I want to share with you how I use a fantastic tool called Sunlitt to plan my photography sessions, especially when capturing special moments like surprise proposals. Sunlitt is an app available on all Apple devices. It’s designed to give photographers a detailed view of the location, shadow patterns, and the position of the sun for any given date and time. This is how I use Sunlitt to ensure that I get the perfect shot every time.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Sunlitt
Sunlitt is an app that helps photographers plan our sessions meticulously by showing us where the sun and shadows will be at different times of the day. It’s available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, making it highly versatile. I typically use it on my Mac Studio for planning but also have it handy on my iPhone for on-the-go adjustments. One of the key benefits of Sunlitt is its simplicity and ease of use, which makes it incredibly efficient for planning everything from surprise proposals to other photoshoots.
Planning a Surprise Proposal at Princeton University
For an recent surprise proposal session at Princeton University, I used Sunlitt to scout the location, East Pyne Hall, and plan the best spots to hide and capture the moment. The app helps me visualize the scene, showing me exactly where I need to park, which path to take, and the best archways to use as hiding spots.
Knowing where the sun and shadows will be at that specific date and time is crucial. For this session, I set Sunlitt to November 30th at 1:00 PM, aligning perfectly with the proposal schedule. The app’s intuitive interface allowed me to scrub through different times of the day to see exactly how the shadows would fall. This helps me ensure that the couple will be beautifully lit, with no unwanted shadows falling across them.
Using Sunlitt on Mobile and MacOS
What’s great about Sunlitt is that it functions identically on a Mac as it does on a mobile device. Whether you’re using an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac, you’ll find the interface and functionality seamless and intuitive. This is particularly useful when transitioning from planning at home or in the office to being on location.
For example, after planning the shoot on my Mac, I saved the location as a favorite. I then accessed it on my phone, making any last-minute adjustments on site very straightforward. The compatibility across devices ensures I always have my plans handy and can make quick decisions in real-time.
Real-Time Adjustments and Augmented Reality
One of the coolest features of Sunlitt is its augmented reality (AR) capability. This allows me to use my phone on location to see a live view of what the shadows and sun positions will look like at the exact time of the shoot. By switching the date and time to the moment of the proposal, I can see everything perfectly aligned and make real-time adjustments.
This feature has been particularly useful for ensuring that I am in the right spot and that my clients will be perfectly positioned. It minimizes any surprises and allows for a smoother, more predictable session.
Additional Features and Tools
In addition to shadow mapping and AR, Sunlitt offers other useful tools. For instance, it provides information on blue hour, golden hour, and solar noon. Though I didn’t need these for the midday proposal shoot, they come in handy for planning different types of photo sessions, especially landscape and portrait photography.
It provides a familiar map interface for navigation and location scouting. Plus, there’s an Apple Vision Pro version and an Apple Watch companion app, which I may explore in the future.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
In wrapping up, Sunlitt proves to be an invaluable tool for photographers who need to plan their sessions meticulously. Its ease of use, combined with powerful features like shadow mapping, real-time adjustments, and augmented reality, make it an essential part of my photography workflow. Whether you’re planning a big event like a surprise proposal or a simple portrait session, Sunlitt has the capabilities to help you get the perfect shot.
Using Sunlitt has significantly simplified my planning process, ensuring that every detail is accounted for, from the positioning of the sun to the exact shadows that will be cast. It’s a game-changer, promising not only efficiency but also the kind of reliability that every photographer needs. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend giving Sunlitt a go for your next shoot.
Transcription was done by Descript‘s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar
Expand/Collapse Video Transcription
[00:00:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So this is Sunlitt. Sunlitt of that is available for the mobile device and the MacOS device. Okay. So it is available on iPhone iPad. And. On a Mac, right? So this is on a Mac studio right now. It’ll work on a laptop as well, but. Sunlitt is designed to give you a very clear view of. Where you’re photographing. When you’re photographing. How the shadows will look. And a few other things.
[00:00:37] Okay. As an example. Here is an area. This is a scene or location rather where I will be. Photographing a surprise proposal. This is the campus of Princeton University in Princeton. New Jersey. And this is called East Pyne Hall. It is a building. As obviously. in on-campus. [00:01:00] And the main road. Is up here of where I’d be parking.
[00:01:06] Hopefully I get a really good spot that day. And I’d be walking down a path. That’s actually under these trees. And I would make my way to one of two archways as two archways here, one right here. And one right here. And I will be hiding. Right there. Waiting for my couple, who is, one’s gonna propose to the other. to walk through the Archway, get to the middle here, and then I will go to the Archway and photograph the couple with the other Archway and the statue and the trees and everything in the distance. That’s the proposal shot, right? So I figured out exactly what I’m doing.
[00:01:46] I can switch the map. To be. The shadow map. Okay. And again, now I can see the street up here. I see the pathway. I’m going to be walking. And I can see exactly where I will be hiding. I’ll probably [00:02:00] be in the Archway actually. And I can see where the sun is going to be on any given day. Okay. Now, right now at default to today right now, It is telling me. Today that Firstlight is at 6:20 AM.
[00:02:14] Now I know that. The. Proposal is actually on November 30th.
[00:02:23] So I’m going to switch the date to November 30th.
[00:02:26] Now I also know that it’s at 1:00 PM. I can switch the time here. Which is already set for 1:00 PM, or I can actually go to the right side of this. And again, What on the Mac is exactly how it works on a phone or a tablet as well. So it’s amazing how.like identical, they are. If you can figure it out on the Mac, you can figure it out on the phone and vice versa. Okay, so I can go and I can scrub up and down and I can see how the shadows are changing based on where the sun is and all that stuff.
[00:02:55] So I can go to exactly 1:00 PM. [00:03:00]
[00:03:00] And I could see that at exactly 1:00 PM. The sun is going to be shining down. And. The shadow is going to be up here. Which means I want the client to be in the middle. And I want the shadows behind them over on this side. So that way I’m not seeing a shadow in front of them for the proposal, I’d rather the shadow behind. Then in front.
[00:03:23] Okay.what is really cool about this is allows me to not only identify the location I want by just changing the map type. So again, I’m on shadow map. There’s reliefs version. So here’s a reliefs version. And there’s also the satellite version. So this actually, I believe it actually comes from Apple Maps. If you’re familiar withthe look of Apple Maps, it’s the same exact map. but yeah, so I think it even says. Let’s say Apple Maps.
[00:03:51] I believe it does somewhere. maybe on the, iPhone version is where it says Apple Maps, but I’m pretty sure it said that somewhere. Now.it is giving me again, I am [00:04:00] currently set for the right date and time of what I want November 30th, 1:00 PM. I’m good to go there. It is telling me the blue hour, which I don’t need to worry about for that.
[00:04:08] Cause it is going to be a mid day thing. Telling me sunrise again, I don’t need it for this specific thing. I can see all of the different information. Based on that exact day. solar noon is right before. The actual proposal happens. I will be getting there and positioning myself around the time of the solar noon.
[00:04:27] The I’m going to experience the most amount of heat. And sun that we will experience that day. Now golden hour is 3:51. This is getting closer to winter time. the sun goes down faster. We will be done by then. We’re going to be walking around. this is where probably the proposal is going to happen. My client has two choices and I’m thinking. This is what he’s going to do first.
[00:04:52] I know where I’m, where I want to be. I know how I can tell the client which way to walk, because I can see the path when I switch it back to the shadow map [00:05:00] view. you don’t see the trees at that point. I could tell them exactly where I will be. The timing we have. we could even look at different things like the twilight’s.
[00:05:10] we can look at the.The Equinox is I can give them the coordinates of the exact spot. I can grab everything I need to from here. And. And help plan it. What I have done already is I have actually done a video showing the client exactly where I want to be. To hide. And where, what direction
[00:05:30] I want him to walk, how I want him to come down here and then come in through this Archway and go to the center. I’ve already shared all this with him. And what is great is when I get there that day, I could open it up on my phone. And I, again, I can go right here and I can save, I can add this. as a favorite and then I can open up my phone. Which I’ll do right now.
[00:05:50] So on my phone, I can have it open as well.
[00:05:53] You can see here’s east pine hall, right? It matches if I was to move this over, you’ll see the architecture actually [00:06:00] matches. we could zoom in. we could really configure everything, how we need to. And, I could even do an augmented reality and I can actually. go in place and identify the shadows in the sun, right from my phone.
[00:06:15] You can see here, I can pull up the same information that would wind up being on the desktop. And again, I could switch the date and make sure that it is running the same date and time that I needed to be.
[00:06:26] And you can see, here we go. It now matches. Perfectly.
[00:06:30] Just make the phone a little bigger. There we go.
[00:06:32] Here is sunlit. I’m on location. And if I turn, it’s pointing exactly where the sun is. If I hit this augmented reality button, there’s the sun. It’s pretty darn close. Alright, I’m going to go into where I’m going to be hiding,
[00:06:56] and I’m going to change it to 1pm.[00:07:00]
[00:07:03] Perfect shadows right now. Ken’s pointing right where the sun is.
[00:07:12] I’m going to be right here. And my clients are going to be right in the center there.
[00:07:22] I will actually have a camera clip to my hat as well. So maybe I’ll get some behind the scenes footage of that. From that perspective as well. The other thing is that there is an, Apple Vision Pro version.
[00:07:32] So if you have an Apple Vision Pro you could use that. And there’s also an Apple Watch. App. like like.
[00:07:39] Companion app that works alongside this app. So I’m going to be messing around with that. And that might be something for another video or show how useful that is. But I thought it’d be as important to show you. Just how I plan itself, how I actually plan a proposal. or another type of job.
[00:07:56] But I primarily do proposals. How I plan [00:08:00] these, using Sunlitt, right? There’s a lot of different apps that you could use. To plan your photo sessions. And I have used so many of them. and each one has its pros and cons. But what it comes down to is simplicity and the ease and how fast you can be to plan. And so far. Although there is another that I’ve used for years, I have found that Sunlitt has been the easiest to use of them all. for this specific purpose, right? The other app that I use on a regular basis. Does a lot of other things. Sunlitt has a specific task and goal in mind. And it’s really good at it.
[00:08:43] So I wanted to show you another one. So I’ve got a property right in front of me, a building that I’m doing another proposal. I’m in a different location, actually the following day from the previous one. And So the sun is actually, I’ll show you with augmented reality in a second, [00:09:00] but it’s an overcast day, so it’s not going to be very sunny.
[00:09:05] However, if I go to augmented reality, so that’s the structure, sun is right there, it’s pretty darn accurate, right? It’s telling me where the sun is. and if I go to the property, We’ll actually see they’re gonna be here at 11. So if I just pull up there, so let’s say 1102, sun’s gonna be right there, right?
[00:09:32] And I know that I’m gonna be good on shadow from this, from this perspective. They’re gonna be right here in front of that door. So, and I’ll be hiding behind a bunch of cars that are behind me.
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