The sun path looks off from the real sky
The overlay is placed with the phone's compass, which can be 5 to 10 degrees off near metal. Step away from cars, rigs and steel, then nudge the heading until the path meets the real sun.
The sun's position is computed on the device with NOAA's solar algorithm, good to better than 0.02° for any year from 1900 to 2100. What moves is where the phone thinks north is.
- Walk a few steps away from metal: cars, light stands, rebar, the grip truck.
- Check the accuracy read-out on the sun overlay (shown as plus or minus a number of degrees).
- Use the heading nudge to line the path up with the sun or a landmark you know.
- Scrub the time to see where the sun will be at call time, or in golden hour or blue hour. More on reading the light on a scout is in how to tech scout.
If that didn't work
Location must be allowed for the overlay to know where you stand. To scout from home, type a latitude and longitude into the sun panel to read the times for that place; the overlay itself always uses where the device is. On iPhone Duo, part-folded, the overlay shows no heading, because the camera and the motion sensor can be on different halves: open it flat or close it.
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Updated November 2, 2026