Charleston looks east over the Atlantic, so sunrise is the secret weapon here: golden hour starts over open water with almost nobody on the beach. Evenings still glow, but mornings are the show. The times below are computed live for Charleston's exact coordinates and update automatically for any date you pick.
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.
Local golden hour spot: The Battery and Pineapple Fountain waterfront. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
In Charleston, sunset ranges from 5:13 PM in November to 8:31 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Charleston's coordinates (32.7765, -79.9311) and shown in America/New_York.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:22 AM | 5:36 PM | 4:59 PM – 5:36 PM | 37 min | 10h 14m |
| February | 7:02 AM | 6:05 PM | 5:31 PM – 6:05 PM | 34 min | 11h 03m |
| March | 7:29 AM | 7:27 PM | 6:55 PM – 7:27 PM | 32 min | 11h 58m |
| April | 6:50 AM | 7:49 PM | 7:16 PM – 7:49 PM | 33 min | 13h 00m |
| May | 6:20 AM | 8:11 PM | 7:36 PM – 8:11 PM | 35 min | 13h 51m |
| June | 6:11 AM | 8:29 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:29 PM | 36 min | 14h 18m |
| July | 6:22 AM | 8:28 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:28 PM | 35 min | 14h 06m |
| August | 6:43 AM | 8:04 PM | 7:31 PM – 8:04 PM | 33 min | 13h 21m |
| September | 7:03 AM | 7:25 PM | 6:53 PM – 7:25 PM | 32 min | 12h 22m |
| October | 7:23 AM | 6:46 PM | 6:13 PM – 6:46 PM | 33 min | 11h 23m |
| November | 6:49 AM | 5:18 PM | 4:42 PM – 5:18 PM | 36 min | 10h 28m |
| December | 7:14 AM | 5:15 PM | 4:37 PM – 5:15 PM | 38 min | 10h 00m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in Charleston. It is longest in December at about 38 minutes and shortest in March at about 32 minutes — a difference of 6 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
Charleston gets 4h 18m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:15 PM in December to 8:29 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 8:58 PM, and in December until about 5:42 PM.
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.
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.
