{"id":36644,"date":"2026-09-14T17:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=36644"},"modified":"2026-09-14T17:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:42:27","slug":"ccatp-841","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/ccatp-841\/","title":{"rendered":"CCATP #841 \u2014 Steve Sheridan on Filming and Editing Video of a Solar Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week, our guest is the lovely Steve Sheridan, here to talk about the technology behind how he captured and produced an amazing video of the total solar eclipse we witnessed in Spain this year.<\/p>\n<p>Links to Steve&#8217;s videos:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href =\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KvxzzTU69oI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href =\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eKJMw9RvkQ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse 360 View &#8211; Spin It!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href =\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/spsheridan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe to Steve&#8217;s YouTube channel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-36644-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2026_09_14.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2026_09_14.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2026_09_14.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><a title=\"mp3 download\" href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2026_09_14.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mp3 download<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: <a href=\"https:\/\/podfeet.com\/transcripts\/CCATP_2026_09_14.html\">CCATP_2026_09_14<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Below are the somewhat cryptic notes we worked from for the recording<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2019 on NosillaCast #741, you did a segment on how you captured the solar eclipse we saw in Chile, which was also very cool, but this year you really took things up a notch. We&#8217;re going to get into all of the details of the cameras and software used, but let&#8217;s start with what your vision was for this particular solar eclipse.<\/p>\n<h2>Goal<\/h2>\n<p>Produce a short video of the solar eclipse capturing both diamond rings, totality, and the sunset of the partial eclipse, plus audience reaction (~20 people). Totality was only 95 seconds where we were located, starting about an hour before sunset.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Camcorder\n<ol>\n<li>Zoom of eclipse<\/li>\n<li>Selected audio<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>DJI Osmo Pocket 3\n<ol>\n<li>Audience reaction video<\/li>\n<li>Good audio of audience (remotely placed mic)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>GoPro\n<ol>\n<li>Shadow bands and eclipse shadow<\/li>\n<li>No audio<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>Insta 360\n<ol>\n<li>Audience &amp; surroundings in 360<\/li>\n<li>Selected audio<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Tripod Issue<\/h2>\n<p>We&#8217;ve traveled enough that you knew to put these expensive cameras in your backpack and carry-on luggage, but our two full-sized tripods had to go in checked luggage. Explain to the audience why that turned into a near disaster.<br \/>\nlost luggage; bought 2 new tripods in Madrid before going to Pe\u00f1afiel<\/p>\n<h2>Setup<\/h2>\n<p>Viewed the eclipse on top of the main building of a winery. We were positioned on the flat rock-covered roof with no railings &#8211; had to be careful when walking around. Roof also had a nice covered patio with tables (including snacks &amp; wine).<\/p>\n<h2>Panasonic HC-WXF991 Camcorder<\/h2>\n<p>Objective: Capture close-up of sun as it goes through eclipse phases and as it sets partially eclipsed<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4K camcorder with 25:1 zoom<\/li>\n<li>As far from the crowd as possible &#8211; edge of roof toward sun to eliminate blockage by people and tripping over the tripod.<\/li>\n<li>On largest, most stable tripod &#8211; Manfrotto<\/li>\n<li>Measure the time it takes the sun to traverse diagonally across the frame<\/li>\n<li>Knowing the exact midpoint time of totality, can calculate what time to start recording with the sun on the starting edge<\/li>\n<li>Before totality, have to use a solar filter with a threaded mount\n<ul>\n<li>Explain the 3 phases (what are the diamond rings?)<\/li>\n<li>As the diamond ring is forming, unscrew the solar filter (sliver of unblocked sun for a short period of time) &#8211; minimize danger to sensor but the diamond ring is a cool part to capture without filter<\/li>\n<li>Screw solar filter back on after second diamond ring forms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Brought a boom mic but logistics didn&#8217;t seem like it would be an advantage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>DJI Osmo Pocket 3<\/h2>\n<p>Objective: Capture audience reaction (audio and video)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pocket 3 is sensitive to low light, good picture quality, comes with remote mic that captures good audio<\/li>\n<li>Placed Pocket 3 on second-best (newly purchased) tripod. Remote mic was on a mini-tripod (second one we bought) close to the audience while the DJI was farther away to capture a wide view of the audience. Also, nowhere near the camcorder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>GoPro Hero 5<\/h2>\n<p>Objective: Shadow bands and shadow<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mounted on a Joby wrapped around the ledge of the roof pointed maybe 10\u00b0 down.<\/li>\n<li>Wide-angle is so big that it would get the full landscape including horizon and the downward view of the driveway<\/li>\n<li>Hoping also to catch the shadow moving across the landscape &#8230; at 8,000 MPH!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Insta360 X3<\/h2>\n<p>Goal: Capture the view of our surroundings. In 95 seconds of totality, we didn&#8217;t have time to look around and see the sunset caused by the eclipse.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Captures a full 4*pi steradian view with one shot using two hemispherical lenses pointed in opposite directions.<\/li>\n<li>Mounted on a third, special tripod designed for the Insta360.\n<ul>\n<li>Narrow pole with 3 small, fold-out feet that the Insta360 software removes as it stitches two hemispheres together.<\/li>\n<li>Not heavy-duty because the camera is so light, but that makes it less stable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Tradeoff: Wanted it relatively close to the people because it&#8217;s such a wide field of view; the people get tiny, but also didn&#8217;t want them to knock it over<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Challenges<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sound from people walking on rocks (we were told other people wouldn&#8217;t be on the rocks)<\/li>\n<li>Bright lights on the patio reduced the drama of totality in some views<\/li>\n<li>Lights on the driveway eliminated the possibility of seeing shadow bands by GoPro<\/li>\n<li>Camera vibration during sunset &#8211; maybe because we were walking around more. Stabilized but not perfect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Editing Compilation Video of Eclipse<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Edited with Final Cut Pro on M1 Mac Studio<\/li>\n<li>Imported video\/audio from all four cameras<\/li>\n<li>Created a &#8220;Multicam Compound Clip&#8221; for later editing\n<ul>\n<li>Select the raw video clips from each of the four cameras&#8217; video &amp; run Synchronize (check time)<\/li>\n<li>Automatically aligns the clips using the audio from each camera<\/li>\n<li>wait &#8211; 5 min?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Creative process<\/li>\n<li>Scrub along while viewing one clip; up above, you have an editor that lets you see all the &#8220;angles&#8221; as thumbnails and switch between them in real time as you scrub or play\n<ul>\n<li>You can switch audio and video together or just the video or just the audio<\/li>\n<li>Most of the final audio is from the DJI remote mic, so I most often switched video angle leaving that same audio source<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>After setting the switch points, you can slide the switch point for fine tuning<\/li>\n<li>Transitions &#8211; decided on jump cuts<\/li>\n<li>Anchor Points\n<ul>\n<li>diamond rings<\/li>\n<li>most of totality<\/li>\n<li>Audience reaction when things were happening<\/li>\n<li>Sunset<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Cut away during totality to show how dark it got with the GoPro to show the landscape<\/li>\n<li>Also switched away to the DJI to show audience reaction<\/li>\n<li>Sped up totality phase by 4:1 because it changes so slowly much\n<ul>\n<li>Only 20 sec of totality with two switches away<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Music\n<ul>\n<li>Faded one song in as totality occurred ~30 seconds<\/li>\n<li>Second song as the sun set<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Editing 360 Video of Eclipse<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Insta360 is two hemispherical lenses facing opposite directions. Insta360 software stitches them together removing the gap between them (and the tripod). It&#8217;s not really 360, it&#8217;s 4 \u03c0 Steradians<\/li>\n<li>Wanted to let people choose what view to experience\n<ul>\n<li>Eclipse is wee tiny &#8211; almost a dot<\/li>\n<li>See the sun eclipsing, the darkening\/lightening surroundings, the people&#8217;s reactions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Editing Software: Insta360 Studio<\/li>\n<li>One option lets you choose rectangular views and export 16:9 video at a fixed viewing direction\n<ul>\n<li>Incorporated into the compilation view<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Another option lets you export the full 360 video that YouTube can process and allow the user to manipulate the view while playing the video\n<ul>\n<li>With a phone, you just move it around<\/li>\n<li>On a computer, you click and drag with your cursor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Wanted the initial viewing angle when the video started to be aimed at the eclipse, but Insta360 Studio wouldn&#8217;t do it in a way that YouTube would recognize<\/li>\n<li>Asked AI how to change the initial viewing angle\n<ul>\n<li>Installed Homebrew to get some tools needed manipulate the 360 video<\/li>\n<li>Used exiftool from Terminal to rotate the video to the desired viewing angle &#8211; performs a coordinate transformation of every frame >5,000 frames<\/li>\n<li>Used ffmpeg from Terminal to reapply the metadata that exiftool removed\n<ul>\n<li>Takes metadata from original video and pastes it into the transformed video (parameters like yaw, pitch, roll, stitched, projection type, audio type,&#8230;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Transformation processing maxed out my M1 Max Studio&#8217;s 10-core CPUs (but not memory) for 12-13 min &#8211; this is for a 3 min video<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Less creativity on this one &#8211; didn&#8217;t even do fades or music<\/li>\n<li>YouTube handled it well, but Facebook no longer seems to accept 360 videos (I used to be able to do it in FB). If anyone know the secret, please let me know.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Backups on travel<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>How did you back up the videos while on travel?<\/li>\n<li>First to laptop, then to a portable SSD I put in Allison&#8217;s carryon luggage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Conclusions<\/h2>\n<p>Happy with the results? What would you do differently?<br \/>\n* Yes \u2014 I was able to capture the diamond rings, totality and the audience reaction<br \/>\n    * Conditions were nearly perfect thanks to Jean-Luc&#8217;s work to find a good location: historically 20-30% chance of cloud cover. Others went to Iceland, but eclipse was obscured due to clouds<br \/>\n    * Fires in the area &#8211; sunset was very red and dim, so ended up taking the filter off. (We all removed our glasses too)<br \/>\n    * I captured the feeling. Editing helped me remember &amp; feel it again<br \/>\n    * Approve of vineyards for viewing and drinking wine<br \/>\n* Next time &#8211; need a better way to remove\/add the solar filter. Needs to be done quickly and more easily than a threaded mount. Actually dropped the filter it trying to put it back on &#8211; it survived<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for coming on Steve \u2014 I watched how much planning you did to make this work, along with how much time you spent mixing the video sources, and I think it really paid off.<\/p>\n<p>If people want to see the 2.5 min compilation video, and the 360\u00b0 version, and subscribe to your videos, where would they go?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/spsheridan\">youtube.com\/spsheridan<\/a>  (or you can say @spsheridan on YouTube)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, our guest is the lovely Steve Sheridan, here to talk about the technology behind how he captured and produced an amazing video of the total solar eclipse we witnessed in Spain this year. Links to Steve&#8217;s videos: 2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse 2026 Spain Total Solar Eclipse 360 View &#8211; Spin It! Subscribe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[172,1],"tags":[7209,8407,826,8408,1851,8409,1843,8406],"class_list":["post-36644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ccatp","category-podcasts","tag-camcorder","tag-dji-pocket-3","tag-gopro","tag-remote-audio","tag-solar-eclipse","tag-spain","tag-total-solar-eclipse","tag-totality"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ChitChatPond_V7_300px.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36646,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644\/revisions\/36646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}