Help

Do this first. It turns Shotseason into an app on your phone. Then it works even with no signal.

On an iPhone use Safari (the blue compass app). On Android use Chrome. The steps below show what to tap, for the phone you are holding.

A “spot” is a place you want to take photos. Found one in Google Maps? Copy it, then paste it into Shotseason.

1. In Google Maps, open the place. Tap Share, then Copy.
2. In Shotseason, tap Locations, then Add location.
3. Press and hold in the box, then tap Paste. Shotseason finds the place by itself.
4. Give it a name. Pick a Pin type: this is the kind of photo you want there, like sunrise or sunset. Then tap Create location.

Saved that place before? Shotseason tells you. It offers to update the old one, so you do not get two.

No link? Type the name of the place. Or tap 🗺 Map and tap the exact spot on the map.

Standing at the spot right now? Use Here and now instead (topic 11). It saves where you are with one tap.

Already have a list of places in Google? You can bring them all in together.

A Google My Maps map (like a map someone shared with you or sold you): open it on a computer. Tap the three dots ⋮ next to its name and choose Download KML (KML is just the kind of file a map is saved as). Then in Shotseason open Import pins and choose that file.

Your own Google Maps lists (like Want to go): Google only lets you take these out with a free tool called Google Takeout.

1. Go to takeout.google.com. Tap Deselect all. Then tick only Saved.
2. Tap Next step, then Create export. Google emails you a link.
3. Download the file from that email. In Shotseason, open Import pins and choose it. You do not need to open or unzip it first.

You always see a list first. Nothing is saved until you tap Import. Bringing in the same map again later updates your spots. It never makes copies.

Sometimes Google leaves out where a place is. Shotseason marks those. On Locations, tap Place them on the map, then tap where each one is.

Round dots are places to take photos. The colour shows the light you want there.

• Sunrise
• Sunset
• Sunrise and sunset
• Night sky: northern lights (aurora) and stars
• Seascape: the sea, where the tide matters
• Wildlife: animals and birds
• Daytime, or any time
• Not chosen yet

Squares are helpful places, not photo spots:

• 🛏Somewhere to stay (hotel, B&B, cabin)
• PParking

Extra signs:

• A teal ring means it's on the coast, so it has tide times.
• 12A number means several spots close together. Tap it to zoom in.

To change a dot's colour, tap it on the map and pick a different Pin type. To change lots at once, go to Locations and tap Select several.

1. On Home, tap 🗺 Map of all your spots.
2. The buttons above the map show only some spots. Tap Sunset to see sunset spots, 🌊 Coast for spots by the sea, or Stays for places to sleep. Tap All to see everything again.
3. Tap 📍 Where am I? to see yourself on the map, and your closest spots.
4. Tap any dot to see the spot, open it, or get directions to it.

Looking for one place? Tap the magnifying glass 🔍 at the top and type a word. It can be a name, a town, a thing like waterfall, or a word from your notes. It looks through all your trips and spots, even with no signal.

The map pictures need signal. Your spots, times and notes do not.

Some photo spots are a walk from the car. You can tell Shotseason where you park for them.

1. Save the car park as a spot. Pick Pin type → Parking. It shows as a blue P.
2. Open a photo spot. Under Parking, tap Park at and pick the car park. The closest ones are at the top.
3. Or open the car park. It lists photo spots near it. Tap Link next to one, or Link all.

Now the Directions to parking button takes you to the car park, not to the cliff edge. On the map, a dashed line joins the car park to its spots.

No car park saved yet? Tap Find car parks near this spot. It searches Google Maps. It knows town car parks, but often not a small spot by the road.

A trip is a group of spots with dates, like “Iceland, March”.

1. Tap Trips, then New trip. Give it a name and the dates you go.
2. Tap Add locations. Paste a new place, or tap Add next to spots you already saved.
3. Tap Map to see the whole trip on a map. Under it, Where to stay picks the best towns to sleep in, so your drives are short. A button opens places to stay there in Google Maps.

Lots of spots to add? Type a word in the filter box (like the name of the map you imported), then tap Add all shown.

When you are out taking photos, use the Field view. It shows one day at a time, with only what you need.

1. Open your trip and tap Field view. Or tap your next trip on Home.
2. Tap a day at the top to switch days.
3. For each spot you see the sunrise and sunset times, the weather, your plans and camera settings, and buttons for Directions and Map.
4. Write what you found in Field notes, like “come back at low tide”. Tap Save note.

The small switches at the top change feet or metres (ft / m) and 12-hour or 24-hour times (12h / 24h).

Every spot shows its own sunrise and sunset, and the best light for photos. Your phone works it out, so it needs no signal.

• Golden hour is the soft, warm light just after sunrise and just before sunset. Many photographers think it is the best light of the day.
• Blue hour is the short time of deep blue sky just before sunrise and just after sunset.
• Moonrise and moonset show when the moon comes up and goes down. You also see how full the moon is.
• The times are in the spot's own time, even when you plan from home in a different time zone.
• Tap the arrows ← → or the date to see another day.

The times are for flat land. Behind a mountain, the sun goes out of sight earlier.

Under the sun and moon times there is a round map of the sky and a slider. They show where the sun and moon will be at any time of the day.

• The round map: the edge is the horizon, where the sky meets the ground. The middle is straight above your head. North is at the top.
• The gold dotted line is the path of the sun across the sky that day. The grey dotted line is the path of the moon.
• The dark bar points the way shadows fall.
• The slider: drag it left or right to change the time. Its colours show the light: night, twilight, blue hour, golden hour and daylight. A key under it says which colour is which.
• The buttons jump straight to sunrise, sunset, moonrise or moonset.

Point with phone

1. Tap 🧭 Point with phone. On an iPhone, tap Allow the first time it asks.
2. Hold the phone flat, like a tray. Point the top of the phone where you are looking.
3. Turn slowly. The map turns with you. The blue mark at the top is straight ahead.
4. It tells you how far to turn, for example “Sun: 20° to your right”. A small turn is about 10°, a quarter turn is 90°.

It uses the compass inside your phone, so it works with no signal. If it seems wrong, wave the phone in a big figure 8 a few times. Stand a few steps away from the car or anything metal. Tap Stop pointing to go back to north at the top.

Tap 📍 Here and now on Home when you are out and about. It uses your phone's GPS (the part that knows where you are). GPS works even with no signal.

• Coming up shows what happens next where you stand: blue hour, golden hour, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and how long until each one.
• It has the round sky map, the slider and Point with phone too (topic 10).
• It shows the weather where you are, if you have signal.
• Save this spot keeps where you are standing as a new spot. Give it a name and tap the button. If you are on a trip that day, it goes straight onto that trip.

Moved? Tap Update position. Your position is only used on your phone. It is not saved unless you tap Save this spot, and it is never sent anywhere.

Every spot shows a weather forecast for about 9 days. It shows the clouds at sunrise and sunset, rain, wind, temperature, and the chance of mist or fog. It comes from the best weather service for that part of the world.

• Clouds come in three layers. Low clouds block the sun. Middle and high clouds can light up orange and pink at sunrise and sunset. The forecast says when there is a good chance of colour.
• 🌫 Mist and fog are most likely early in the morning, after a clear night with little wind, in valleys and over water.
• The forecast needs signal to update. Make available offline on a trip saves the newest one for every spot on it (topic 21). Check again the night before and in the morning, because weather changes fast.

Only the rough position of the spot is sent to the weather service, never its name.

Spots far north, and night sky spots, also show Aurora conditions now. Each reading has a short note in plain words.

• Bz: the direction of the magnetic field coming from the sun. Pointing south (a minus number) helps the lights. The longer it stays south, the better.
• Solar wind speed and density: how fast and how thick the stream from the sun is. Faster and thicker can mean brighter lights.
• Aurora oval: a map from NOAA (the US space weather office) of where the lights are now. It says the chance overhead and to the north.
• Kp: one number for the whole world. It is only a rough guide, so do not decide by Kp alone.

The lights only show when it is dark. If it is still light at the spot, it says when it gets dark. These readings need signal to update. No position is sent for them.

Spots by the sea have a teal ring on the map and a 🌊 Tide times button. The tide is the sea going in and out each day.

• Tide times opens a tide table for that spot. It needs signal, so check the night before or take a screenshot.
• In the Field view, it shows the tides for the day you picked.
• For white streaks in the waves, look for a tide going out around golden hour.
• Stay safe: the tide can cut you off. If in doubt, check an official tide table.

Mark lots of coast spots at once

1. On Locations, tap Select several.
2. Tap Tick coastal spots. Your phone checks which spots are near the sea and ticks them.
3. Look at the list. Untick any that are not really by the water, then tap Apply.

Some spots are best at one time of year, like autumn colours or spring flowers. A plan remembers when you want to go.

1. Open a spot and tap Add plan.
2. Pick the months you want to shoot it, or exact dates. Add what weather you hope for, like “after fresh snow”.
3. On Home, tap Year. It shows all your plans month by month, so you can see what is coming up.

The months are only what you choose. The app never guesses seasons for you.

A “shot” is one photo you want to take at a spot. A “recipe” is the camera settings for it.

1. Open a spot and tap Add shot. Give it a name, like “Sea stack with silky water”.
2. Tap Add recipe. Type your settings: shutter speed, aperture (the f number) and ISO. Topic 26 explains these words. You can save more than one recipe.
3. Tap Tripod or Handheld. Handheld tells you the slowest shutter speed you can hold steady without a tripod.
4. Add a checklist, like tripod, filter and spare battery, and tick things off on the day.

The calculators (topics 18 and 19) can put their answers straight into a recipe: scroll down to Save as a settings recipe and pick the shot.

Tell Shotseason about your gear once. Then the calculators use it, and you never type it again.

Go to Settings → Your gear. There are three lists, each with its own Add button.

• Cameras: the name (like Sony A7R V), the sensor size (full frame, APS-C and so on, from the camera box or the maker's website), and the megapixels. If the camera has stabilisation built in (it steadies shaky hands), tick it.
• Lenses: the name (like 16-35mm f/4). Tick stabilisation if the lens has it (it may say OIS, VR, IS or OSS).
• Filters: type the name written on the filter, like 6-stop ND. Shotseason reads how strong it is. Pick the type: ND, polariser or graduated ND.

Not sure about a number? Leave it empty. Made a mistake? Tap Edit. Sold it? Tap Archive.

An ND filter is dark glass in front of the lens. It lets you leave the shutter open longer, so water looks smooth and clouds blur. This tool works out how long.

1. Take a normal photo with no filter. Look at the shutter speed the camera used, like 1/125.
2. Open the ND timer tab at the bottom. Type that speed. Then add your filter, like 10 stops (or tap Add from my gear).
3. It tells you the new time. For example, 1/125 with a 10-stop filter is about 8 seconds.
4. Tap Start for a countdown. It keeps counting even if your phone screen turns off.

• Two filters together? Their stops add up.
• A graduated filter (dark only at the top, for the sky) does not change the time.
• A polariser does: add it as a filter too (about 1.5 to 2 stops).
• An iPhone cannot beep while it is locked. Keep the screen on, or watch the timer.

You find them on Home under Tools, and on any planned shot. They all work with no signal.

• Depth of field calculator: shows how much of your photo will be sharp, from the closest thing to the farthest. It also gives the hyperfocal distance: focus there, and everything from about half that distance to far away is sharp. If the whole scene cannot be sharp in one photo, it says how many photos to take at different focus points (focus stacking).
• Night sky calculator: for stars, the Milky Way and the northern lights. It works out the longest time the shutter can stay open before the stars turn into little lines, and a starting ISO. It also helps you make the moon (or a bright light) into a star shape.
• Wildlife settings: pick the animal, what it is doing and the light. It suggests a starting shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focus setting.

These are starting points. Take a test photo, zoom in to check it, and adjust. Use Save as a settings recipe at the bottom to keep the settings on a shot.

Tap Learn on Home. There are short cards about the camera and the light: the three camera settings, sharp from front to back, fast and slow shutter speeds, ND filters, the sea, polarisers, low light, the night sky, sun stars and moon stars, sharp photos, animals, panning and a field checklist.

• Some cards have pictures you can play with. Slide a setting and watch the picture change.
• Tap ☆ to keep a card handy. Add cards to a trip or a planned shot, and they show in the Field view.
• They work with no signal.

1. At home, with signal, open your trip and tap Make available offline. Wait until it says it is ready.
2. That's it. With no signal, your trip, spots, sun and moon times, the sky map, the compass, notes, settings, calculators and timer all still work.

These need signal: the map pictures, Directions, Tide times, and searching for new places. The weather and aurora readings need signal to update, and the last ones are kept. Notes you write with no signal are saved on your phone.

An account keeps your computer and your phone the same. Add a spot on one, and it shows up on the other.

Set it up once

1. On your computer, open shotseason.com and go to Account. Tap Sign in and use the email and password from your invitation.
2. When your browser offers to save the password, say yes.
3. On your phone, open the Shotseason icon on your home screen (not Safari). Go to Settings → Account and sync and Sign in with the same email and password.
4. Wait a few seconds. Everything from your computer appears on your phone.

Things that catch people out

• On iPhone, sign in from the home-screen app, not from Safari. They are kept apart, so signing in in Safari does not sign in the app.
• Forgot your password? On Account, tap Forgot password. The email link opens in Safari. Make a new password there, then sign in to the app with it. If no email comes, look in your spam folder, wait an hour and try once more.
• Big imports are easier on a computer. Then open the app on your phone, with signal, and they appear.
• Before a trip: open the app on your phone with signal so it has everything new. Then tap Make available offline on the trip.

The dot at the top tells you how it's going

• Saved: your phone and computer match.
• Syncing…: sending or getting changes. Give it a few seconds.
• “3 waiting”: no signal right now. Your changes are safe on this phone and go up by themselves later.
• Sync failed: tap Retry. Nothing is lost.
• Free preview: not signed in, so everything stays on this phone only.

• Changed the same thing on both before they matched up? The newest change wins. The other one is kept under Account → Previous versions, so you can bring it back.
• Signing out takes your spots off that phone only. They are still in your account. Sign in again to get them back.
• Your spots are private. Nobody else can see them. There is no public map.

Without an account, Shotseason is a free preview. Every tool works. It just holds one trip and 100 spots at a time, on this phone only.

Back home after a trip and want to plan a new one?

1. Open the old trip and scroll to the bottom.
2. Tick Also archive its spots if you want room for new spots too.
3. Tap Archive. Now you can start a new trip.

Archive means put away, not delete. Archived trips and spots are hidden, and you can bring one back with Restore (if there is room). Settings shows how much room you have left.

Accounts

An account takes away the limits and keeps your phone and computer the same (topic 22). While Shotseason is being tested, accounts are by invitation. If you were invited, sign in on the Account page. Everything you added in the preview comes with you.

Without an account, your spots are only on your phone. If you lose the phone or delete the app, they are gone. A backup file keeps a copy.

1. Go to Settings → Backup and export. Tap Save a backup.
2. On iPhone, choose Save to Files (iCloud Drive is a good place), or email it to yourself.
3. To get everything back on any phone or computer: Settings → Restore from a backup… and pick the file. It only adds what is missing, so doing it twice is fine.

Want your spots in a spreadsheet or in Google My Maps? The same place saves them as CSV (a spreadsheet file) or KML (a map file).

Tap Settings at the top right.

• Distances: feet and miles, or metres and kilometres. You can also switch with the small ft / m buttons on screens that show distances.
• Times: 12-hour (7:05 PM) or 24-hour (19:05). You can also switch with the small 12h / 24h buttons next to the sun and moon times.
• Your gear: your cameras, lenses and filters (topic 17).
• Sample data: pretend spots and a pretend trip to look around with. Remove them in one tap when you are done.
• Backup and export: topic 24.

Both choices start from your phone's own settings and are saved on this phone.

Spot, location

A place where you want to take photos.

Pin type

The kind of photo you want at a spot, like sunrise or wildlife. It sets the colour of the dot.

Trip

A group of spots with dates.

Shot

One photo you plan to take at a spot.

Recipe

The camera settings for a shot.

Shutter speed

How long the camera lets light in. Fast (1/1000) freezes movement. Slow (2 seconds) blurs it.

Aperture, f number

How wide the lens opens. A small number like f/2.8 lets in lots of light and blurs the background. A big number like f/16 keeps more sharp.

ISO

How sensitive the camera is to light. Higher works in the dark but looks grainier.

Stop

One step of light: twice as much or half as much. A 10-stop filter makes the light about 1,000 times darker.

ND filter

Dark glass in front of the lens, for long exposures.

Polariser

A filter that cuts glare on water and makes skies a deeper blue.

Depth of field

How much of the photo is sharp, from near to far.

Hyperfocal distance

The focus distance that keeps the most of the scene sharp, out to far away.

Golden hour

The warm, soft light just after sunrise and just before sunset.

Blue hour

The deep blue sky just before sunrise and just after sunset.

Twilight

The dim light between sunset and full dark (and before sunrise).

Horizon

The line where the sky meets the land or the sea.

True north

The real direction of the North Pole. The app always uses it. A phone compass points to magnetic north, and the app fixes the difference.

Aurora

The northern lights.

Tide

The sea coming in and going out each day.

GPS

The part of your phone that knows where you are. It works with no signal.

Offline

No phone signal and no wifi.

Sync

Making your phone and computer match, through your account.

Archive

Put away and hide. Nothing is deleted, and you can bring it back.

• Stuck on “Loading…” or “Syncing…”? Close the app all the way, then open it again. Your spots are safe.
• Something new is not there? Close and open the app once or twice, with signal. It updates itself.
• “Sync failed”? Tap Retry. Your changes are safe on this phone until it works.
• A pin is in the wrong place? Open it, go to Location details, tap Find on map, and tap the right place.
• The compass points the wrong way? Wave the phone in a big figure 8. Step away from the car, railings or anything metal. Hold the phone flat.
• Here and now cannot find you? Go outside, away from tall buildings, and tap Update position. On iPhone, open the phone's Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services, and check it is on for Safari Websites.
• Google Takeout gave you only “Reviews”? Do it again and tick only Saved.
• Pasted a link to a whole Google list? Google does not let apps read those. Use Google Takeout (topic 3).
• Two pins on top of each other? Tap the number on the map. It lists both. Open the one you do not need and tap Archive.
• Cannot find Settings? It is at the top right. Every screen has a ← back link at the top.

Still stuck? (it says which screen you were on, never your spots).

Shotseason is still being tested. These are not mistakes. Some are how phones work. Some are still being built. You do not need to tell us about these.

How phones work (these will stay)

• On iPhone, always open Shotseason from the icon on your home screen. Safari keeps its own copy, so your spots do not show up there.
• A password reset link opens in Safari. Set the new password there, then sign in from the home-screen icon.
• To get the newest version, close the app and open it again with signal. Sometimes it takes two tries.
• Google does not let apps read a link to a whole Google Maps list. Use Google Takeout (topic 3).
• Some places come out of Google with no position. Tap Place them on the map and pin each one.
• The compass can be off near cars, tripods and metal railings. Hold the phone flat and wave it in a figure 8.
• An iPhone cannot beep while it is locked. For the long exposure timer, keep the screen on.
• Sun and moon times are for flat ground at sea level. Behind a hill or mountain, the sun goes out of sight sooner.
• Blue hour is short near the equator, maybe 10 minutes. It is much longer far north.
• The weather forecast goes about 9 days ahead. Kp, the big aurora number, is only a rough guide for the whole Earth.

Still being built

• The map pictures need signal. Maps that work with no signal are coming later.
• Tide times open a web search. Tide tables inside the app are coming later.
• English only for now.
• Android phones have had less testing than iPhones. Tell us anything odd you see on Android.

Something else not right? (it says which screen you were on, never your spots).