this week I'm going to show you how I
use photo pills for sunrises sunsets and
astrophotography
photo pills is a really powerful tool to
help you when you're shooting landscapes
or astrophotography it even helps when
you're doing a locational portrait shoot
it'll let you know where the Sun the
Moon and Milky Way are gonna be at any
time at any location so it's a vital
tool that I use every single time I'm
planning a photo shoot or a shot outside
and it makes things so much easier I'm
not sponsored by photo pills it is a
paid app I bought it myself and I use it
all the time
there is another app called the
photographer's ephemeris this does a
very similar thing so you do have a few
choices the app actually has loads of
functions in it I don't use all of them
but these are the main ones I do use if
you click on the Sun tab you can see it
has all kinds of data from astronomical
Twilight through to the evening blue out
and back into nighttime also it shows
you when the moon rises and sets if you
click on the AAR tag at the bottom this
will show you where the sunrise and
sunset will be on the horizon this is
really good when doing location scouting
I'll open the app up and go into this AR
function to see where the Sun will rise
and the Sun will set there'll be no more
guessing and you'll be able to line
things up perfectly the next one I use
is the moon tab this is like the Sun tab
but in Reverse it also shows the moon's
phase when the next new moon of full
moon will be and when the galactic
center will be in the sky and what
location and what orientation another
useful part is the graph along the
bottom it shows the Sun and the moon
rising and setting and how they overlap
you can work out when the moon will set
giving you more visible stars and
possibly a sighting of the Milky Way
again like the Sun tab the moon tab has
the AR function so you can work out
where the moon will rise and set the
third tab I use is the night AR function
this is augmented reality if you click
on it it'll use the camera on your phone
and then overlap this would wear the
Milky Way and the moon are going to be
if you push your finger left or right on
the screen you can fast forward or
rewind time so if you're scouting a
location you
can hold this up and work out where the
Milky Way is gonna be how it's going to
appear and what orientation it will be
in the sky at any given time the only
thing I found with this is once you're
up and you have a really nice night sky
I tend to just carry on shooting until
it's all gone I'll get carried away and
you'll be surprised at how quickly hours
will fly by when you're shooting night
skies especially with the longer
exposures as well as dragging your
finger from left to right to change the
time you can click on settings and not
only change the time but the location
and this can be a really great
time-saver so here we have a north-south
running road and I know the Milky Way
will be in this sky to the south at
11:50 p.m. which will line up perfectly
with the road there are lots of other
tabs I don't use them all but there are
a couple that are worth mentioning if
you use a strong ND filter the exposure
tab is worth using from this you can
calculate your exposure time all you
have to do is type in your current
exposure time without the nd and then it
will give you the new time for the type
of nd that you're using the time lapse
tab is also really good if you're
shooting a time lapse this will let you
know how long you'll have to wait and
how many images you'll get the spot
stars tab is also interesting this gives
you the time you can leave your shutter
open for without getting any streaking
stars it has the classic rule and the
new rule taking into account the
megapixels of your camera I'm guessing
this is when you're a pixel peeper or
you want to blow your image up to a huge
print if you're just releasing your
images online the classic rule will be
fine and that's about it
photo pills is a really great app to use
when you're shooting the Stars sunrises
or sunsets no more guessing where
they're going to be no more wondering
what that cloud is in your shot whether
it's the Milky Way or not it'll also
show you where the Milky Way is going to
be so you can point your camera in that
direction and see if you can capture it
it'll give you all the information you
need apart from cloud cover but that's
up to you to work out from the weather
forecast as always if you like what you
see give me a thumbs up if you didn't
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the next one