Free photographer's tool

Golden Hour in Carrollton, TX

Carrollton's golden hour is short, specific, and worth planning around. The times below are computed live for Carrollton's exact coordinates (32.9537, -96.8903) and update automatically for any date you pick — sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour, all in local time. Note the times below account for Carrollton's latitude — golden hour runs longer in winter and shorter at midsummer than most charts assume.

The month-by-month table below is in this city's own local time. The live times above follow your device's timezone. Mountains, ridgelines and buildings can shorten the usable window — scout your horizon.

Where to shoot it

Local tip: For skylines and wide shots, the 15 minutes after sunset usually beats the sunset itself: the sky holds color while buildings and streetlights come up.

In Carrollton, sunset ranges from 5:20 PM in November to 8:40 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Carrollton's coordinates (32.9537, -96.8903) and shown in America/Chicago.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Carrollton by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:30 AM5:43 PM5:07 PM – 5:43 PM36 min10h 14m
February7:10 AM6:12 PM5:38 PM – 6:12 PM34 min11h 02m
March7:37 AM7:35 PM7:02 PM – 7:35 PM33 min11h 58m
April6:57 AM7:57 PM7:24 PM – 7:57 PM33 min13h 00m
May6:28 AM8:20 PM7:45 PM – 8:20 PM35 min13h 52m
June6:18 AM8:37 PM8:01 PM – 8:37 PM36 min14h 19m
July6:30 AM8:36 PM8:01 PM – 8:36 PM35 min14h 07m
August6:50 AM8:12 PM7:39 PM – 8:12 PM33 min13h 22m
September7:11 AM7:33 PM7:01 PM – 7:33 PM32 min12h 22m
October7:31 AM6:54 PM6:20 PM – 6:54 PM34 min11h 22m
November6:58 AM5:25 PM4:50 PM – 5:25 PM35 min10h 28m
December7:23 AM5:22 PM4:44 PM – 5:22 PM38 min10h 00m

How the light changes through the year in Carrollton

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Carrollton. It is longest in December at about 38 minutes and shortest in September at about 32 minutes — a difference of 6 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Carrollton gets 4h 19m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:22 PM in December to 8:37 PM in June, so an evening shoot that works in summer will be shooting in the dark at the same clock time in winter.

Blue hour follows sunset and is worth planning for separately: in June it runs until about 9:06 PM, and in December until about 5:49 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 5:20 PM on November 29
  • Latest sunset: 8:40 PM on June 26
  • Longest day: 14h 20m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 9h 59m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 36 minutes in June, 38 minutes in December
  • Time zone: America/Chicago

What is golden hour?

Golden hour is the stretch just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun turns hard daylight into soft, warm, directional light — the most flattering natural light for portraits, real estate, product and landscape photography. Blue hour follows sunset (and precedes sunrise): a short window of deep, even blue that's ideal for twilight real estate shots and skylines. Both windows change with latitude and season, which is why this page computes them live instead of guessing.

Chasing the light for a shoot?

Kanyon Studio is a San Diego photography and video studio — golden hour is our home field. Brand shoots, products, real estate and portraits, planned around exactly this light.