Sundicator?

[djdister]

Many, many years ago I recall there was a dial-calculator type of tool that one could use to calculate when the sunlight would be optimum for a given outdoor subject (more often for architecture). It took into consideration your location (lat / long), year/month/day/time and could give you an idea when the angle of the sun would be best for an outdoor subject based on which compass direction the building was facing. For some odd reason the name "Sundicator" came to mind, but I may have just imagined that. Of course these days there is likely an app (or two) that can do the same thing even easier.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an app that will calculate the optimum time of day to photograph an outdoor subject, based on the direction the subject is facing?

[OKAROB]

I have never heard of sundicator so I have nothing to compare/reference. There are two popular apps “The Photographer’s Ephemeris” (I think that is how it is spelled) who has a suite of products and another called “PhotoPills”. I am not sponsored by either of them and I purchased the apps myself. They both have a moderate learning curve especially to learn how to navigate to various locations and set the pins. There maybe some online videos, but I haven’t viewed any for several years. Good luck and have fun playing with the apps. My recommendation is to practice/familiatize yourself around your neighborhood for a few weeks before going out to the field. I use them both on my phone, TPE does or did have a desk top version for better image resolution of the location of interest.

Robert

[Ulophot]

Hi. I've found three apps for Android: Sun Seeker, SunOnTrack, and Sun Position. Links below. I am not much of a phone user, though I do use Waze for GPS. Does anyone have experience with one or more of these apps? I'm looking for something that I can take on site scouting visits and see where the sun will be at some earlier or later hour, on a certain day, as I walk around and face different directions. I'm going to be going around to some historic residential properties and making primarily outdoor photos. I have no idea how any of these work.

https://www.sunontrack.app/en/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andymstone.sunpositiondemo&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajnaware.sunseeker&hl=en_US&pli=1

[BrianShaw]

I'd love to have a "cloud-o-meter" to go with that Sundicator.

[Mark Sampson]

There's an application, designed by member Jeff Conrad, on the front page of this site.
It's been redesigned since I last used it in the 2000s, but might still be useful.

And Mr. Shaw, clouds appear when the camera case is opened.

[djdister]

Thanks for pointing out Mr. Conrad's application. I also have found that The Photographer's Ephemeris is available for iPhone as well, so I'll check that out too.


There's an application, designed by member Jeff Conrad, on the front page of this site.
It's been redesigned since I last used it in the 2000s, but might still be useful.

And Mr. Shaw, clouds appear when the camera case is opened.

[tgtaylor]

+ on The Photographer's Ephemeris. I've been using it since it first came out 20 or so years ago - it's great for planning landscape photo shoots. The sun itself makes for an interesting subject. Yesterday around 1400 pacific, using an 80mm f5 refractor with 20mm eyepiece and a Baader solar filter, I counted 18 sunspots on it's surface with 16 of those forming a roughly East-West running line on the south side of the solar equator. This is a NASA image of it today: https://gong2.nso.edu/oQR/iqa/202406/tdiqa240629/tdiqa240629t1624_dim-860.jpg

[Ulophot]

I see no place to download the Ephemeris, and it says the augmented reality, which I assume means it works with phone's camera, is only for iPhones.

[Jim Noel]

I never heard of, desired or needed such a thing.
I learned more than 80 years ago that a good photograph could be made at any time of day if one learned to look carefully at the direction and intensity of the light. That info served me well.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Thirty years ago I had one of these, I would sometimes meet with Architect Clients, and we would pull out site drawings, and use the Sundicator to determine when the light/time of year would be exactly optimal for a particular elevation/facade. It works very precisely I remember, and was worth doing at the time. Might even have it around somewhere :)

[OKAROB]

Looks like The Photographer's Ephemeris might be temporarily unavailable for Android as it is being updated per their FAQ. You might try PhotoPills which does some of the same things. The url is PhotoPills.com I have IOS version, their website say Android is available.

Just an FYI, you can use The Photographers Ephemeris on your desktop/laptop for free. You can purchase the “Pro” version.