Drop the pin where you want the photo
Map in FotoNoa
The sky seen from above, laid over the real terrain: the circle is your horizon and the arc is the path the Sun or the Moon takes across the day, with the hour marked. You drop a pin where you want the photo and you know when the Sun, the Moon or the Milky Way passes right through it. In Basic mode this same tab opens as an assistant that builds your plan in six steps, with no pins and no layers.
What it has
- In Basic, an assistant that builds your plan in six steps and ends in a card you can save
- On Google's map: streets, sharp satellite imagery and terrain
- The whole day at a glance, not the direction at one instant
- Line up: the exact time that day when the Sun or the Moon falls on your frame
- Search by name, coordinates, a Google Maps link, the location saved in a photo, or where your phone is
- Undo to put the pins back, and Save to Favorites without repeating the place
- Street View, to scout the spot before you drive out there
- Favorites, to come back to the places you always shoot, with their map, the tips and “Directions”
How to use Map
It's the same help you get inside the app. In case you want to read it before downloading, or out in the field with barely any signal.
1In Basic: follow the assistant
It asks one thing per screen and builds the plan from your answers: what you want to photograph (a hill, a lighthouse, a church; search it by name, with a Google Maps link, coordinates or a photo), what you want behind it (the Moon, the Sun, the Milky Way or just the landscape), where you'll shoot from, with which camera and when. When you pick the camera you see the photo in miniature, with the object rising behind your subject. Every date has a 1-to-10 score; first the ones that work from your spot, then, soonest first, the ones that work if you move. And it warns you if a building or a hill may block the photo.
2Save “Your plan”
The assistant ends in a card with the map —where to stand, what's behind and which way to look—, what, when, from where and with which camera, plus how to take that photo. You get a reminder the day before, add it to your Apple or Google calendar and, with the last button, save it to Favorites. From the favorite you can share it (also as KMZ, for Google Earth). You can rehearse it with «Aim», and “Directions” opens Google Maps.
3Fine-tune the plan on the map
«On the map» shows the plan on the big map. If you move the camera or the target and go back with «Your plan», the plan updates with the new distance and time.
4In Advanced: read the drawing
The white circle is the horizon you see standing at the blue pin, and the center is straight above your head. The closer to the center something is, the higher it sits in the sky.
5The two pins
The blue pin with the little camera is you, the spot you'll be shooting from. The purple pin is what you want to photograph: a hill, a lighthouse, a church.
6Moving them
Press and hold a pin, then drag it. A plain tap doesn't move them, on purpose, so they never shift by accident; and if you press and hold anywhere on the map, the blue pin jumps there. If you moved something by mistake, «Undo» puts it back, map included.
7Slide the time
The bar at the bottom moves time, and with it the line pointing at the Sun or the Moon. The disc is drawn on the curve at the hour you picked. Tap «Info» up top to see when it rises and sets.
8Use «Line up»
With both pins placed, if the Sun or the Moon passes over your frame that day, «Line up» appears and takes you to the exact time. The line turns red when they line up, and grey if it doesn't pass there that day.
9Scout the spot without driving there
Street View lets you look at the place before you drive out there.