Question for some of you "professional" photographers.

We will be in the direct line of the total eclipse that will happen in August and I am going to try and capture some of it with my drone. What camera and video settings would you recommend for good results (filter?)? I take a lot of qualty videos/photos of real estate and the mountains here in North Carolina but have never attempted pics of a total eclipse.

You need to choose to leave it with exposure locked for daylight, in which case everything will go black for a short while, and if you are high enough and looking towards the horizon then you might see the eclipse moving across the land - maybe look at 90 degrees to the path and somewhat down rather than parallel so that you see it pass by.

Or leave it on auto in which case it will adjust to the lowering light and you will see almost nothing on the video until the sensor runs out of sensitivity and then it will suddenly go to night time and you will see all the street lights etc if they come on (are they on sensors or timers?).

Whichever you choose, plan to just leave the Phantom filming on it's own while you enjoy the experience on the ground, total eclipses don't happen very often so you don't want to miss it while adjusting settings on the aircraft, it will not last long!

I suggest no filters, you don't want to be flying it around so you don't need ND filters and you do want it to be able to see something in the dark.

If you are anywhere near a crowd of people, try to include them in the view and you will get a load of flashguns going off in the middle of the eclipse - something to see in the dark.

Nigel_ Posted at 2017-7-17 08:08
You need to choose to leave it with exposure locked for daylight, in which case everything will go black for a short while, and if you are high enough and looking towards the horizon then you might see the eclipse moving across the land - maybe look at 90 degrees to the path and somewhat down rather than parallel so that you see it pass by.

Or leave it on auto in which case it will adjust to the lowering light and you will see almost nothing on the video until the sensor runs out of sensitivity and then it will suddenly go to night time and you will see all the street lights etc if they come on (are they on sensors or timers?).

I am in the mountains of North Carolina at approx 3800 feet, out in the wilderness with no artificial light sources of any kind. We should have a very direct clear view of the eclipse as we are on the direct path and there will not be any other people around as we live on ten acres and are surrounded by the Nantahala national forest.

racer888 Posted at 2017-7-17 10:46
I am in the mountains of North Carolina at approx 3800 feet, out in the wilderness with no artificial light sources of any kind. We should have a very direct clear view of the eclipse as we are on the direct path and there will not be any other people around as we live on ten acres and are surrounded by the Nantahala national forest.

In that case, either organise some fireworks to video while it is dark, or leave it locked to daylight exposure because there will be nothing for it to see when dark anyway and if it is locked then you will record the decreasing light level as it happens.   If you can get a view of the mountains then you may see the eclipse travel along them, you want the lens pointing away from the sun though, shadows of the props on the lens may give a bad effect as the sun gets smaller and the shadows sharper.

One other possibility would be to film the drone's shadow from 50ft or so, especially if you have some nice reflective grass to give a halo, as the sun gets smaller and turns into a tiny dot it will affect the shadow and halo.  That might be an option for a second drone though.