u/HenryBalzac

Paris Metro Station

And one Parisian day at the end as a bonus.

Hey everyone! This is my first time photographing a solar eclipse with real gear (as opposed to my camera phone lol).

After seeing the one in 2024 and being blown away, I resolved to invest money in some decent gear and time into learning how to take decent photos.

I traveled to Mallorca, Spain and took over 1,000 photos/videos. Unfortunately, I have a giant laptop instead of a nice travel laptop, so I haven't been able to properly edit any of my footage yet.

In the meantime: please enjoy a couple of my rough drafts that I was able to touch up on my tablet!

Photo 1: It was clear skies until just before totality, But then some light cloud wisps rolled in. I thought it would ruin the last moments before totality, but I think it ended up looking really cool!

Photo 2: Totality! The original started out SUPER dark, but luckily I was able to bring out all the highlights. It kinda reminds me of the poster for the movie Armageddon.

Whenever I get back home from my travels, I'll be able to do some serious editing and out out some better stuff, but for now we're stuck with the rough drafts.

Which one do you like best?

I got a fancy new zoom lens and wanted to see what it was capable of. So I took it for a test drive on last month's Buck Moon and ended up getting one of my best ever photos.

500 photos stacked together. Next time I'll include a wider range of exposures. I was just more focused on learning how to use the alignment/stacking software this time around.

I've finally graduated from the D3400 to a D7500, and also picked up a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6e ED VR so I can get some sweet closeup shots.

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with this setup. I can't wait to learn more about them so that I can produce even better photos.

Photo details/settings
2 minutes of 4K video at 500mm, f/10, 1/60 shutter speed. No hood used, because the one I ordered hasn't arrived yet.

Post Processing
- I ran the video through PIPP and kept the the 500 best images

- I processed and stacked the 500 images with Autostakker!

- Lastly, I took the stacked images and used WaveSharp to tweak it a little.

Honestly, though, WaveSharp was the most "involved" step and it was like 3am, so I didn't spend too much time in this program. So maybe the image could've come out a little better, but this is still the best looking shot of the moon I've ever been able to put out, so I'm happy with it!

Probably the most frustrating part was my tripod head. Every time I pointed it and tightened the screw, the image started drifting the second I let go of the camera. I guess it's time to go spend more money lol