Apps for planning a photo shoot
One of the most important parts about taking great landscape photos is the planning stage. Below are my most recommended apps to to plan a shoot to organise the best locations, the best light and the best angles.
Let me know in the comments at the end if there's any apps that I've missed or that you'd recommend.
Sun Position
Probably my most used app. Because I shoot most of my landscapes at either sunrise or sunset it I use this to see where the sun will be and which direction it will be coming from. It can even show you where the sun will be in the sky in augmented reality, even at different times of the year. I’d usually use this app when scouting a location beforehand usually during the middle of the day where the light isn’t as nice so I can plan where and when to take the photos from.
Freshwater Beach showing where the sun will set at about 7:15pm
The map view showing that the sun will rise through the heads shining through to Balmoral Beach on Oct 12th. Useful for setting a reminder to photograph a location because of where the sun will be at that time of the year.
Dobroyd Head in Balgowlah Heights showing where the sun will rise at about 5:45am
Willyweather
Download links: Android / iOS (please let me know)
A great app for checking rainfall, tides and wind. It’s useful to see all the info on one chart.
OpenSky
A great app provided by the Australian Government and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) which will let you see where you can and can’t fly your drone.
Google Earth
Always essential for finding new locations to photograph and also where to shoot from.
3D Balmoral Beach on Google Earth
In some areas it even shows buildings which is really helpful to move around the location and find good spots.
This is an excerpt from my eBook which can be downloaded below
