As an Outdoor Photographer, I rely heavily on natural light from the sun. I love shooting in the sweet light or golden hours of the day. This of course requires knowing when the sun will rise and when the sun will set. It is also extremely helpful to know where the sun will rise and set relative to your position so you can plan which locations are better for morning or evening shooting. I also like to know when where the Moon will rise and set as and what it’s particular phase is.
Imagine being able to get great alpinglow light and a moon all in one shot; and having planned it that way. that’s what I was able to do in this shot to the right thanks to few tools I’ll mention below.
This is all part of researching, scouting and planning. I talk about this in my Research and Create a Shot List post.
There are a few tools on the internet that can help you figure the sun and moon’s position, rise, and set times. Below I will list a few of these resources.
For years I have been using the US Naval Observatorie’s astronomical calculators available through the Naval Oceanography Portal.
The Sun and Moon Data For One Day Calculator is great resource that lets you enter a date and location (by name or GPS coordinate), and it gives you the times for the sun’s begining of civil twilight, sunrise, sun transit, sunset, and the end of civil twilight. You also get the moon’s the times for the moonrise, moon transit, moonset and phase of the moon.
Use the Altitude and Azimuth of the Sun or Moon During One Day to help you find the position the sun or moon will rise and set at from your position.
Eclipses of the Sun and Moon is always fun to know.
The Naval Oceanography Portal has a lot more information that can be of use to an outdoor photographer so make sure to visit and explore the site.
The Photographer’s Ephemeris is a tool built and offered for free download by photographer Stephen Trainor. This resource does not offer as much data as the Naval Observatory, but it has the basics and does it by the combining the key data together with a topographical map, courtesy of Google, all in one program for either Windows or Mac. And Again it is FREE.
More information and a link to download the program and instructions for using it are available on Stephen’s blog here.
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