Here comes the sun - Sun Seeker App Review

I love my iPhone. My colleagues find me a little crazy but I love how this phone can be a powerful tool both technically and creatively. As filmmakers it enables you to slate, create storyboards, calculate DOF, dispatch release forms and even act as a light source. The great thing is that the features continue to expand as long as apps continue to be produced.

 

One example of these apps I use quite frequently is Sun Seeker. This app lets you know when and where the sun will rise and set, today or in the future. One of the amazing offerings from this app is the 3D View, which is an augmented reality view using the phone's GPS, accelerometer and camera to see the path of the sun with reference to time and the phone’s real time camera image. There are other views too, such as the angle of the sun overlaid on a Google Map of your current location or any location you choose to input.

 

This app is very useful when you are setting up a scene and need to be able to predict how the light will affect your shot a few hours later. It's also a huge benefit for planning the lighting for a time-lapse. In the example below numerous structures around us caused undesired lighting situations. Sun Seeker was able to tell me when and where to frame the camera in order to get our desired effect. It essentially also enabled me to see where the sun would situate during the entire time-lapse.

For $5.99 it's the price of a modest lunch. You can download it from here.

Stan