Charlotte's skyline is the subject here: golden hour rakes warm light across the towers, then blue hour flips the scene as the buildings light up. The 20 minutes after sunset are the money window. The times below are computed live for Charlotte'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 Little Sugar Creek Greenway skyline bend. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
In Charlotte, sunset ranges from 5:10 PM in December to 8:42 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Charlotte's coordinates (35.2271, -80.8431) and shown in America/New_York.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:31 AM | 5:34 PM | 4:56 PM – 5:34 PM | 38 min | 10h 03m |
| February | 7:09 AM | 6:05 PM | 5:30 PM – 6:05 PM | 35 min | 10h 56m |
| March | 7:33 AM | 7:31 PM | 6:57 PM – 7:31 PM | 34 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:51 AM | 7:56 PM | 7:22 PM – 7:56 PM | 34 min | 13h 05m |
| May | 6:19 AM | 8:20 PM | 7:44 PM – 8:20 PM | 36 min | 14h 01m |
| June | 6:08 AM | 8:39 PM | 8:02 PM – 8:39 PM | 37 min | 14h 31m |
| July | 6:20 AM | 8:38 PM | 8:01 PM – 8:38 PM | 37 min | 14h 18m |
| August | 6:43 AM | 8:11 PM | 7:37 PM – 8:11 PM | 34 min | 13h 29m |
| September | 7:06 AM | 7:30 PM | 6:56 PM – 7:30 PM | 34 min | 12h 24m |
| October | 7:29 AM | 6:48 PM | 6:13 PM – 6:48 PM | 35 min | 11h 19m |
| November | 6:58 AM | 5:17 PM | 4:40 PM – 5:17 PM | 37 min | 10h 19m |
| December | 7:24 AM | 5:12 PM | 4:33 PM – 5:12 PM | 39 min | 9h 48m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in Charlotte. It is longest in December at about 39 minutes and shortest in March at about 34 minutes — a difference of 5 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
Charlotte gets 4h 43m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:12 PM in December to 8:39 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 9:09 PM, and in December until about 5:40 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.
