The problem with sun calculators on a street
Most sun-position tools give you an azimuth and an altitude and leave the rest to you. That is enough on a beach. In a city it is not, because the thing standing between your subject and the sun is a six-storey building, and no almanac knows it is there.
Coffee in the Sun projects the shadow of every mapped building in the frame, so the answer you get is not where the sun is but where its light actually lands.
Scout a location in five steps
- Search for the street or pan the map to it.
- Move the map to the date and hour of the shoot. The free version allows three time jumps a day; Pro removes the limit.
- Read which side of the street is lit and how far the shadow of the opposite block reaches.
- Tap the exact spot where you or your subject will stand to see its sun timeline: when direct sun arrives and when it leaves. Today's timeline is free; other days are part of Pro.
- On the day, check the forecast beside the map. The shadows show where the sun can reach, not whether the sky will be clear.
Scouting a location without going there
Move the map to the day and hour of the shoot and read the street. You can see which side is lit, how far the shadow of the block opposite reaches across the pavement, and at what point in the afternoon the far wall gives up.
Tap any spot and the app gives you a timeline for that exact point: when the sun arrives, when it leaves, and how long the unbroken stretch is.
Lit facades, backlight and the hour they swap
A facade turned towards the sun is lit flat and evenly; the one opposite is in its own shadow and gives you backlight and rim light instead. Which is which changes through the day, and in a narrow street it can change within an hour.
Step the map forward and watch the shadow edge move up or down the wall you care about. The moment it crosses your subject is the moment the shot changes character, and you can know it before you arrive.
Golden hour, honestly
Golden hour is defined by the sun's altitude, but in a dense street the sun is often behind a roofline long before it reaches the horizon. The sun hours report tells you how much usable light a location gets and at which part of the day it arrives, month by month.
That is the difference between arriving at seven for a warm wall and arriving at seven for a cold one.
What it will not tell you
Trees are not in the building data, and a plane tree changes a shot more than a building does. Terrain is treated as flat, so a valley wall will not appear. And cloud cover is not part of the shadow answer at all: the app tells you where the sun can reach, and the forecast beside it tells you whether there will be any.
Common questions
Can I see where the light will fall on the day of my shoot?
Yes. Move the map to any date and time and the building shadows are redrawn for that moment. The free version allows three time jumps a day; Pro removes the limit and shows the sun timeline for other days as well.
Does it show when the sun goes behind the buildings?
Yes, for a specific spot. Tap it and the timeline shows when direct sun arrives and when it leaves, which in a city street is often well before sunset.
Does it account for trees or hills?
No. Only mapped buildings cast shadows in the app. Trees are not in the data and terrain is treated as flat, so a tree-lined street or a valley will get less light than the map shows.
Does it know whether it will be cloudy?
The shadow map is pure geometry and ignores the weather. The app shows a forecast alongside it, and the full weather sheet is part of Pro.
Does it work on location without a signal?
Partly. Buildings you have already looked at are cached on the phone for thirty days, so those streets draw their shadows offline. A new area and the weather need a connection.
