3D Sun, Moon and Night Photography Planning For Outdoor Photographers.
The Photographer's Ephemeris 3D (TPE 3D) is a unique natural light visualization tool for outdoor and landscape photographers shooting in varied terrain. It's a 3D map-centric Sun, Moon and Milky Way calculator: see how the light will fall on the land, day or night, for any location on earth.
"TPE3D predicted the light in the distance in the gap just before the right most hill very accurately." - OnLandscape Magazine
"This app has become an indispensable tool in my planning kit, I highly recommend it!" - David Kingham, Exploring Exposure
Watch a sunrise from the future in a rich simulation of sunlight, moonlight and starlight set against the actual topography of your planned shooting location.
Need to see when the arch of the Milky Way will rise between two mountain peaks? Need to see what time in the afternoon the valley will lose direct light in September?
Watch the light unfold under clear skies hours, days, weeks or years before you're actually there in person.
Key features includes:
- 3D topographic maps with simple navigation options
- Sun, moon and galactic centre continuous timeline showing key rise, set and transit events
- Full search capability to find your location (or enter decimal or DMS coordinates directly)
- Automated playback to watch a realtime or faster-than-realtime simulation of the light
- Flying mode for quick movement around a scene
- Enhanced mode for maximum topography and shadow detail
- Symbolic represetation of the Milky Way in Flying mode
- High resolution Milky Way and stars in Enhanced mode
- Direct elevation control for the 3D model camera
- Camera pitch and bearing indicators
- Moon phases are rendered accurately in the 3D scene
- Zoom in/out to equivalent 35mm focal length in enhanced mode
- Daily and annual events lists
- Shared location database with TPE
- Navigation and Artificial Highlights lighting modes
- Support for multiple map pins
- User settings for controlling scene complexity
If you like to plan your natural light photography to capture the photo opportunities others miss, TPE 3D is a must-have tool!
Note:
- This app is CPU and graphics intensive: modern device models provide the best user experience and highest resolution data
- Not recommended for users who only shoot in flat terrain
- Satellite maps are not included
- Building are not shown in 3D
- Max elevation data resolution is 1 arcsecond (approximately 30m/33yards)
- Requires an internet connection
- Does not currently provide simulation of lighting during solar and lunar eclipses
- Topographic data is available only between 83°N and 83°S: data may contain artifacts and errors
- Availability of map types is subject to change, due to 3rd party map service availability, terms or conditions
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Screenshots
Photographer's Ephemeris 3D FAQ
Is Photographer's Ephemeris 3D free?
Photographer's Ephemeris 3D is not free (it costs 699.00), however it doesn't contain in-app purchases or subscriptions.
Is Photographer's Ephemeris 3D legit?
🤔 The Photographer's Ephemeris 3D app's quality is mixed. Some users are satisfied, while others report issues. Consider reading individual reviews for more context.
Thanks for the vote
How much does Photographer's Ephemeris 3D cost?
The price of Photographer's Ephemeris 3D is 699.00.
What is Photographer's Ephemeris 3D revenue?
To get estimated revenue of Photographer's Ephemeris 3D app and other AppStore insights you can sign up to AppTail Mobile Analytics Platform.
This app used to be 5 stars. Now I can’t get it to work. So frustrating. The 3D map loads and then nothing just says locating with the spinning icon and NEVER LOADS. I have a brand new iPad Pro with latest updates and still won’t work. Grrrrrrrrrrr
Mushy light, doesn’t work as advertised
My results look nothing like the images in the App Store. Moving from sunrise to noon in the location I selected, an oceanfront bluff, you get a slight sense of shadow on the sand and then the light overall just comes up. In real light, there is absolute shadow on the sand until the sun gets up high enough to light it. Can I get a refund? Thank you
Not as useful as I had hoped.
I was hoping this app would help me predict light and shadows on a given day and at a given time. To some extent, it does. But not the level of details that I need.
A bit disappointed.
Needs better maps.
On an iPad Pro 9.7, the map detail, even in enhanced mode, is too poor to use for any precision location planning.
Excellent app, with only one real flaw.
The app works great for visualization of how the light will fall. Honestly it’s only competitor is Google Earth Pro (desktop only) and this does a better job than that. The controls take a bit getting used to, and I still slide around sometimes, but it’s workable.
The *only* reason this doesn’t get 5 stars is the amount of juice this app uses- on my iPhone 7 Plus it absolutely cranks and destroys the battery life; I pretty much can only use it plugged in if I don’t want to lose obscene percentages of battery quickly. However, newer phones may handle this better, I’m not able to test that unfortunately.
Even with this issue I still love this app.
Not a satellite map view
Disappointing that TPE 3D uses a topo rather than a satellite map. Side streets are not named and are only marginally shown.
Scaling of pin size doesn’t seem to exist. As you zoom in the pin becomes enormous blocking part of view.
Using on iPad Pro.
Working well on iPad Pro 11” - I use this like crazy
Great app for framing landscape shots and planning for light. Was very helpful on my Iceland trip. I’m unaware of another app that does this. On my iPad Pro, the two search buttons at bottom right bring up a grey screen that I can’t exit out of. I have to force close the app. This makes it so I can’t jump from Iceland back to the sites in the US that I’m shooting. The app is basically broken for me right now.
NEW UPDATE: Its not network io. It’s screen orientation. When in portrait mode, the search pane is rendered off the screen. To see it, switch to landscape mode.
UPDATE: I waited about five minutes and the saved places screen finally came up. What I may be seeing is the app waiting for data that never comes. When I tap those buttons now, the saved places screen comes up fast now. Suggest adding a spinner or a way to cancel the sync.
UPDATE: I was able to verify the developer’s response. Things look good now. Been using the app a lot lately, (helped out a bunch on a trip last weekend to plan a Milky Way shoot). I’m very happy with the app. Thank you for the bug fixes!
It’s a yes
Like being there
Needs work
Locations are difficult. I have to start at the city level and manually find the location. Seems like an address should be sufficient. Would love to see improvement on this
Buggy and slow
Takes awhile to load the map even when on fast WiFi. When pinching to zoom out, once you hit the “flight ceiling” (which isn’t that high) it stops recognizing your pinch and thinks you’re pointing so the map starts moving around.
what’s the point of tilt slider on the left if you can’t manually change your tilt? if you tap or press it goes to -25. On a second tap it goes to 0 and every subsequent tap takes you back and forth between these angles.
The elevation slider minimizes too quickly when trying to do subtle changes. Say i want to lower my elevation 2 full swipes of the slider. I slide my finger from bottom to top. Then quickly move it to the bottom and begin to slide up again and the bar is in the process of minimizing so i’m moving the map not changing elevation. I have to wait for the bar to finish minimizing before i can begin swiping again. Unless you are frantically flicking your finger the bar minimizes before you get back to the bottom. I also tried using both my index fingers and it would still minimize almost instantaneously after i took 1 finger off my phone.
The light tracking is nice and is what the app for.
Bottom line: I expect more out of apps I pay for.