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Golden Hour in Clearwater, FL

Whether you're shooting portraits, real estate or just chasing a good sky, this is when the light works in Clearwater. Every time below is computed live for Clearwater's coordinates and updates for any date. On this side of the country, sunrise is the underrated window — the sun comes up over the Atlantic side and morning golden hour is quieter than the evening one.

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: Reflections double golden hour: water, glass buildings and wet pavement all pick up the sky's color in the hour around sunset.

In Clearwater, sunset ranges from 5:35 PM in November to 8:31 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Clearwater's coordinates (27.9658, -82.8001) and shown in America/New_York.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Clearwater by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:23 AM5:57 PM5:23 PM – 5:57 PM34 min10h 34m
February7:08 AM6:22 PM5:50 PM – 6:22 PM32 min11h 14m
March7:40 AM7:39 PM7:08 PM – 7:39 PM31 min11h 59m
April7:06 AM7:56 PM7:25 PM – 7:56 PM31 min12h 50m
May6:41 AM8:13 PM7:40 PM – 8:13 PM33 min13h 32m
June6:34 AM8:29 PM7:54 PM – 8:29 PM35 min13h 54m
July6:44 AM8:29 PM7:55 PM – 8:29 PM34 min13h 45m
August7:01 AM8:09 PM7:37 PM – 8:09 PM32 min13h 08m
September7:16 AM7:35 PM7:04 PM – 7:35 PM31 min12h 19m
October7:31 AM7:01 PM6:30 PM – 7:01 PM31 min11h 30m
November6:52 AM5:38 PM5:05 PM – 5:38 PM33 min10h 46m
December7:14 AM5:37 PM5:02 PM – 5:37 PM35 min10h 23m

How the light changes through the year in Clearwater

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Clearwater. It is longest in June at about 35 minutes and shortest in March at about 31 minutes — a difference of 4 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Clearwater gets 3h 31m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:37 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 8:55 PM, and in December until about 6:03 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 5:35 PM on November 24
  • Latest sunset: 8:31 PM on June 24
  • Longest day: 13h 55m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 10h 22m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 35 minutes in June, 35 minutes in December
  • Time zone: America/New_York

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.