Great light in Columbia isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Columbia's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. 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.
Local tip: Don't pack up at sunset — blue hour starts right after, and the 20 minutes of deep-blue sky with city lights on is the most underrated window of the day.
Golden hour in Columbia is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:44 PM in November to 8:37 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Columbia's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Columbia starts about 40 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:55 PM – 8:35 PM; in December it is 4:03 PM – 4:45 PM.
Sunset in Columbia is earliest at 4:44 PM on November 30 and latest at 8:37 PM on June 20, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 40 minutes in midsummer and 42 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 42 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 35 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:25 AM | 5:08 PM | 4:27 PM – 5:08 PM | 41 min | 9h 43m |
| February | 6:58 AM | 5:44 PM | 5:07 PM – 5:44 PM | 37 min | 10h 45m |
| March | 7:18 AM | 7:14 PM | 6:39 PM – 7:14 PM | 35 min | 11h 56m |
| April | 6:30 AM | 7:44 PM | 7:09 PM – 7:44 PM | 35 min | 13h 15m |
| May | 5:53 AM | 8:14 PM | 7:35 PM – 8:14 PM | 39 min | 14h 20m |
| June | 5:40 AM | 8:35 PM | 7:55 PM – 8:35 PM | 40 min | 14h 55m |
| July | 5:53 AM | 8:32 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:32 PM | 39 min | 14h 39m |
| August | 6:20 AM | 8:02 PM | 7:25 PM – 8:02 PM | 37 min | 13h 42m |
| September | 6:48 AM | 7:15 PM | 6:40 PM – 7:15 PM | 35 min | 12h 27m |
| October | 7:17 AM | 6:28 PM | 5:52 PM – 6:28 PM | 36 min | 11h 11m |
| November | 6:50 AM | 4:52 PM | 4:13 PM – 4:52 PM | 39 min | 10h 02m |
| December | 7:19 AM | 4:45 PM | 4:03 PM – 4:45 PM | 42 min | 9h 25m |
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.
