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Eclipse Photography Workshop

April 7–8, 2024

Don’t miss capturing awe-inspiring photos of this once in a lifetime event! Join landscape photographer James Staddon on a photographic workshop that will help you prepare for and photograph the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. With experience in photographing the 2017 total solar eclipse, James will help give you the best chance of photographing the last total eclipse visible from the US until 2045.

The evening before, we will begin with intense classroom training, reviewing exactly what will happen the next day during the 6 preciously short, photographic minutes of partiality and totality. Understand the camera settings necessary to photograph totality at it’s best, the Diamond Ring, the Ring of Fire, Bailey’s Beads, and the incredible solar prominences of hydrogen gas that are not visible to the naked eye. In the morning, we’ll scout locations for wide angle shots, test our equipment, and then practice, practice, practice for the moments of totality. When the show is over, we will gather back together to learn various methods of merging and editing the photos we just took for the best presentation of our best shots!

Schedule

Sunday

7:30–9:00pm – Eclipse photography training

      • Overview of what we’ll be doing
      • Make sure everyone has proper equipment
      • Explain precisely everything that will happen from beginning to end
      • Review my 2017 experience (both articles)
      • How to photograph telephoto
      • Capturing the Diamond Ring
      • Capturing the Ring of Fire
      • Capturing totality in HDR
      • How to photograph wide angle

Monday

8:00–9:00am – Scouting, testing, and practice
11:30am–12:15pm – Setup and practice
12:15–2:00pm – Photographing eclipse
2:00–3:30pm – Photo editing

What’s Included

      • Solar Eclipse viewing glasses (provided by Family Conferences)
      • Homemade solar filter for one lens
      • Tons of one-on-one instruction from James Staddon

Items to bring

    • A sturdy tripod (An aluminum or carbon fiber professional tripod with a ball head is strongly recommended. Cheap, plastic, lightweight tripods with pan-and-tilt video heads are not recommended. Using your tripod should be second nature, so learn how to use it and use it often beforehand.)
    • A DSLR or mirrorless camera (A point & shoot, bridge, or mobile phone camera could work if it has full Manual settings. You can request to rent a DSLR camera from Lenspiration here.)
    • At least 2 camera batteries (and a charger)
    • A telephoto lens (A focal length of at least 200mm, ideally 400mm, is required if you want close-up shots of the eclipse. A telephoto lens is not required, however. Landscape photos that incorporate foreground elements during the eclipse can be interesting.)
    • Remote shutter release (Not required, but strongly recommended.)
    • Intervalometer (Not required.)
    • Memory card
    • Camera bag
    • Laptop computer
    • Pre-installed photo editing software (A digital assent manager such as Adobe Lightroom, and a raster graphics photo editor such as Adobe Photoshop are recommended. However, feel free to try other programs such as PhotoDirector, Luminar, or On1.)
    • Card reader
    • It is highly recommended that participants complete Lenspiration’s Foundations of Photography course before attending, especially if you are a beginner or intermediate photographer. You can gain free access to the course through the Lenspiration Membership 14-day trial.
    • Solar filters, if you have them (Though 1 homemade solar filter will be given to all eclipse workshop attendees, you might be more comfortable using your own if you already have one.)
    • A second camera with a wide-angle lens, if desired