How I Use PhotoPills to Plan Landscape and Night Photography

Planning is one of the most important steps to any landscape or astrophotographer's process and PhotoPills is the best tool you can have. It helps you figure out where the sun, moon, and Milky Way will be at any moment, anywhere on Earth. As well as helping with settings for specialized shoots. PhotoPills takes the guesswork out of planning. Like many things in photography this is a very robust app with a lot of features, you don't need to know how to perfectly use every feature, so here’s how I use my favorite features to plan my landscape and night sky photos.

Let's Start with the Basics... Sun and Moon Pill

The Sun and Moon pills are the first tools I open in PhotoPills. They show the rise and set times, direction, and height of the sun or moon in the sky as well as what phase the moon is in for getting those super dark, new moon nights. This is a quick way to easily determine when blue hour is, what time to capture golden hour or when the Milky Way rises and sets.

The Augmented Reality (AR) feature is especially helpful and gets a little more detailed. You can hold your phone up and see the sun or moon’s path right through your camera view. It helps you visualize how light will move across your scene and where shadows will fall. As well as helping you to determine for things like sun stars and directional light. When I’m scouting a location, I use AR to predict where the moon will rise or where the sun will set. For example, I can stand between two peaks, check the app, and know that the moon will appear right between them at 8 p.m. This makes it easy to plan the perfect sunset or moonrise photo composition. You can find this option at the bottom of the Sun or Moon Pill in the center (AR).

Night AR: Your Secret Compositional Weapon

The Night AR feature is one of the best parts of PhotoPills for night photography. It overlays the Milky Way’s position onto your live camera view so you can plan compositions before dark.

I use it while scouting, this really helps to determine the Milky Way's position within your desired composition, and also to determine the best time of year for optimal alignment. I’ll find a good foreground and open Night AR to check where the Milky Way will be within the frame. When the stars appear, I already know exactly where to point my camera and what the image will look like when the final image is complete.

Because my personal favorite way to photograph my night scenes is as blue hour blends or composites, the Night AR Pill really helps when I get to putting the image together during post processing. To get a screen shot (as seen below), simply press the action button and save the captured image to your phone to pull up again during post processing, to make sure the Milky Way lines up in the correct spot in the image.

This makes Milky Way photography smoother, easier and far less guesswork-driven. It’s a must for anyone who wants to create strong night sky compositions.

The Planner: The Best PhotoPills Tool for Astrophotography and Landscape Planning

The PhotoPills Planner is where all the real power is. It’s an interactive map that shows the position of the Milky Way, sun and moon at any time or place.

I use the Planner to figure out:

• When the Milky Way core will be visible and in which direction

• When the moon will set for a darker sky

• The exact time and angle of sunrise and sunset

It’s one of the best tools for planning astrophotography and Milky Way photography. You can move the time slider to preview light conditions for any date, which is perfect for planning trips or shoots months in advance from the comfort of your home. With this tool you can plan well before you step foot in the location you will be shooting.

The best part is that you can save the plan for when you're out in the field and ready to capture that image you've been planning. You can even add notes and photos to the plan to pull up for later use (right image below)

Meteor Showers: Plan for Shooting Stars

If you love capturing meteor showers, the Meteor Showers pill is your best friend. It lists upcoming meteor events, their peak dates, radiant points and expected rates.

Although I use this less often, I will check it before planning night shoots during events like the Perseids or Geminids, so it's worth mentioning in this article.

It's a simple way to plan ahead for meteor shower photography and make sure your timing and direction are right, trust me I learned this the hard way. My very first outing to photograph a meteor shower was for the Leonids (quite a few years ago), I set out to Joshuia Tree National Park, picked my shooting location and set up my camera. The problem? I didn't do any planning beyond the date of the meteor shower. I later learned I was facing the complete wrong way and also had to wait until almost 4:00AM for the radiant point to even peek over the horizon. So, all this to say, planning is much better :)

Spot Stars: Keep Your Stars Sharp

The Spot Stars tool helps keep your stars sharp and clear. It calculates the best shutter speed for your camera and lens before the stars start to trail, taking into account your sensor size for optimal results. Below you can see the difference in shutter optimal shutter speed from my Sony A7RIV (61MP) at roughly 12" versus my Sony A7SIII (12MP) at roughly 8".

You just enter your camera model, focal length and aperture, then select a declination of 0.00 for Milky way photography and the accurate setting. The app will give you the perfect exposure time for a sharp astrophotography image. It’s a small detail that makes a big difference in getting professional-looking results, especially if your end goal is printing your work.

Now Go Out & Practice!

PhotoPills is more than a photography app. It’s a complete photography planning tool that combines astronomy, mapping and visualization into one easy system. Once you learn how the Sun & Moon pills, Planner, Night AR, and Spot Stars tools work together, you can plan photos that look perfectly timed.

Next time you’re scouting, use AR during golden hour, plan your Milky Way shot with Night AR, and check the Meteor Showers pill before you go. Once you start using PhotoPills, you’ll wonder how you ever photographed without it.

And if you would like the opportunity to learn more and capture some amazing scenes in Menorca, Spain check out the 2026 PhotoPills Camp for 7 fun-filled days of learning and adventure in the Island of Light. And bonus... I will be mentoring at the camp this year, hope to see you there!