Getting started

iPhone: open this page in Safari. Tap the Share button (a square with an arrow pointing up). Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

Now there is a Shotseason icon with your other apps. Always open it from that icon. That keeps your spots safe and lets it work with no signal.

Android: in Chrome, tap the three dots ⋮, then Install app.

A spot is a place where you want to take photos.

In Google Maps, open a place. Tap Share, then Copy. In Shotseason, tap Locations, then Add location, and paste. Or type the name of the place and tap it on the map.

Have lots of places in a Google map already? Use Import pins to bring them all in at once. Help explains how.

Tap Trips, then New trip. Type a name and your dates. Then tap Add locations and pick the spots you want to visit.

Open any spot. You see its sunrise and sunset, golden hour (warm, soft light) and blue hour (deep blue sky), worked out on your phone.

Under the times, drag the slider to see where the sun and moon will be in the sky. Tap Point with phone, hold the phone flat, and the map turns with you. It even tells you how far to turn to face the sunset.

Open a spot and tap Add shot. Save your camera settings as a recipe. The calculators help with long exposures, keeping everything sharp, and the night sky.

Tell the app your camera, lenses and filters once, in Settings → Your gear.

Look at each spot's weather forecast: the clouds at sunrise and sunset, mist and fog, and wind.

Then, still with signal, open the trip and tap Make available offline. Wait until it says it is ready. Now your spots, times, sky map, compass, calculators, timer, plans and notes all work in airplane mode.

Directions open Google Maps, which needs signal (unless you saved that area in Google Maps itself).

Standing somewhere worth coming back to? Tap Here and now on Home, then Save this spot. Your phone's GPS knows exactly where you are, even with no signal. If you are on a trip that day, the spot goes onto it.

Without an account, your spots are only on this phone. Every so often, and before a trip, go to Settings → Backup and export and tap Save a backup. Save it to Files or email it to yourself.