Versione in italiano QUI
Introduction
PhotoPills is a fundamental part of my workflow. I’ve always called it the Swiss Army knife of photography, because it has an answer for every question: what time the sun sets, where the moon rises, when the Milky Way will be in the right position.
Yet there was one thing not even PhotoPills could give me: really seeing the scene before getting there. The lines on the map told me where the sun would rise, but how it would look behind that lighthouse, with that lens, from that exact spot, I had to imagine. And imagination, as anyone who has tried knows, sometimes gets it wrong.
With PhotoPills Premium, released on 10 September, that missing piece is finally here. I was lucky enough to put it to the test before launch, on the most difficult photo I have ever planned: the total eclipse above the Artrutx lighthouse in Menorca, shot from a sailing boat. So make yourself comfortable: I’ll tell you what it is, what it does and how it took me exactly where I needed to be.
The Artrutx lighthouse and the eclipse in the 3D view of PhotoPills Premium
What is PhotoPills Premium?
Premium is an annual membership that adds a new layer to PhotoPills. It gives you three things together:
- PhotoPills Web, the planner on your computer, on a proper desktop canvas;
- the new PhotoPills app for iPhone and Android, rebuilt from the ground up;
- and in both of them, the 3D: terrain and major cities at full scale, where you can walk and fly through a location before you even pack your bag.
Everything stays in sync. You log in with the same account everywhere, so the plan you prepare on the laptop is on your phone when you reach the spot.
Before you ask (everybody asks me first): the PhotoPills app you already paid for (I wrote about it here) stays exactly as it is. The new app installs next to it, with its own icon, and nothing changes in the one you use today.
Planning at the desk (PhotoPills Web)
If you have attended one of my classes, you know my pie chart: planning takes 65% of the time behind a good photo, pressing the shutter only 5%. Most of that 65% happens at home, sitting in an armchair, trying to see something that has yet to happen.
For years my desk looked like this: Google Earth on the laptop for scouting, PhotoPills on the phone for the sun and the moon, and my head in the middle trying to put the two together. PhotoPills Web moves the planner onto the big screen: satellite map, sun and moon lines, the timeline at the bottom, and a panel on the side with every number you need.
My eclipse plan in PhotoPills Web: the camera at sea, the lighthouse and the lines of the sun and the moon
All your plans and points of interest live in My Stuff, organised in folders and synced with the phone. You can attach photos to a plan and set a notification before the event, so PhotoPills reminds you when it’s time to go.
My Stuff: plans and points of interest, synced with the phone
Who needs a map when you can fly? (the 3D)
Press the 3D button and the map becomes the place. You can walk, standing on the ground at the height of your tripod, or fly over the location like a drone. You choose the focal length, and the sun and the moon appear in the sky exactly where they will be on that day. For the eclipse, the 3D even draws the corona around the moon.
Premium gives you two 3D models. Google 3D Tiles are photorealistic: in Menorca the Artrutx lighthouse was there, modelled from real photos, and I could put the sun right above its lantern. Where Google has no model, you can switch to Cesium World Terrain and turn on the buildings layer, which draws simpler volumes. For my plan at the Punta Sottile lighthouse in Favignana, Google had only the terrain, while Cesium gave me the tower as a block. If neither has your subject, you type its real height and PhotoPills uses that.
Punta Sottile in 3D with Cesium World Terrain and the buildings layer
For a seascape photographer this matters a lot. On the coast the sun rarely sets on a clean horizon: a headland, a cliff or an island gets in the way. In my talks I always suggest using the shape of the landscape as a filter, letting a promontory hide the sun so it doesn’t burn the highlights. In 3D you can check that from home, before the trip.
How I found my point in Menorca
When I was preparing the eclipse, the 3D in Premium was still in development, but the PhotoPills guys let me use it, and it made all the difference.
I wanted totality right above the lighthouse. On a map, that request gives you a line: the one that passes through the lighthouse in the direction opposite the sun. Anywhere along that line, sun and lighthouse stay aligned left to right. Moving along it, though, changes two things at once: the further I go, the smaller the lighthouse gets and the bigger the sun looks next to it. Closer, the opposite. With the sun behind the lighthouse any point of the line would do. With the sun stacked above it, only one point works.
In 3D that point stopped being a calculation and became an image. I could stand at my coordinates at sea, look at the lighthouse at 300mm, and move back and forth along the line until the sun sat where I wanted it. The information panel gives you the numbers too: from my final spot, 1.36 km from the lighthouse, the sun measured 12.5 m across and its centre sat 37.5 m above the point I had pinned on the lighthouse.
The final plan at 300mm: the information panel gives the size of the sun and its height above the lighthouse
On eclipse day the swell tried to ruin everything, but Captain Joan held the boat on my coordinates and the calculations turned out right: we really were in the right place.
“The Longest Minute”
Canon EOS R5 Mark II, RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM
300mm, ISO 10000, f/7.1, 1/60
Alignments: tell PhotoPills where you want the sun
The Menorca plan started from a date I already knew. Most of the time it works the other way round: you have a subject and you want to know when the light will be where you want it. That is the job of the Alignments tool, for the Sun, the Moon and the Milky Way.
Take the Favaritx lighthouse in Menorca, the one in this photo.
“The Eye of God”
Favaritx lighthouse, Menorca
Put the camera where you want to shoot and the black pin on the lighthouse, open Alignments, choose Sun and switch to 3D. PhotoPills draws a box on your subject: that is where the sun has to be. You don’t type a single number: from the box, PhotoPills works out the azimuth, the elevation and the tolerances by itself.
Alignments in 3D: the box on the Favaritx lighthouse is where I want the sun
Press See dates and the answer arrives: in June, at around 6:10 in the morning, the sun rises right behind the lighthouse. Click on a date and the 3D moves to that morning, with the light of that moment.
The dates when the sun rises behind Favaritx, and the 3D at dawn on the first one
One tip: don’t shrink the box too much. The smaller it gets, the tighter the tolerances, and if you overdo it the sun never gets there and PhotoPills finds no dates at all.
Calendars and light pollution
The advanced Calendars show a whole year at a glance: Sun (rise and set times with their azimuth, day by day), Moon (phases), Night and Milky Way with the Galactic Center. I shoot the sea at sunrise and sunset, so the Sun calendar is the one I use most.
The Sun calendar: sunrise and sunset times with their azimuth, day by day
If you chase the night, turn on the light pollution layer and you will see at once where to find darker skies. Favignana, for example, sits outside the brightest glow of Trapani and Palermo.
The light pollution layer over western Sicily
A map we build together
Then there is the Community Map. You can publish a plan, and other photographers will find it on the map: the date and the type of light, who created it, a photo, how to get there, ratings for the road, the hike and the environmental sensitivity of the place, plus a list of the next dates when the same light comes back. If someone spots a mistake, they can suggest an edit.
I published my plan for the Punta Sottile lighthouse in Favignana, where I took this photo.
The Punta Sottile lighthouse, Favignana
At launch the map is almost empty, on purpose: PhotoPills wants to build it together with its users, and curates what goes on it. I have always thought the real strength of PhotoPills lies in the people around it, so I like this choice a lot.
My public plan for Punta Sottile on the Community Map
The new PhotoPills app
On the phone, Premium comes with the new PhotoPills app, rebuilt from scratch. It is a beta, it installs alongside the current app with its own icon, and it shares your plans with PhotoPills Web from day one.
PhotoPills says it openly: the beta doesn’t cover every feature of the current app yet, so for now you keep both. They are targeting mid-2027 for version 1.0, which will then replace the current app.
The same eclipse plan in 3D on the new PhotoPills Beta app
Price, and why a paid beta
Premium costs $99.99 a year plus taxes (about $8.33 a month), and you can cancel anytime with one click. At the time of writing, places are limited: the first 300 are gone, and PhotoPills opened 300 more, up to 600 members. When those run out, a waitlist opens. If you join now you keep the same price when the full version arrives, plus a Beta Tester badge that stays with you.
Why pay for a beta? PhotoPills gives an honest answer: the price works as a filter, because they want people who use it for real shots, break it, and tell them what’s missing. If you expect a finished product, wait. If you want a say in the next PhotoPills, now is the moment.
My advice? You know I’m not neutral here, so I’ll just tell you what I think. If you believe planning is an essential part of your photography (and if you have read this far, you probably do), there is no doubt: you want Premium. And keep in mind this is only the beginning. Premium is still growing, and the part I’m most excited about is the community: when that map fills up with plans and locations from photographers all over the world, it’s going to be crazy. Being part of it from day one makes me really happy.
“Two Lights”
Canon EOS R5 Mark II, RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM
300mm, ISO 10000, f/7.1, 1/400
Conclusions
No battle plan survives the first cannon shot, and in Menorca the swell made sure of it. Without a plan, though, I would not even have been out at sea, off Artrutx, in the only point where that photo existed.
Plan & Pray, as they say at PhotoPills.
You can join PhotoPills Premium here.
Full disclosure: I have worked with PhotoPills for as long as I can remember, and I have been teaching at the PhotoPills Camp since 2017. Let’s say I’m part of the family. That is why I had Premium in preview, and why I could use it for the eclipse before launch.
