast but most have an orange color.

Quite an experience wasn’t it!!!

1 Like
5

This is a wonderful series Dan. The different angles in the series are really interesting.

6

Very nice tweak for the final version! The linear path is appropriate.

7

Nicely done. I like the final version with the refined positioning.