How to photograph the ‘ring of fire’ eclipse with your phone

On Saturday, the uncommon celestial phenomenon of an annular solar eclipse will take place in select locations in the Western and Southwest United States. For a few quick minutes, where visible, it will even produce a spectacular “ring of fire” phenomenon in which viewers will see a circle of light around the moon.

But can it be photographed?

For professional photographers, the answer is a definite yes, but it does involve some heavy-duty technical gear, including some very long (and expensive) lenses.

First, you should never look at a solar eclipse directly with your eyes. “Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury,” NASA warns.

If you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you will need a tripod and a telephoto lens to get a good photograph. You’ll also need a density filter, known as a solar filter, which blocks almost all visible and infrared light from the sun. This filter will not only render a better exposure but it will protect your camera sensor from the eclipse. (Your solar filter should meet ISO 12312-2:2015(E) standards. We did say “technical” gear, right?) 

Once your filter is attached to your lens — it just screws on — and the camera is connected to a tripod, you can use the LCD screen on the back of your camera to locate the sun in the sky (again, NEVER look directly at the sun when doing this).

Anyone who has ever tried to photograph a full moon (or just about anything in the sky) with a smartphone knows that you’re likely to come away with a subpar image showing something very, very far away. That issue is certainly in play when it comes to photographing the eclipse.

The average smartphone (such as the iPhone 13) has a focal length of 26mm, which photographers generally regard as a wide-angle lens (but not super-wide). For the eclipse, professional photographers will use a lens that falls in the range of 200-500mm. Therefore, the 26mm on your phone is coming up very short and is mostly only capable of delivering that subpar full moon photo mentioned above. This is the most immediate issue with trying to photograph the eclipse with your phone — you’re simply out of range.

However, newer phone models have made huge strides in both low-light capabilities and zoom quality. For example, the camera on the new iPhone 15 Pro boasts 48 megapixels with 3X telephoto capabilities. In layman’s terms, this means that you have a fighting chance of rendering a worthwhile image of the eclipse.

Different models vary considerably, so the general rule is that the newer the model, the better the results. The differences between an iPhone 12 and 14 can be considerable in this scenario.

For Android users, recent models — such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — have been at the forefront of smartphone technology. 

If your phone camera is indeed coming up short, there is a workaround in the form of the pinhole camera technique. This is a method of essentially photographing the shadows that the eclipse produces on the ground around you. 

For years, amateur stargazers and elementary school teachers have employed this simple technique:

– Create a pinhole camera by pushing a thumbtack through a cardboard or index card.
– With your back to the sun, place the card in front of you facing the ground.
– Look at the image created by the pinhole, and you should be able to see the eclipse happening in real time.

Better yet, savvy photographers know that nature can produce this technique for you: Light filtering through tree leaves also creates pinhole images on the ground. This is something that your 26mm smartphone lens is well-suited to capture.