Photospot map

Welcome

Discover and plan railway photography

The map shows photography spots from our community and tools for planning the light and sun position for your next shot.

• Drag to move the map, then scroll or pinch with two fingers to zoom.
• Use the map controls to zoom in steps or jump to your current location.
• Use the search in the header to find places, photospots, vehicles and people.

Quick access

Toggle important tools directly

Five icons remain visible on the right: settings, photospots, sun position, light & shadow, and tracks.

• One click on photospots, sun, shadow or tracks switches that feature directly on or off.
• The icons remain directly accessible on smartphones too.

Photospots

Several photos, one shooting location

A photospot groups published pictures taken near one another. When you zoom out, nearby photospots are combined into coloured clusters.

• Select a marker to see a preview and a link to the photospot.
• Use the photospot icon to show or hide all markers directly.
• The photospot page shows every picture, comments and nearby places.

Categories

Understanding shooting height

Under Settings you can show or hide two special categories. Regular confirmed ground-level shots are unaffected.

Not categorised

The shooting height of these pictures has not been reviewed yet. They may still have been taken from ground level.

Elevated camera position

Shots made with a drone, high mast or taller ladder that would not be possible from ground level.

Sun position

Plan the direction of the light

Activate sun position directly with the sun icon. The circle stays fixed at the centre of the map and shows the compass directions and the path of the sun at the selected place and time.

• Move the map until your planned photo location is below the fixed centre point.
• Slide the time band below the fixed centre to change the date and time. Sunrise and sunset are shown directly on the sun circle.

Light and shadow

Check terrain shadows in advance

The shadow icon calculates which areas are shaded by the terrain at the selected time. Zoom in to at least level 10 first.

• The calculation includes mountains and terrain, but not buildings or trees.
• You can adjust opacity and the light angle in the tool.

Settings and layers

Choose the right map view

Under Settings you can switch between map, satellite and terrain. You can also show tracks, hiking trails and other available layers.

• Signed-in members can save photospots and limit the map to their saved places.
• The settings icon opens the same side panel on desktop and smartphones.