Key Skills: Chart the sun
1. Choose a date range
The sun might appear at a better angle at a different time of year. To check, open PhotoPills and choose 'Planner'. Select 'Find' and set a date range. Pick an azimuth, which is the number of degrees away from due north. The clear part shows all the angles that are available.
2. Set the elevation
Now set an elevation. Again, the shaded area shows the elevations that aren't available. For sunrise the angle will be be very low, so this'll be 0 degrees. Tap on 'Search'to see all the days on which this angle of view is possible – in this case, for a few days in late August and mid April.
Excellent planning apps
A wealth of useful information on the sun, moon and tides can be at your fingertips with a few clever apps.
Here are our picks: PhotoPills (£7.99/$12.49) has raised the bar for planning apps with its sheer number of tools and tutorials. Then there's The Photographer's Ephemeris (£6.99/$8.99), a long-cherished tool for landscape photographers.
Photographer's Transit (£6.99/$8.99), the sister app to The Photographer's Ephemeris, is a shot-planning tool that helps you determine sight lines. And Tides Near Me (free) is a handy app for seascape photographers that gives you the last and next tide at nearby coastlines.
This feature was originally published in N-Photo Magazine, to subscribe, click here
