GoldenHour.One App Tells You The Perfect Time Of Day To Film

By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS)

Despite many misconceptions, the most important part of cinematography and photography isn’t the camera but the light. Finding the right time to shoot something outdoors is a bit of a feat, but fortunately there’s an app for that.

GoldenHour.One is a simple iOS app [direct link] that will tell you when golden hour — that magic hour stretch of time directly after sunrise or before sunset, when the sun indirectly casts a soft, warm light — will be anywhere in the world. Here’s a direct description of the app from the makers:

GoldenHour.one knows ahead of the time your chance for a good photo. It is able to predict the light and sky indexes from local weather forecasts anywhere in the world.

SkyIndex - will show you chance for dramatic sky.
LightIndex - shows a chance for portraits landscape and architecture.

When taking photos of sunrise or sunset, you need the sun in the right position. To achieve this, you need to find the right place to take the pictures. With GoldenHour.One, all you need to do is to move the pin from place to place, to find the best spot….

Golden hour actually only lasts for about 25 minutes so knowing exactly when it happens is crucial. Because the earth is on an axis that time changes every dawn and dusk. It’s also important to be able to set up before golden hour approaches or you might find yourself setting up as the window comes and goes.

The GoldenHour.One app also has a few other simple but powerful features, such as a timer which will make sure you don’t forget when magic hour is on a specific day, and a five day forecast. There is a map feature which will allow you to find the best spot to shoot by informing you where the sun will set in the evening or rise in the morning. You can also store your favorite places to come back to later.

Here’s a full list of the features:

1. Golden and blue hour (for any place in the world)
2. Weather forecast for photographers
3. SkyIndex predicting the chance for a dramatic photo of sunrise or sunset.
4. LightIndex predicting conditions for portraits panoramas and architecture.
5. Forecast of indexes five days ahead.
6. Map for finding best spot and date to take best pictures.
7. Compass mode for finding the direction of sun during the golden hour.
8. List of favorite spots for future use

GoldenHour.One is available from the iTunes Store for $3.99. Click here to purchase it.