Sun & Cloud Shoot Planner
Golden hour, blue hour, sunrise and sunset for any location — plus which way the sun actually rises and sets, and an hourly cloud forecast laid alongside it. So you can see whether the sky is likely to cooperate when the light is right. Free, no sign-up.
Need someone to actually shoot it, not just plan it? I'm a Director of Photography based in Glasgow, available across Scotland, the UK and worldwide.
Skyline & obstructions — set once per location
Sun times assume a flat, open horizon. If there's a ridge, a building or a treeline in the way, the sun goes cold well before astronomical sunset. Log how high the skyline sits, in degrees, and every calculation for this spot is corrected against it — including future dates. Saved per location.
Sun elevation through the day with light-phase bands, and hourly cloud cover below.
Cloud cover is a forecast trend, not an exact clearing time — treat it as a guide and check again closer to the shoot, since forecasts firm up the nearer you get. Sun times and sun direction are exact: they're pure astronomy, not a forecast.
About the numbers
How is golden hour defined here?
Golden hour runs from the sun sitting 6° above the horizon down to 4° below it — the standard photographic definition, and the reason the window is longer than sixty minutes at high latitudes and shorter near the equator. Blue hour is the stretch from 4° below to 6° below, ending at civil twilight.
What does the sun direction tell me?
The compass bearing next to sunrise and sunset is where on the horizon the sun actually appears or disappears — it swings through tens of degrees across the year. It's the fastest way to work out whether a building, a hill or a street runs the right way for the shot before you travel to the location.
Why split cloud into low, mid and high?
Total cloud cover alone doesn't tell you much. High cirrus catches colour and makes the sky interesting; thick low stratus flattens everything and kills the sun entirely. A day at 60% total cloud can be spectacular or featureless depending on which layer it sits in.
Why does the tool ask about the skyline?
Sunrise and sunset times everywhere assume a flat, open horizon at sea level. Almost nowhere is. A ridge, a tenement or a treeline takes the sun long before the published sunset time — sometimes the better part of an hour. Log how high the skyline sits in degrees and the tool works out when you actually lose the light, and how much of the golden hour still has direct sun on it. It's saved against the location, so a recce done in November still pays off the following June.
How far ahead does the forecast go?
Cloud data covers roughly the last three months and the next fortnight. Beyond that you'll still get exact sun times and sun direction — those are astronomy and work for any date — but no cloud forecast.