PhotoPills review: best photography planning app?

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PhotoPills has helped me a lot on my journey as a photographer. The map, computer, and astronomical calendar are all in one handy package, making it like having a trustworthy friend. But it’s much more than that; it changes everything. Getting a beautiful picture of the moon setting behind the Statue of Liberty was one of the most memorable things I’ve done with PhotoPills.

At that moment, accuracy was needed, and PhotoPills helped me find my way. This app helped me plan and carry out this amazing alignment perfectly. With PhotoPills, I got another stunning picture of the Milky Way crossing the night sky between two beautiful rock formations. This picture will stay with people for a long time, and PhotoPills was very helpful in helping me find the best time and place to capture this amazing scene.

But PhotoPills isn’t just about making plans; it’s also about getting good at taking pictures. I also put it together to make a picture that showed the different steps of a solar eclipse. It was not only important to have perfect time, but also to set the camera perfectly. I was able to do it with the help of PhotoPills. PhotoPills is a lifesaver for people like me who like to take pictures at night and look at the stars. Not only does it help you find the right place and time, but it also helps you pick the right lens and figure out the brightness settings. You can carry it around with you like a camera teacher.

PhotoPills Specifications

Features	Description
2D Map-Centric Planner	Plan your Sun, Moon, and Milky Way shots in a map view, taking into account your location, elevation, and field of view.
Sun, Moon Alignments Fast Finder	Quickly find the dates and times of specific Sun, Moon, and Milky Way alignments, such as sunrises and sunsets over the horizon, lunar eclipses, and full moons rising behind mountains.
3D Augmented Reality	View the Sun, Moon, Milky Way, and other celestial objects in augmented reality to see how they will appear in your frame.
Photo Plans Manager	Save and organize your photo plans for easy reference.
Location Scouting Tool	Find interesting locations for your photo shoots and see how the Sun, Moon, and Milky Way will appear at those locations.
Key Information	Get key information about sunrise/set, twilights, golden hour, blue hour, moonrise/set, and supermoons.
Calculators	Use a variety of calculators to plan your long exposure, timelapse, spot stars, star trails, hyperfocal distance, depth of field, and field of view.
Widgets	Add Sun, Moon, and Milky Way widgets to your home screen for quick and easy reference.
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What is PhotoPills?

When it comes to photography, having PhotoPills on hand is comparable to having a Swiss Army Knife in your pocket and at your disposal. PhotoPills is the resource for you, regardless of whether you are an experienced photographer or someone who has never even picked up a camera. You’ve got a query, and I’ll give you the answer. It’s great for people just starting off. It happens in each and every workshop that I facilitate. People like using the Augmented Reality views while they are out in the field.

This allows them to easily track the position and journey of the Sun, the Moon, and the Milky Way before making decisions about the frame and the shooting spot. It’s the quickest and easiest approach to get a grasp on what’s going to take place after this. On the other hand, having the ability to arrange your pictures directly on a map, including the shots of the Milky Way, can save a significant amount of time at a more advanced level. Because of the excellent design of the PhotoPills Planner, you will have no trouble determining the ideal date, time, and location for photographing any scene that comes to mind.

PhotoPills review: User Interface

PhotoPills’ grid-based interface is straightforward and easy to use, however it only works in portrait mode on smartphones. The hub page comprises three pages, however the default ‘Pills’ page has all the key apps. Astrophotography’s can plan photos with ‘Planner’, ‘Sun’, and ‘Moon’ in the forefront. The ‘Planner’ shows the sun, moon, and Milky Way’s sunset points.

The software can use your device’s GPS position, but you can easily drag the pin to a future shot location. ‘Planner’s map may be switched between Google, Apple, OpenStreetMap, satellite, terrain, and other styles. The dedicated Sun and Moon pages are simpler, presenting a text-based chronology for any day with the exact rising and set timings, ‘golden hour’ and ‘blue hour’, naval twilight, and the crucial astronomical twilight.

A simple moon phase calculator shows which 10 nights of the month are darkest. Other calculators in the app are simple, one-page, and deliver fast results. Most need the user to enter their camera and/or lens, searchable from an archive, to receive automatic setting recommendations. These calculators save a lot of time and are straightforward to use, with many settings to adjust for the right result.

PhotoPills review: Planning

The Planner is where PhotoPills’s true, beating heart may be found. From this part, we have access to the maps in which we can set both the location and the day that we want to execute the shot, and then check the position of the sun, the moon, and the milky way. The Planner is made up of two sections: the main part, which is where the map is displayed together with the indicators of where the celestials are located, and an adjacent column, which is where we may acquire the data in an analytical format.

You have a lot of leeway in terms of how you design the planner; you may add or remove information as you see fit, and you can even alter the map display mode so that you can imitate taking aerial photographs with a drone.

PhotoPills review: Astrophotography Features

When we were out in the field, PhotoPills continued to be of great assistance, mainly because of its exposure calculator. With that tool, we were able to determine the appropriate exposure for the foreground of the photograph. It offers both ‘Test settings’ and ‘Equivalent settings,’ which is a quite useful feature, so that you can take a very brief ‘throwaway’ exposure by using a very high ISO.

After you have adjusted the foreground to your satisfaction, with the exception of the noise caused by the high ISO, PhotoPills will be able to determine the comparable shutter speed for a considerably lower ISO.

It is also advisable to switch to a higher aperture setting here in order to boost sharpness, which is something that the calculator is able to account for as well. Other sections, such as those for meteor showers, star trails, and spot stars, are specifically designed for use by astronomical photographers. If you want to capture wide-field photographs of the night sky using only a tripod and not a star tracker, the latter function, in particular, is the one that will be of the most assistance to you.

PhotoPills review: Widgets

Imagine that you are going to bed and want to know what time the sun will rise the next day, when the golden hour will begin, when the Moon will rise, and what the visibility times are for the galactic center. The very first thing that immediately stood out to me about this application was how easy it was to enable the three PhotoPills widgets that are located in the notification center.

All you have to do is pull down from the very top of the screen. If you do this, you will be able to access the most important facts regarding the light, the sun, the moon, and the Milky Way with just one swipe. In addition to this, you will have access to the upcoming photo plans that you have saved using the Planner for a total of five different occasions.

Final Words

On the basis of my own personal experience, I wholeheartedly endorse the use of PhotoPills for landscape photographers. This mobile application provides users with a wealth of features that are not only vast but are also regularly updated. When I first began using it, I did run into a few problems, but I quickly discovered that the PhotoPills Academy offered a wealth of helpful materials that assisted me in overcoming these obstacles efficiently. In the course of my photography journey, it has proven to be an indispensable tool.

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