Optaxis / Tools Articles

Tools

36 photography tools

Optaxis ships 36 photography tools: Scheimpflug and shift, depth of field and equivalent focal length, exposure and ND filters, astro and Milky Way planning, film developing and the darkroom, light pollution and aurora forecasts. On iOS and Android.

Logging & extras

Diary
Log every shoot across three tabs — Today…
Astro
Five astrophotography modes: pinpoint stars (500 / NPF rules against tra…
AR
AR overlay: projects the paths of the sun, moon, Milky Way…
Print
Print size calculator plus paper recommendations and a wall-mount previe…
Compare
Gear comparison: line up digital backs…
Contests
Photo contests from home and abroad in one place…
Roll Album
Roll album: keep your own film work organised by the roll — open a new r…

During the shoot · Framing & metering

Compose
Live composition guides overlaid on the viewfinder — rule of thirds…
Tilt/Swing
A Scheimpflug calculator: enter the focal length to get the tilt / swing…
Focal
Equivalent focal length conversion, depth-of-field calculation and a mac…
Exposure
An exposure calculator: ND filter stops × shutter speed conversion…
Live Shift
Live shift simulation: preview pure rise / fall and lateral shift perspe…
Timer
Long exposure and interval countdown timer…
Session
A unified exposure workflow: reciprocity, bellows factor…
Compass
A bearing compass (azimuth) for working out which way you are facing and…
Color Meter
Measure ambient colour temperature (K) and green–magenta tint live with …
Film View
Film viewfinder: see live what this scene would look like on film.…

Before the shoot · Planning

Weather
Weather and light: live conditions, sunrise and sunset…
Aurora
Aurora forecast: live geomagnetic Kp index…
Plan
A shoot planning checklist with the date, location…
Scout
A location scouting bench: overlay the azimuth and altitude grids for su…
Burn Sky
Burning sky forecast: a multi-day probability index for whether the morn…
Tide
Tide data: high and low water times, so you can read the shooting window…
Specialty
Probability forecasts for the landscape conditions that make a trip wort…
Almanac
A calendar of keeper-shot windows: six forecast engines (weather…
Spot Map
Photo spot map: six layers on one map — shooting locations…
Poses
Pose library: poses curated by us, filtered by subject × setting × light…
Lightning
Lightning scouting and forecast (M1): answers "can I shoot lightning fro…
Light Pollution
Light pollution map: worldwide light pollution from VIIRS night-time sat…

After the shoot · Developing & darkroom

Dev
Film developing log: track times, temperatures and recipes for E6…
EI
Personal EI calibration: record the exposure index each film actually gi…
Darkroom
Darkroom enlarging timer plus burn & dodge tracking and a Zone System re…
Reciprocity
Reciprocity failure compensation calculator: adjust long exposures per f…
Negative
Negative inversion: copy negatives with your camera or import them from …
Film Catalog
Film catalogue: browse stocks by name, ISO, type, format…
Alt Process
A workbook for alternative and historic printing processes (platinum-pal…

Every tool lives in one app, most of them free — plan before the shoot, calculate during it and share afterwards without hopping between apps.

Get Optaxis on the App Store