Photographers plan around two windows: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Here are both for Federal Way — computed live for its exact coordinates, accurate for any date you pick. 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: Reflections double golden hour: water, glass buildings and wet pavement all pick up the sky's color in the hour around sunset.
In Federal Way, sunset ranges from 4:18 PM in December to 9:09 PM in June. Evening golden hour lasts about 48 minutes at the summer solstice and 53 minutes at the winter solstice. Times below are local to Federal Way (America/Los_Angeles).
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:51 AM | 4:46 PM | 3:56 PM – 4:46 PM | 50 min | 8h 55m |
| February | 7:13 AM | 5:33 PM | 4:49 PM – 5:33 PM | 44 min | 10h 19m |
| March | 7:21 AM | 7:15 PM | 6:34 PM – 7:15 PM | 41 min | 11h 53m |
| April | 6:20 AM | 7:58 PM | 7:17 PM – 7:58 PM | 41 min | 13h 38m |
| May | 5:32 AM | 8:39 PM | 7:54 PM – 8:39 PM | 45 min | 15h 07m |
| June | 5:12 AM | 9:07 PM | 8:19 PM – 9:07 PM | 48 min | 15h 55m |
| July | 5:28 AM | 9:01 PM | 8:15 PM – 9:01 PM | 46 min | 15h 33m |
| August | 6:06 AM | 8:20 PM | 7:38 PM – 8:20 PM | 42 min | 14h 14m |
| September | 6:47 AM | 7:20 PM | 6:40 PM – 7:20 PM | 40 min | 12h 34m |
| October | 7:28 AM | 6:21 PM | 5:39 PM – 6:21 PM | 42 min | 10h 53m |
| November | 7:13 AM | 4:33 PM | 3:46 PM – 4:33 PM | 47 min | 9h 20m |
| December | 7:49 AM | 4:19 PM | 3:26 PM – 4:19 PM | 53 min | 8h 29m |
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.
