wesm Loc: Los Altos CA

I received a new solar filter today. It is a Firecrest, 5.4 ND (18 stops), advertised as having no color cast. I mounted this on a Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 lens with a 1.4x extender.
Then mounted lens to a 5dm4, mounted on a gimbal on a tripod.

This was my first attempt, I was trying to see how difficult it was to get the subject in the frame. Then I wanted to get a rough idea of the exposure parameters, varying the shutter speed.

I'm enclosing a photo shot at 1/50 sec, f/8, iso 100, focal length 540mm. The sun is almost completely white, no orange, yellow, or other color cast to it.
I've seen many photos with an orange-ish cast during partial occlusion. Like on Fred Espanak's site.

Am I doing something wrong? Or did I get a filter that doesn't produce any color cast?

The second download link is for a .dng file.

Thanks,
Wes

(Download)

Attached file:
(Download)

Math78 Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

I think the sun should be white. The yellow-orange color that I get comes from my filter. But it looks like you are not in focus, and you may be overexposed. There is a very large sunspot currently close to the center of the sun. I don't see it at all in your image. You might want to check this NASA website for current solar images. That way you'll know what you are looking for. What I get looks like the NASA "HMI Intensitygram - Flattened" image near the bottom.

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

wesm Loc: Los Altos CA

Yeah, it's motion blur, I wasn't setting up with a remote trigger. I can actually see the sunspot through the viewfinder, which is pretty cool.

dglueck Loc: Rochester, NY

I have a Thousand Oaks screw on filter. Sun is yellow. I'm shooting Canon 7D2 + 100-400 LSII + 2x Extender = 1280mm. Mounted on Wimberley Sidemount gimbal on Manfrotto 055X tripod. Remote shutter and I connect to my MacBook so I can see what the camera sees. I also use 10x mag on the screen to get the best focus. Focus is very touchy so the 10x helps. I can get the sunspots pretty well. I'd love to try a H-alpha filter, but just too much $$$.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

The sun is really white. The orange color you often see is the result of the filter, or of a little "color adjustment" by the photographer. Yesterday I took a picture of the sun using a home made natural color filter on a 300mm zoom lens, but then colorized it so it "looked" like the sun. You could see the sun spot, though at 300 mm it was not very high resolution. I may try again today using a longer lens...

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

Quote:......... I'm enclosing a photo shot at 1/50 sec, f/8, iso 100, ... Am I doing something wrong? Quote

You need to play with your shutter speed an aperture settings. Try that shot again at 1/250, f16. You will find a sweet spot.
Remember that you are shooting the brightest natural light source there is.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Isn't sunlight our usual working definition of "white", what WB is based on??

dpcruikshank

This is my first post on UHH, but since I'm an astronomer and take many photos of the
Sun, you may be interested in my comments.
The Sun is yellow, but filters can give it a color cast, even "neutral" density filters.
I use Thousand Oaks filters, and they are not completely neutral, so I get a slightly
yellower-than-normal image.
The white image in quest is somewhat overexposed. If there were sunspots (and there
are extremely few these days--we're in an extended solar minumum), they would not
be seen in this overexposed image. Attached is a collage of my images of a partial solar
eclipse in 2014 (Oct. 23), which are showing here as somewhat redder than they are on
my monitor, but are exposed such that the large sunspot group is easily seen.
Try taking shorter exposures, and all the other suggestions already offered on getting
a sharper image. And good luck! There's still time to get it right before the eclipse!