Automating Solar Eclipse Photography: How Smart Apps Are Changing Our Workflow

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the intersection of photography and automation. We spend considerable energy in the presets and actions space optimizing post-processing workflows, but what happens when we can automate the capture itself? A new tool has me reconsidering that balance.

Photographer Steven Madow recently launched Umbra, an automation app specifically designed for solar eclipse photography. With major eclipse events coming—including a total eclipse crossing Greenland, Iceland, and parts of Europe in August 2026—this kind of specialized software deserves our attention.

Why Eclipse Photography Demands Automation

Here’s the thing about shooting a total solar eclipse: the window is brief. We’re talking minutes, sometimes seconds, of optimal conditions. You’ve got different phases requiring different exposure settings, and manual adjustments during totality can mean missing irreplaceable moments.

This is where automation becomes genuinely valuable. Unlike general photography, eclipse work has hyper-specific technical requirements. The sun’s brightness changes dramatically as the moon passes in front of it, and exposure values shift more rapidly than in any other shooting scenario I can think of.

The Workflow Implications

What interests me most about tools like Umbra is how they challenge our traditional workflow paradigm. We’ve built our entire actions and presets ecosystem around post-processing optimization. But increasingly, photographers are recognizing that smarter capture means less correction needed later.

Consider this: if your camera settings are perfectly calculated for each phase of the eclipse, you’re not scrambling to rescue underexposed or blown-out frames in Photoshop afterward. The automation handles the technical complexity, letting you focus on composition and timing.

What This Means for Actions and Presets Creators

I think there’s an important lesson here for those of us in the optimization space. Specialized tools for specific scenarios are becoming more sophisticated. Rather than fighting this trend, preset creators should think about complementary workflows.

For eclipse photography specifically, once the capture phase is automated, you might still need intelligent color grading or contrast enhancement for the corona details. There’s absolutely room for well-designed presets that work with these new automation tools rather than replacing them.

The Bigger Picture

The eclipse is a perfect use case, but the principle extends everywhere. As capture becomes smarter—whether through AI-powered apps, computational photography, or specialized automation—our value as workflow optimizers shifts. We’re not just fixing mistakes anymore; we’re enhancing and stylizing images that started with solid technical foundations.

I’m genuinely excited about where this is heading. Better captures mean better raw material to work with, and that’s something that benefits everyone in the post-processing chain.