Golden hour is roughly the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. More exactly, it is the time the sun spends between the horizon and about 6 degrees above it, which runs from under 30 minutes near the equator to more than an hour at high latitudes, so the clock time depends on where you are and on the date. Pick a city or enter coordinates below, choose a date, and the calculator gives the morning and evening golden hour to the minute, with blue hour, sunrise, sunset and solar noon.
Results
Morning Blue Hour
Morning Golden Hour
Evening Golden Hour
Evening Blue Hour
Day Length
Want to know where the sun will be, not only when? Planning around the sun, moon and tides covers working out direction and height ahead of time.
Staying out after the sun has gone? Blue hour photography explains when it happens and which settings suit it.
Reading the times the calculator gives you
The morning golden hour runs from sunrise until the sun is 6 degrees above the horizon. The evening one runs from the moment the sun drops to 6 degrees until sunset. Those are the two pairs of times in the results, and they are the limits used everywhere on this page.
- Latitude and longitude: north and east are positive, south and west are negative. New York is 40.7 and -74.0.
- UTC offset: the calculator fills this in for the date you choose, daylight saving included. For a listed city it uses that city's time zone. For coordinates you type, or your own location, it uses your device's time zone. Type a different offset only when the place is in another zone, and allow for daylight saving there yourself. The line above the results says which offset was used.
- Near the poles: the sun can stay below 6 degrees all day, or not rise or set at all. The results then say so in words on the lines affected. Times marked "next day" or "day before" fall on the other side of midnight.
How long golden hour lasts by latitude and season
The name is loose. The length depends on how steeply the sun crosses the horizon: almost straight up and down in the tropics, at a long slant farther from the equator. The table gives the length of one golden hour, morning or evening, from sunrise to 6 degrees (or 6 degrees to sunset).
| Latitude | Equinoxes (March, September) | Summer solstice | Winter solstice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 degrees (equator) | 25 minutes | 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
| 20 degrees | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
| 40 degrees | 35 minutes | 40 minutes | 45 minutes |
| 50 degrees | 45 minutes | 50 minutes | 60 minutes |
| 60 degrees | 55 minutes | 80 minutes | 130 minutes |
The figures are approximate, rounded to the nearest 5 minutes, and assume sea level and a flat, open horizon. They apply north and south of the equator: summer solstice means June in the northern hemisphere and December in the southern.
Three things stand out. Golden hour is shortest around the equinoxes at every latitude. Up to about 40 degrees it stays between 25 and 45 minutes all year, well short of an hour. And at 60 degrees in midwinter the sun peaks less than 7 degrees above the horizon at noon, so nearly the whole day of under six hours is golden hour: two windows of about 130 minutes with roughly an hour and a half between them.
Morning or evening? Sunrise photography covers planning and settings for the morning window, and how to photograph sunsets covers the evening one.
Working out golden hour without a calculator
You can get close with a sunset time and your own shadow.
- Look up sunset. Any weather app or forecast lists it for your location, with daylight saving already applied.
- Count back. Subtract the figure from the table for your latitude and season. At 40 degrees that means the light turns about 35 to 45 minutes before sunset. For the morning, count forward from sunrise by the same amount.
- Check your shadow. On flat ground your shadow is as long as you are tall when the sun is 45 degrees up. At 6 degrees it is about 9.5 times your height, so a person 1.7 metres tall casts a shadow about 16 metres long. A shadow far longer than you are means the sun is low. Shadow photography explains how shadow length changes with time, season and latitude.
- Use your hand. A fist held at arm's length covers roughly 10 degrees of sky. When the sun sits a little more than half a fist above a flat horizon, golden hour is starting.
A real horizon changes the answer. A ridge, a tree line or a row of buildings to the west hides the sun before the listed sunset, and a hill to the east delays the first direct light. If you have not seen the place, scouting the location on a map first tells you which way it faces. Cloud changes it too: a thick bank on the horizon can cancel the warm light completely.
Sky clouded over anyway? How to shoot on an overcast day turns flat light into an advantage.
What the light does at each sun height
The height of the sun above or below the horizon sets the colour and softness of daylight. Golden hour and blue hour are two bands in a longer sequence that runs the same way every clear day, forwards in the evening and backwards in the morning.
| Sun height | Name | What the light is like |
|---|---|---|
| More than 18 degrees below the horizon | Night | No sunlight left in the sky. Stars, moon and artificial light only: the time for astrophotography and star trails. |
| 18 to 12 degrees below | Astronomical twilight | A very faint glow towards the sun. The sky looks dark to the eye. |
| 12 to 6 degrees below | Nautical twilight | Deep blue sky and a visible horizon. Long exposures on a tripod. |
| 6 to 4 degrees below | Blue hour | Even blue light with no direct sun, bright enough to balance street and window lights. |
| 4 degrees below to the horizon | Civil twilight, brighter part | The sky brightens fast and warm colour gathers on the horizon nearest the sun. |
| Horizon to 6 degrees above | Golden hour | Direct sun through a long path of air: warm, softer than midday, with long shadows from the side. |
| 6 to about 15 degrees above | Low sun | Still warm and directional, getting harder and whiter as the sun climbs. |
| Higher than about 15 degrees | Full daylight | Neutral colour and hard, short shadows. See how to shoot in harsh daylight. |
The 6 degree line is a convention, not a switch. The light warms gradually on the way down and no two evenings match, because haze, dust and cloud all change how much colour reaches you. Which way you face matters as much as the time: the same low sun is flat from behind you, sculpting from the side and glowing from in front, as direction of light shows.
Shooting straight into the sun? Backlighting covers exposing for a backlit subject, and lens flare covers keeping or killing the streaks.
Know the time and wondering what to do with it? Golden hour photography covers settings, backlit portraits and landscapes in this light.
Blue hour: the window on the other side of the horizon
Blue hour comes before sunrise and after sunset, while the sun is between 4 and 6 degrees below the horizon. No direct sunlight reaches the ground, and the light that does arrive is scattered from the upper sky, which is why it is blue and nearly shadowless. It is shorter than its name: on the day of an equinox it lasts about 8 minutes at the equator and about 10 minutes at 40 degrees latitude. The calculator lists its start and end for both ends of the day, and the blue hour photography page covers settings and subjects. Once the sky has gone fully dark, night photography takes over.
How the calculator works and how far to trust it
The calculator uses the NOAA solar position formulas. It turns your date into the sun's position in the sky, then uses your latitude to find the moment the sun reaches each height: 0.833 degrees below the horizon for sunrise and sunset (which allows for the bending of light in the air and the width of the sun's disc), 6 degrees above for the golden hour limit, and 4 and 6 degrees below for blue hour. Your longitude, the equation of time and the UTC offset turn those moments into clock times. Expect results within a few minutes of the published sunrise and sunset for most places. The error grows at high latitudes, where the sun crosses each height at a shallow slant, and the tool knows nothing about hills, buildings, altitude or weather.
Common mistakes when timing golden hour
- Every time is an hour or more out. You typed coordinates for a place in another time zone, so the times are on your own device's clock. Fix: read the offset printed above the results, type the UTC offset for that place, then check the sunset result against a weather app.
- Arriving at the start time. The light is already changing while you unpack. Fix: be in place and framed 20 to 30 minutes before the evening start, and before sunrise in the morning.
- Trusting the time in hilly country. The sun can go behind a ridge long before the listed sunset. Fix: check what stands between you and the sun, and treat the listed time as the latest possible.
- Assuming it lasts 60 minutes. In the tropics it is closer to 25 or 30. Fix: read the length from the results or the table before you plan how many setups you can fit in.
Try this: check the 6 degree line with your shadow
On the next clear evening, run the calculator for your location and note the "golden hour starts" time. Be standing on flat, open ground at that minute with the sun behind you. Mark where the top of your shadow's head falls and pace out the distance: it should be close to 9.5 times your height. Take one photo of any nearby subject, wait until 10 minutes before the listed sunset, and take the same photo again. Compare the two for colour, shadow length and contrast.
Frequently asked questions
What time is golden hour today?
It depends on your location and the date, so there is no single clock time. The calculator opens on today's date: choose your city, press Use my location or enter your coordinates, and it lists both windows. As a rough guide, at most latitudes the evening golden hour starts 25 to 60 minutes before your local sunset.
When is golden hour, morning or evening?
Both. There is one golden hour starting at sunrise and another ending at sunset, and at the same place on the same day they are the same length.
How long is golden hour?
Using the 6 degree limit, about 25 to 30 minutes near the equator, 35 to 45 minutes at 40 degrees latitude, and an hour or more at 50 to 60 degrees in winter. It is shortest around the equinoxes.
How do I find golden hour for my location?
Press Use my location and let the browser share it, or pick your city from the list. If neither suits, find your latitude and longitude in any map app and type them in, with south and west as negative numbers. The times come out on your device's clock with daylight saving already applied, so type a UTC offset only for a place in another time zone.
Is magic hour the same as golden hour?
Usually, yes. Magic hour is another name for golden hour, though some people use it for the whole stretch of low sun and twilight together, which includes blue hour.
Does the calculator work for blue hour too?
Yes. The results list the start and end of blue hour in the morning and the evening, taken as the sun being between 6 and 4 degrees below the horizon.