“The first time you use your phone’s camera shouldn’t be the day you actually want to capture your image,” says Michael. “We’re in the digital age, so it doesn’t cost money to go capture a thousand images to see what the different settings do! Use your tools, test them out and become familiar with them.” Practice taking photos at different times of day, to mimic the descent into darkness that will happen at the time of the total eclipse itself. Michael suggests playing around with my Pixel 8 Pro camera’s Pro Controls — testing the ISO, exposure time, focus, brightness and shutter speed.
And speaking of your focus settings: it may be a challenge, as photographing the sun can be tough for any camera. Try tapping where different elements meet within the frame, like where the sky meets the sun’s edge, to get the best focus. Once you have it, feel free to tap and hold the screen to lock focus. And if tapping’s just not working, you can adjust the slider in Pro Controls for a totally manual option.
Keep in mind: There won’t be a magic setting to get your perfect image every time — a lot of it is trial and error, and adjusting and adapting in real time as conditions change.
Click wisely — or use a tripod
To reduce any accidental shakes, it doesn’t hurt to bring a tripod (and don’t forget a Pixel mount to attach your phone to it!). But if your suitcase is too full for any extra gear, that’s OK, too: There are a couple of things you can do to keep your phone a little steadier while you’re holding it. If you’re a Pixel Watch user, for example, you can remotely control your phone with the Google Camera app on your watch. Alternatively, you can tap the photo settings button on the bottom left side of your phone screen in the Camera app and set a timer, so that the shutter automatically goes off after 3 or 10 seconds. You can also practice a small, light thumb press ahead of time — the on-screen Shutter button doesn’t require a lot of pressure to capture an image.
Let the camera do the work
The Pixel 8 camera comes with some really amazing automatic capabilities, so feel free to start with all settings on auto and then adjust from there, as needed. During the eclipse, the sky will gradually get darker as the moon slowly passes between us and the sun — and the Pixel phone has automatic settings that can handle this. The screen auto-adjusts brightness depending on the lighting conditions, and Night Sight will automatically kick in if the light reaches a certain level.
If you’d like to play with the settings yourself, now’s the time where all your practice with Pro Controls and Pixel 8 Pro’s other camera settings can come in handy. But while Pixel phones can do astrophotography, Michael advises against using it for the total eclipse, as sometimes exposure can take up to 4 minutes — totality is predicted to be around or less than 4 minutes total, depending on location, and you don’t want to spend it all on one photo!
