Whether you're shooting portraits, real estate or just chasing a good sky, this is when the light works in Chinatown. Every time below is computed live for Chinatown's coordinates and updates for any date. With a west-facing coastline nearby, evenings are the show — the sun drops toward the Pacific and the last hour of light runs warm and long.
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 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.
Golden hour in Chinatown is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:50 PM in December to 8:35 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Chinatown's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Chinatown starts about 39 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:54 PM – 8:33 PM; in December it is 4:10 PM – 4:51 PM.
Sunset in Chinatown is earliest at 4:50 PM on December 1 and latest at 8:35 PM on June 21, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 39 minutes in midsummer and 41 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 41 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 35 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:23 AM | 5:14 PM | 4:35 PM – 5:14 PM | 39 min | 9h 51m |
| February | 6:59 AM | 5:48 PM | 5:12 PM – 5:48 PM | 36 min | 10h 50m |
| March | 7:20 AM | 7:17 PM | 6:42 PM – 7:17 PM | 35 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:34 AM | 7:45 PM | 7:10 PM – 7:45 PM | 35 min | 13h 11m |
| May | 5:59 AM | 8:12 PM | 7:35 PM – 8:12 PM | 37 min | 14h 13m |
| June | 5:47 AM | 8:33 PM | 7:54 PM – 8:33 PM | 39 min | 14h 46m |
| July | 5:59 AM | 8:31 PM | 7:52 PM – 8:31 PM | 39 min | 14h 31m |
| August | 6:25 AM | 8:02 PM | 7:26 PM – 8:02 PM | 36 min | 13h 37m |
| September | 6:51 AM | 7:17 PM | 6:42 PM – 7:17 PM | 35 min | 12h 26m |
| October | 7:18 AM | 6:31 PM | 5:56 PM – 6:31 PM | 35 min | 11h 14m |
| November | 6:50 AM | 4:58 PM | 4:19 PM – 4:58 PM | 39 min | 10h 08m |
| December | 7:17 AM | 4:51 PM | 4:10 PM – 4:51 PM | 41 min | 9h 34m |
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.
