The Shoot Planner: light, weather and airspace

Every shoot starts with the same three questions. Which side of the building has sun at 9am. Will the wind let the drone up. Is the site in controlled airspace. For years I answered them with a sun app, a weather app and the FAA map, one after the other, for every address. So we built one page that answers all three.

Type an address and pick a day. The planner draws the buildings in 3D with the sun’s path for that day over them, and you drag the hour to see which faces are lit and where the shadows fall. Under the map it says it plainly: east side in sun 7:20 to 12:15, south side 7:55 to 5:30, north side never. That is the exterior shot list before anyone has booked anything.

The light card reads the same day as a photographer would. Soft, warm light until 7:15 and again from 6:10. Highest at 12:40, almost overhead, short shadows and flat colour. Each side of the building gets its window, and the advice is the one I give on the phone: shoot a side about an hour into its window, the way Sorrento Towers was shot, when it has shape without glare.

The weather card is a fly-or-hold call by the hour, from the forecast: wind, cloud, rain, and a plain line at the top. Clear skies all day, calm, no rain expected, a good day to shoot.

The airspace card reads the FAA’s facility map for the site. It gives the class, the LAANC ceiling, and whether that is an instant authorisation or a further-coordination request that takes a few days, so the paperwork goes in before the light is gone. It also checks stadium TFRs and event restrictions for that date. Downtown, beside Lindbergh, the ceiling is often zero, and knowing that on Monday beats finding out on Friday.

If it turns into a shoot, the plan carries straight into the booking, so the hour we pick is the hour the light is right. It is free, and it works for any address.

plan.sudenim.com