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Photo: Bernd Kieckhöfel / DOCMA
When does the sun rise behind the Bastei rock formation in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, when does it shine in the last evening light?
What light can be expected around noon from the viewpoint at the Königsstuhl on Rügen?
Many photographers are concerned with such questions.
For long-term exposures on the beach, for example, it helps to align the camera so that the sun emerging behind the horizon is not immediately in the picture.
And even a picture of a dead straight, tree-lined avenue is more convincing if the light follows the course of the road exactly.
The position of the sun changes daily throughout the year.
During the summer, the photo day in the north begins at around 4 a.m., and the sunset takes place until around 10 p.m.
In the winter half of the year, daylight is only enough for eight hours, and it gets dark from 4 p.m.
Even at noon the shadows remain long.
Light planning on the computer
Nevertheless, the precise planning for light and location is not rocket science.
Almost every weather app provides information about current times for sunrise and sunset.
This is more convenient for any day of the year on specialized websites.
Torsten Hoffmann, for example, offers everything a lighting planner's heart desires on the website Sonnengeschichte.de: street maps with different levels of detail as well as satellite and terrain views.
The latter views are helpful for viewing the subject and its surroundings online in advance.
Because depending on the time of day and the position of the sun, trees, mountains or buildings can impair the lighting situation.
A calculation of the shadow length is also possible and can be controlled using the slider on the time axis.
One advantage of web applications is that they can be used on a computer with a large screen.
The cooling towers in the cover picture, for example, are 25 kilometers away from the shooting position.
They would hardly be recognizable in a viewing simulation on a small mobile phone display.
Mobile apps
A wealth of apps vie for attention for spontaneous planning on site when traveling.
Not only do they advertise themselves for photography projects, they also want to support horticulture, real estate and the conception of solar systems with graphic representations, simulations and tables.
Many free offers claim their part of the screen for advertising or are functionally restricted.
Some developers do not shy away from full-screen videos and only then allow access to certain functions.
Sometimes it turns out that these are not available for the current location.
For around 10 euros, such functional restrictions or advertising can be bypassed with a purchase app.
In the delivery state, most apps, to put it bluntly, show the sun, moon and stars together, which results in a lot of information and little overview with an additional map.
Only a fraction of the features are relevant for photography.
PhotoPills
,
Sun Seeker,
and
Sunsurveyor
may be worth a look;
they are available for Android and iOS.
All of them have augmented reality functions.
The role of augmented reality
The augmented reality function projects the course of the sun together with times into the live image.
Alignment works by tilting and swiveling the mobile phone camera on the subject.
A comparatively fickle affair, the accuracy of which leaves a lot to be desired.
Some apps want to improve accuracy using the compass in the device.
But it has to be calibrated first.
When using it, error messages about too fast movements or disturbances of the magnetic field are annoying.
The smallest changes in alignment quickly shift the predicted position of the sun by an hour or more.
Such a rough assessment may help a stranger standing in front of Cologne Cathedral.
It remains useless for determining sunrise or sunset because the decisive moment is short and usually only lasts a few minutes.
An app with the poetic name
Die Bahn der Sonne
, available for Android and iOS
, gives a free impression of what augmented reality feels like on a mobile phone
.
With additional compass support,
Sun Position
offers
this option under Android.
Free and ad-free
Visually less spectacular, but precisely calculated,
LunaSol-Cal
under Android and
Sonnen-Info
for iOS show the position of the sun at any time of the day on a parabola. Both apps come from Volker Voecking.
A visualization of the calculated height in the real situation requires a certain amount of abstraction and imagination.
In addition, the most important information about the atmospheric times of the day is clearly arranged in tables.
Places can be saved in favorites lists and when called up are displayed on a 2D map with basic information in a time window.
Puristic
The Android apps
Sun Position Map
and
Sun
Course
are available free of charge and free of advertising. They offer clear 2D maps, optionally with different views (street, satellite, terrain). Colored lines mark the position of sunrise and sunset. The time is set using a slider on the edge of the screen and the direction of incidence of light is displayed as an additional line. The display is based on the current date or can be simulated for any day using a calendar function. Locations can be saved with additional notes.
Both apps briefly summarize the most important solar data and times for the day.
From the values for rise, peak and fall, their respective height can be estimated quickly and with sufficient accuracy.
An underlaid map in satellite or terrain view shows possible obstacles to the light.
The course of the sun
comes from the developer of the web application of the same name and can also search for place names.
Sun Position Map
may seem old-fashioned, but it does the job and is very easy to use.
A two-minute video in the Play Store explains the operation in simple terms.
The
sun map
app
under iOS, the free version of which includes advertisements,
promises comparable functionality
.
Alternatively, subscriptions with different terms and automatic renewal are offered.
Conclusion
Planning on the computer with a large monitor offers the best overview and allows convenient calculation of distances for different destinations.
Web applications such as
Sonnenstand.de
or
Google Maps
do not require training.
Apps like
PhotoPills
,
Sun Seeker
and
Sunsurveyor
are Swiss army knives for photography.
However, they want to be explored and configured appropriately.
Specialized applications such as the
Sun Position Map
and the course of the
sun
focus on elementary features and are comparatively intuitive to use.
However, the best position for a recording can often only be determined exactly on site.