This is part 8 of 19 in the Storefront Photography Series. Click/tap here to see the Series Index.
Google Maps Photography is my hobby, and I love to combine long walks with taking good storefront photos. Before I embark on a photo walk, I need to decide where to go. Urban areas with lots of shops are always a hit, preferably long streets with businesses on both sides.
The optimal route is one where I can photograph all businesses on one side of the road on my way out, and then on the other side of the street while returning. With careful timing, both sides will be perfectly lit by the sun. To be successful we need to know when and where the sun will be on that particular day of the year.
For this purpose, I use a free and ad-free app called Phototime.
The image above is from the app. It illustrates the direction of sunlight depending on the time of day. It can show the sun’s direction for any given date and location you chose. The app can also tell you when the light is particularly soft and perfect for taking photos.
Below I will explain in detail how to use the app. It is a bit complicated, but if you take the time, this will enable you to make even better and more well-lit storefront photos.
In this tutorial, you will find 3 examples explaining how to use the Phototime app. I recommend you download the app and start experimenting with it. The 3 examples are
- Golden Hour
- Photographing a bike shop
- Planning a photo walk.
Example 1: Golden Hour
A simple but useful feature in Phototime will let you predict when the soft and reddish light will illuminate the sky depending on the season.
March 14th, 2022 was blessed with 11:43 hours of daylight here in Denmark. The morning Golden Hour was from 6:06 to 7:17, and the evening Golden Hour was as late as 17:22 - 18:34. You can find this information in the center screenshot above.
Winter Solstice (left screenshot) and Midsummer (right screenshot) are also shown. Notice how much shorter and respectively longer the days are in Denmark across the year. We don’t have midnight sun in Denmark, but some pretty long days in June.
So if you wish to take beautiful storefront photos with perfectly balanced indoor and outdoor light, this app can tell when the Golden Hour is at your location on the dates you select.
This is very useful. For more information on balancing the in- and outdoor light please see part 1 of this tutorial.
Now to the main feature of the app: How to predict the position of the sun.
Introducing the smart Sun direction tool
In Phototime you change the time of day by sliding the blue dot left and right as shown below.
The blue dot in the leftmost position = sunrise at 6:30 am and the blue dot in the rightmost position equals sunset at 6:17 pm. The moving yellow line above will then show you the direction of the sunlight. This is after selecting March 14th and having the pin positioned in Denmark. The orange pie slices around sunrise and sunset also indicate the Golden Hour.
After changing the date to June 24th (Midsummer) and zooming out the screen looks like this:
Notice how the days are now longer and how sunrise and sunset are more to the North.
Example 2 will demonstrate how to use this tool to predict when it is best to photograph a particular storefront.
Example 2: When to photograph a corner store
Let’s say you want to take a brilliant photo of this bike shop in Copenhagen. It is on a corner, and you would like both sides to be equally well-lit by the sun. Bear in mind that corner stores are particularly difficult to photograph in strong sunlight.
I took this image at 1:17 pm on March 14th, 2022. As you can see the right side was unfortunately hit by a dark shadow cast by the neighboring building. And the left side of the storefront is slightly darker than the right side.
3 screenshots from the Phototime app are shown below. The pin is positioned exactly above the bike shop. The 3 screenshots are from A: 12:19 pm, B: 1:15 pm, and C: 2:26 pm.
First, look at the center screenshot marked B from 1:15 pm. This is when I took my photo of the bike shop. The Sun-direction and the position of the tall building across the street (marked with the green arrow) can explain the dark shadow seen in my 1:17 pm photo.
(Please disregard the irrelevant and distracting shadows visible in the satellite image. They don’t move, only the yellow line moves).
By moving the blue dot back and forth sideways I found the optimal time to photograph the Bikeshop will be around 2:26 pm. This is shown in screenshot C. Only around 2:26 pm, both sides of the storefront will get the same amount of sunlight. This is when the sun will come from straight across from the corner (=perpendicular to the entrance door).
If I had been there before 12:19 pm the shadow from the opposite building would be covering the entire bike shop. This can be deducted from playing with the blue dot and knowing the height of the neighbor building.
In conclusion: 1:17 pm was okay, but 2:26 pĂĄ would have been the best with no shadow and the same amount of light on both sides. Before 12:19 pm would not have worked.
Now try using the app to determine the optimal time to photograph stores and even a corner store near you.
Photographing corner stores is also discussed in the post The 90 Degree Photoby @TerryPG . Terry has found that good photos of corner stores taken from the right angle are more likely to become cover photos.
Example 3: Planning a photo walk
When shooting a corner store the Sun’s position is crucial as you only have a few minutes where the direction of sunlight is perfect. When photographing storefronts that are not on a corner you will have hours and not minutes where the direction of sunlight is workable.
The grey line in the image below represents a street. As a rule of thumb, the sunlight will be perfect within 20 degrees from perpendicular to the storefront. The perpendicular line is the black line.
With this in mind, we are ready to start planning a photo walk on the shopping street named Amagerbrogade just south of Copenhagen.
If you visit Amagerbrogade using Streetview you will find a 3.5 km stretch with shops on both sides in an urban setting.
Here Amagerbrogade is painted yellow. For ease, let us call the west side the LEFT side and the east side of the street the Right side. As the sun rises from the east and settles in the west we can predict that the LEFT side should be photographed in the morning and the RIGHT side in the afternoon.
By using the app, we can be a lot more precise and also figure out if March is the best month to take a photo walk up and down Amagerbrogade.
This is a screenshot from Phototime with the pin on Amagerbrogade and the date selected is March 14th.
The Golden Hour ends around 7 am. So from 7 am, the angle will be good. But very soon the direction will exceed the max 20 degrees from perpendicular. So we only have until about 7:30 am.
Conclusion: Photographing all the shops on the LEFT side of Amagerbrogade between 7 am and 7:30 is not possible. I don’t like getting up that early in a winter month, and for sure it will take more than 30 minutes to walk 3.5 km and stop to photograph each and every store.
Then what about photographing shops on the RIGHT side of Amagerbrogade in March?
Here I played with the blue dot to position the yellow line approximately 20 degrees prior to the perpendicular. 3:38 pm is when we can start photographing the shops on the RIGHT side of Amagerbrogade. Then we will have ideal sunshine for approximately two hours (3:45 to 5:45) before the Golden Hour sets in.
Conclusion: It will be possible to photograph most of the shops on the RIGHT side of Amarbrogade from 3:45 pm to 5:45 pm in perfect sunlight in the month of March (If there are no clouds!)
Finally, let’s calculate how much better June will be for a photo walk up and down Amagerbrogade. After setting the date to June 23th in the App and sliding the blue dot to position the yellow line 20 degrees before and after perpendicular to the LEFT side of Amagerbrogade. We get these results:
Photographing the LEFT side of Amagerbrogade in June will be perfect between 4:30 am and 9:20 am. A 5-hour window is so much better than only 30 minutes in the month of March.
Photographing the RIGHT side of Amagerbrogade with perfect sunshine in June is possible between 4 pm and 8 pm.
In conclusion, a perfect photo walk on Amagerbrogade in June could look like this:
Leaving my home north of Amagerbrogade very early around 5 am will ensure 2.5 hours of perfect sunlight on the LEFT side. Then come back and do the RIGHT side in the afternoon starting at 4 pm and into the Golden Hour starting at 7:51 pm.
You have now reached the end of this tutorial. The purpose was to raise awareness of planning photoshoots with the Sun in mind. Some people just know, I don’t, so I need some help to predict when the sunlight will be perfect.
Phototime is not the only option. You may like shadowcalculator.eu better. It has a nice feature to also calculate the length of shadows.
Thanks for reading. Next week will be: How to avoid distractions in your Google Maps pics.
Cheers
Morten
zu müde und oder zu wenig Auffassungsvermögen derzeit. 
