Atmos Is a Weather App By Photographers, for Photographers

As photographers know, mild is extraordinarily essential. And for out of doors photographers, nothing impacts the standard of sunshine fairly just like the climate. Photographer Matthew Raifman wished to construct a climate app for folks like him, photographers who need to know not simply what the climate forecast is, however whether or not or not the circumstances will probably be any good for pictures. Enter Atmos for Weather & Photo, also referred to as Atmos.

Raifman’s new iPhone climate app was “born out of a frustration most outdoor photographers know intimately: the pre-shoot ritual of bouncing between four or five different apps trying to piece together a complete picture of conditions.”

This consists of determining the place the Sun will probably be when circumstances are greatest, what the wind is doing, tidal circumstances, sorts and their altitudes, the section of the Moon, and so forth. For various kinds of out of doors pictures, all of this issues, and Raifman wished all of that data in a single place.

But Atmos goes even additional, together with genre-based scores for various circumstances.

“The core idea is simple. Rather than reporting raw conditions, Atmos Weather interprets them,” Raifman says. “Cloud cover, atmospheric humidity, visibility, wind, precipitation, sun angle, and terrain are all fed into a scoring model that produces a single shootability number for sunrise, sunset, and night sky windows.”

As the photographer explains, Atmos is much less about telling the consumer what the climate is or what it’s more likely to be, however relatively, what the sky will appear to be and whether or not it’s value going out to take photographs.

To that finish, the app guarantees refined evaluation, together with treating clouds throughout three altitude layers, every impacting a last rating otherwise. High cirrus clouds scatter mild and make sunsets hotter, whereas low stratus clouds can completely smash a shot. 65% cloud cowl, for instance, doesn’t actually give a photographer helpful info. Photographers have to know what sorts of clouds are within the sky and the place they are going to be.

Similarly, photographers additionally care concerning the “horizon gap,” the open sky between the bottom layer of clouds and the land.

“This is the condition photographers are hunting for. When the sun dips below a cloud layer in the final minutes before it hits the horizon and illuminates the clouds, that’s what turns a decent sunset into something unforgettable,” Raifman says. “Atmos specifically identifies and scores for that window based on where the sun is setting, topography, and where the photographer is located. It’s a level of atmospheric analysis that goes well beyond anything in a standard forecast.”

For night time pictures, Atmos additionally tracks temperature spreads, adjustments, dew level, atmospheric transparency, Moon section, and extra to foretell astrophotography circumstances. It additionally pulls dwell house climate knowledge from NOAA, together with the Kp index, photo voltaic wind velocity, and orientation of the interplanetary magnetic area, to supply perception for aurora chasers.

“Atmos filters everything against your exact latitude and tells you what it means where you’re standing. Will the aurora be visible for your eyes and your camera,” Raifman says.

In whole, Atmos scores 12 pictures genres independently, together with wildlife, macro, lengthy publicity, Milky Way, and even infrared. These scores are weighted by what issues most to these forms of photographers.

Atmos is available now on iOS with a two-week free trial. Afterward, it’s $3.99 per thirty days. Raifman says this value covers his improvement prices and entry to the premium climate API knowledge feeds the app requires.

PetaPixel Members obtain 33% off an Atmos subscription indefinitely. Join immediately!

Image credit: Atmos, Matthew Raifman