A smartphone can successfully capture a solar eclipse, but the difficulty of the task should not be understated. The narrow field of view and the intense, focused light pose significant challenges for the small lenses and digital sensors commonly found in mobile devices. Successfully documenting this dramatic celestial event demands preparation and a willingness to move beyond the phone’s standard point-and-shoot functionality. Without careful planning and the right specialized accessories, the resulting images will likely be completely overexposed or, worse, risk damage to the device.
Non-Negotiable Safety Requirements
The sun’s focused energy presents a serious and permanent threat to a phone’s camera sensor, even during the partial eclipse phases. The intense visible and infrared light is concentrated onto the small sensor area. This can overload and permanently damage the delicate sensor components, resulting in dead pixels or complete sensor failure. Protecting the phone’s optics with a specialized filter is the only way to prevent this irreparable harm.
Eye safety remains paramount and separate from device protection; looking at the sun directly, even for a moment, can cause severe retinal burns. Viewing the sun through the phone screen is insufficient protection for the human eye, as the unfiltered light entering the camera lens is still dangerous. Certified solar viewing glasses must be worn at all times when aligning the phone or looking up at the sun during the partial phases. Failure to wear appropriate eye protection risks permanent vision impairment.
The only acceptable form of filtration is a certified solar filter that meets the international safety standard, ISO 12312-2. This certification verifies the filter material reduces the sun’s brightness to safe levels for both the camera and the eye. Utilizing uncertified or makeshift filters, such as standard sunglasses, does not provide adequate protection and should be strictly avoided. These certified filters are designed to block harmful ultraviolet and infrared radiation, ensuring only a tiny, safe fraction of light reaches the sensor or the eye.
Preparing Your Phone for the Shot
Photographing the sun requires extreme stability due to the high magnification necessary to make the solar disk visible. Even the slightest movement will cause noticeable blurring, especially when using telephoto lenses or digital zoom features. A sturdy tripod or a secure phone mount is necessary to keep the camera completely stationary during the exposure.
The certified filter material must be rigidly affixed over the phone’s primary camera lens, ensuring zero light leaks around the edges. Specialized phone clips designed for filter attachment offer the most secure method of attachment. The filter must be positioned flush against the lens to maintain image clarity and prevent any unfiltered light from reaching the sensor. This physical barrier must remain in place throughout the entire duration of the partial eclipse phases.
Several automatic phone settings must be manually deactivated to gain full control over the exposure. The camera’s built-in flash must be disabled, as it provides no illumination benefit and can interfere with manual settings. Electronic image stabilization features should also be turned off because they can introduce subtle motion artifacts when the phone is mounted on a stable tripod.
Capture Techniques and Camera Settings
Relying on the phone’s automatic exposure mode will result in a completely overexposed image where the solar disk is simply a featureless white circle. The camera’s internal metering system is overwhelmed by the sun’s intense brightness and attempts to brighten the surrounding dark sky. Accessing the phone’s Pro or Manual mode is mandatory for achieving a properly exposed image. This manual control allows for precise adjustments to the shutter speed and ISO sensitivity.
In Manual mode, lock the focus to infinity to ensure the distant sun appears sharp, as autofocus mechanisms often struggle with the small, bright object. Keep the ISO sensitivity at its lowest possible setting, typically ISO 50 or 100, to minimize digital noise. The main control for brightness then becomes the shutter speed, which should be fast, often ranging from 1/500th of a second up to 1/4000th of a second, depending on the filter density. These fast shutter speeds limit the amount of light hitting the sensor.
To make the sun appear larger in the frame, utilize the phone’s optical zoom capabilities first, as this feature preserves image quality. Digital zoom should be used sparingly because it merely crops and enlarges the image data, leading to a significant loss of resolution. A better strategy is to use moderate digital zoom, or none at all, and plan to crop the final image later during post-processing.
Capturing Totality
The photographic approach changes dramatically for the brief period of totality. Immediately before totality begins, the solar filter must be carefully removed to allow the faint corona to be captured; leaving the filter on results in an entirely black image. During totality, the shutter speed must be drastically slowed down, potentially to 1/30th of a second or longer, to capture the ethereal details of the sun’s atmosphere. The certified filter must be replaced immediately when the first bright sliver of the sun reappears to protect both the camera and the eyes.