Frequently Asked Questions

1) Why is Photrus not free of charge?

We are not only evaluating single points on the weather maps like it is for common weather apps, instead we are evaluating big areas up to 1000 kilometers around each of your locations, which leads to approriate costs for us for the raw weather data we purchase for every used weather model. Furthermore we need quite strong servers to calaculate all the weather phenomenona for all your locations, based on that data. Also the programming of all the algorithms is complex and required high manpower during the developing process, and we are still optimizing and trying to improve our service to make Photrus as useful as possible for you. That all incurs high costs for us, which is why we cannot offer Photrus free of charge.

But also with all our costs we have to deal with, we anyway tried to keep the price as attractive as possible. Our goal was simply to create an unique photography weather service that is as useful as possible, whilst it is anyway affordable for everyone.

2) How accurate is Photrus?

The short answer is: very accurate. We don't only consider the weather data of a single point of a location, we also consider the weather around. This allows us to relativate the weather data for the location on the one hand, but on the other hand we can also consider if special weather phenomenona like red sky, blue hour, golden clouds, aurora, milky way, etc. will not only happen, but also if there will be a clear view to them, so that you are able to photograph them.

3) Do you gurantee the predicted weather?

Due to the mentioned way of how Photrus predicts weather phenomenona, the forecasts are very accurate, but we anyway cannot give a guarantee for our predictions. Sometimes there are fringe situations, so that it is in general difficult to predict the weather. And although we use data of different weather models, to get the forecasts even more accurate, sometimes they are anyway wrong. We can simply just work with that what we get.

We have to admit, sometimes Photrus will also overlook great weather phenomenona. This is, because we set the threshold for alerts quite high, to avoid bothering you with false alerts as much as it is possible. But again, it is not possible to avoid them completely. But as we use Photrus ourselves as experienced landscape photographers, we are more than happy about the accuracy of the results. The quality of the results is almost compareable with checking the weather maps yourself. Just that you safe a lot of your valuable time with Photrus!

4) I want to try Photrus

You don't need to try it. We can tell you exactly what would happen if you would try it: Some of the predicted weather phenomena will turn out to be false, but many will be true. If you just create 1 or 2 locations for test issues with just a few weather phenomena, it could even happen that it will take some days or even 1-2 weeks till you will get your first alert email. Not because Photrus would be bad, but because there was simply no match within that short period. Sometimes the weather is simply boring over some days or weeks. Important is just not to overlook when it gets spectacular again.

Photrus was not developed to be tried, it is developed to be used. Create 10 or more locations around you, think wisely which wheater phenomena you want to have checked for your locations. It is very likely then to get daily alerts. Choose some phenomena, go out with your camera, and enjoy your photography.

5) Will I get invoices for my payments?

Yes, you will find the invoices of your payments in the "Invoices" section of your control panel, no later than a few days after you have made the particular payment. Just consider that the plans "Standard" and "Premium" are only meant for consumers. So, if you are a company that needs an invoice without VAT, contact us for an "Enterprise" plan instead.

6) Is there any minimum contract period?

No, you can stop using the platform whenever you want. Just consider that we can't pay out credits from your wallet.

7) How much do you charge when I upgrade my plan, daily runs, or locations?

Immediately charged gets the difference between the new monthly rate and the credits that got charged already for that month. Up from the following month will be charged the new monthly rate.

8) Can I upgrade my plan, daily runs, or location for one month only?

Upgrading for one month only can be quite useful, especially when you are straight on the way to a bigger photo tour and you want to observe the weather on two different geographical areas at the same time. This is how you can achieve that:

When you upgrade your plan, daily runs, or location to any time in a month, and when you downgrade then before the following month starts (middle european time!), the upgrades are only charged for the particular month.

9) Why do changes in daily runs or locations double or even triple the monthly fee?

We tried to keep the prices as low as possible, but as purchasing and processing the weather data occures costs for us, which get doubled by a second daily run and tripled by a third one, we have to pass these costs also to our clients, of course. Same is with the number of concurrent active locations: As we don't only evaluate the weather of one single point for each location, but for a big area up to 1000km around, we have also here to pass the costs for additional predictions, caused by additional locations, to our customers.

10) Do I need more than 1 daily run?

In normal cases one single run a day is enough, but as weather predictions get more accurate the closer they are to the particular moment, we offer the option to increase the number of daily runs, which is meant especially for bigger, important photo tours, where you simply want to get the most accurate weather forecasts you can get.

You can upgrade or downgrade your daily runs to any time inside your "Plan settings".

11) Do I need additional concurrent active locations?

In our experience, the number of included concurrent active locations is enough for most users. But increasing the number of locations can be quite useful when you want to observe the weather of your local area, for instance, and simultaniously also the area you are planning to go for a bigger photo tour. This allows you simply to go on with your photography in your local area and to break up for your bigger adventure, as soon as the weather has appeared there.

Our suggestion: In order to keep the number of active locations low, manage your locations in different groups and activate only those groups you really need. When you are photographing in Iceland, weather alerts from the Dolomites will usually not be relevant to you, why you should disable the Dolomites group in this fictitious example.

Disabled locations or locations inside disabled groups don't count to your active locations!

You can upgrade or downgrade your number of active locations to any time inside your "Plan settings".

12) Why am I not receiving alert emails?

Please make sure that there is enough balance on your wallet, so that your account is active. If that is the case and you anyway didn't get an alert email, check your profile settings, if your notification email address is right. Try maybe also another one. If also that is the case, look into your spam folder and whitelist our sender address for future emails. Make also sure that you added locations in your dashboard, so that Photrus can check the weather maps for them.

But in most of the cases, the reason why there was no alert email generated is simply that Photrus did not find any match between your locations and your configured weather phenomenona.

13) Will my inserted data be shared or published for others?

No, we will never share or publish any data you input to the system. The data is only needed to generate the wished weather forecasts for all your locations.