Photographers plan around two windows: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Here are both for Fayetteville — computed live for its exact coordinates, accurate for any date you pick. 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: Overcast day? A thin cloud layer at golden hour acts like a giant softbox — some of the best portrait light happens on days everyone else stays home.
Golden hour in Fayetteville is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:03 PM in November to 8:33 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Fayetteville's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Fayetteville starts about 38 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:53 PM – 8:31 PM; in December it is 4:26 PM – 5:05 PM.
Sunset in Fayetteville is earliest at 5:03 PM on November 30 and latest at 8:33 PM on June 22, a swing of about 3 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 38 minutes in midsummer and 39 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 39 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 34 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:23 AM | 5:27 PM | 4:49 PM – 5:27 PM | 38 min | 10h 04m |
| February | 7:01 AM | 5:58 PM | 5:23 PM – 5:58 PM | 35 min | 10h 57m |
| March | 7:26 AM | 7:23 PM | 6:49 PM – 7:23 PM | 34 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:43 AM | 7:48 PM | 7:14 PM – 7:48 PM | 34 min | 13h 05m |
| May | 6:11 AM | 8:12 PM | 7:36 PM – 8:12 PM | 36 min | 14h 01m |
| June | 6:00 AM | 8:31 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:31 PM | 38 min | 14h 30m |
| July | 6:12 AM | 8:29 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:29 PM | 36 min | 14h 17m |
| August | 6:35 AM | 8:03 PM | 7:29 PM – 8:03 PM | 34 min | 13h 28m |
| September | 6:58 AM | 7:22 PM | 6:48 PM – 7:22 PM | 34 min | 12h 24m |
| October | 7:21 AM | 6:40 PM | 6:06 PM – 6:40 PM | 34 min | 11h 19m |
| November | 6:50 AM | 5:09 PM | 4:32 PM – 5:09 PM | 37 min | 10h 20m |
| December | 7:16 AM | 5:05 PM | 4:26 PM – 5:05 PM | 39 min | 9h 49m |
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.
