How I Shot This Lunar Eclipse Sequence In Camera, On Film | PetaPixel
G’day from Australia, my name is Jason De Freitas (@jase.film on Instagram), and I’m a photographer mostly known for my analog astrophotography. In this article, I’ll describe the process and decisions I went through to take this lunar eclipse multi-exposure sequence on medium format film.
There are two common but very pleasing eclipse sequence shots that I’ve seen a lot. The first kind of sequence is the process where you take several different photos of the moon during different phases of the eclipse with a long focal length to combine them later in Photoshop. Usually you will wait for long periods of time to get big differences in partial eclipse magnitudes. Combining them with a composite in post allows you to bring each moon image closer together for a more pleasing composition with the moon appearing much larger. I had personally not seen this done in-camera before.
The second kind of sequence however is one that I have seen done in-camera several times. The method is to use a very wide lens and take multiple exposures when the moon has moved just past one diameter length. This creates a long sequence of very small partial phase changes with the moon’s movements as they actually occur in the field of view. In this kind of sequence, the moon is very small in the frame and it can be difficult to see the eclipse phases well however it gives you the chance to place the event in context with a landscape.
