Last night ushered in the rare “super blood moon” and the astronomical spectacle of a total lunar eclipse, the photographerShi XinfengMr. Sharing his photos and techniques for capturing the path of the total lunar eclipse with iPhone 12 Pro. As a reference for all those who like to take pictures with mobile phones, you can still take pretty good photos of astronomical wonders even without a monocular or expensive lens.
Preparation for photographing a lunar eclipse
On the Central Meteorological Administration website atKnowledge and Astronomy Page, you can check the time and azimuth of the sunrise and sunset, the moonrise and moonset every day, and the interpretation of the azimuth angle is actually very simple. North, southeast, and west are 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees in order. The moon rise azimuth on the day of the total lunar eclipse is about 113 degrees, so you can see the moon rising as long as you face the direction of southeast and east. Therefore, the high west of the Taipei Basin is a good viewing spot. Because you need to shoot for a long time, a stable tripod and mobile phone clamp are necessary. The best place to set up is on a stable ground to reduce unnecessary shaking.
Tips for photographing the lunar eclipse with your mobile phone
There are actually no special techniques for photographing a total lunar eclipse. Just use the built-in camera to take a photo every once in a while. Shi Xinfeng pointed out that in order to make post-production smoother, there are some things that need to be paid attention to.
When shooting with the main lens, the moon will only occupy a small part, and the night mode will be turned on automatically. At this time, the moon will be a white mass with no details. There is an icon of the sun next to the box where you click the focus position. After clicking it, sliding up will increase the exposure brightness, and sliding down will decrease it. So as long as you slide it to the bottom, although the sky will look very dark, the shape of the lunar eclipse can be shot clearly, which will be convenient for compositing in the later stage.
Except for the night scene and the moon below, the rest of the place is dark. At this time, the moon can have a clear shape:
When shooting, try not to shake the tripod, and then just take a photo every 5-10 minutes. Remember to check the composition after each photo, because sometimes the moon is too small to focus and errors will occur, so the focus box is placed in a distant city, which can reduce the possibility of errors. Continue these steps until the moon is full again and the photo is completed.
The last photo after the rounding can be taken normally to let the background color and details come out, which will be used as the base map for our later synthesis.
After the rounding, the photos can be taken in night mode to record all the details:
Post-production
It can be used in post-production this time pixlr, although it can do the same repeated exposure technique as snapseed, but if the tripod shakes slightly when shooting, the night scene of the city below will appear synthetically blurred, and pixlr There is an eraser in the upper right corner of the Repeat Exposure interface. It can erase the parts that do not need to be re-exposed. At this time, you only need to wipe the bottom part of the night scene, keep the night and the moon, and select the composite mode to brighten it. Then just repeat the action on the captured lunar eclipse in sequence to complete a total lunar eclipse trajectory map.
Turn on the repeated exposure function and put another picture on it. Although you can see the two eclipses, it is blurry because the bottom is not well aligned:
After using an eraser to erase the night scene below, only the night and the lunar eclipse are left:
When the mode selection is brightened, only the moon will be left in the stacked pictures:
That’s it, isn’t it simple? Please give it a try next time you have a chance!
*Note: Going out is not encouraged during the epidemic prevention period. Shi Xinfeng said that the photo was taken in a deserted place behind his home, and he wore a mask throughout.
Source: KOCPC Chinese