Welcome to another edition of Let’s Talk Photography!

Whether your shooting portraits outdoors or capturing a beautiful landscape, you’re going to want to know exactly where the sun will be in the sky to give you the light you need. If you spend all day setting up for a golden hour shot only to find that the sun sets in the opposite direction of where you planned on shooting, then you’ve wasted an entire day and, sometimes, that’s enough to ruin an opportunity for the shot of a lifetime.

There are many options to prevent this problem, such as becoming a weather man, but I’m sure that’s a bit extreme for you and me, alike. This is why photographers turn to a secret weapon that has been helping them plan for the movement of both the sun and the moon for several years. A software program that can run on either the laptop or desktop or on any Android or iPhone device. The program (or app) is called The Photographer’s Ephemeris and you can access it at photoephemeris.com.

When you visit the website, you’ll have instant access to their free online version of the software, or you can download the version that will work on your mobile device. What does It do? The most basic feature of the software will show you a map of the location that you are shooting and show you where the sun will be at any given time as well as show you where the moon will be. It will also show you the exact location of the sunset, sunrise, moonset and moonrise. You can go forward or backward to any point in time and see exactly what direction the light will be coming from and see the position of the sun and moon on any given time of the day.

Let’s take a look at an example. I’ve gone to the Web application on my computer and plugged in Jamestown, NY for the location and Aug. 11, 2017, for the date. The map put the pin over near the Lynn Building (the post office building downtown) on Third Street so I clicked on the pin and dragged it so it’s over City Hall. I then clicked on the Satellite button in the top left corner of the map so I could see the satellite picture of the map instead of just a white screen with roads on it (Map view). There are six lines extending out from the pin. Let’s identify what each line is by looking directly beneath the map to the boxes that have times in them. You can see that four of these boxes are highlighted with a color band at the top of each one. In order from left to right are Moonrise, Sunrise, Sunset, and Moonset. The color band at the top of the box represents the line on the map that shows the location of those events. So, looking at the map, we can see that the sunrise will happen at 6:20 a.m. and the sun will come from the northeast corner of the map and hit the City Hall building from the Prendergast Avenue side. The sunset event will happen at 8:22 p.m. and hit City Hall from the northwest corner of the map directly over the intersection of Third Street and Spring Street.

Looking below these four boxes showing the rising and setting times, you’ll see another box that has a timeline with a blue slider beneath it. This is your time slider. You can move that slider to see how the mon and sun will move through the map at times throughout the day. The small box that has two colored squares in it represents the lines on the map that show the position of the sun and moon. When you move the slider you’ll see these two lines move on the map. On this particular day the moon is not visible during the day so you only see the line representing the sun moving through the map. I’ve got the time in this example set to 2 p.m. and you can see the sun is hitting City Hall on the southern corner of the building.

Now, if I advance the date by clicking the right arrow key in the top left of the map, I can see the positions change for that same time each day after the 11th. By changing the date to Aug. 21, 2017, I can see the two lines of the moon and sun showing me right where I need to be looking to view the beginning of the solar eclipse!

There are many other things this software tool will show you such as the azimuth of the moon and sun, what phase the moon will be in, and you can even set a second pin so you can see the distance, bearing and elevation of a point such as a mountain top or a building between your shooting location and the sun. Locations can be saved for future reference, as well.

I encourage you to visit the Web app or download the mobile app and start playing around with it. Type in your address and set it to Aug. 21, 2017, and see where the eclipse will be in your own backyard. Just remember, never view an eclipse with the naked eyes and don’t point your camera directly at the sun without a proper solar filter in place. Even though the light is blocked during an eclipse, ultraviolet light is still travelling to earth and you will burn your eyes by looking directly into an eclipse. Also, consider making a pinhole viewer so the kids can watch without any danger.

Until next week, happy shooting!

Is there a topic that you’d like to learn more about? Send feedback, share your photos, or offer topic suggestions to talkphotos@ecklof.com. If you’re looking for a place to connect with local photographers in Chautauqua County, search for the group “Shoot ‘n Share Chautauqua” on Facebook.