The difference between a flat photo and a glowing one in Fort Collins is usually forty-five minutes. The calculator below shows exactly which forty-five minutes — today's sunset, sunrise, golden and blue hour, live.
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: Arrive 30 minutes before the golden hour window opens. Setup always takes longer than planned, and the first ten minutes of good light are often the best.
In Fort Collins, sunset ranges from 4:33 PM in December to 8:35 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Fort Collins's coordinates (40.5853, -105.0844) and shown in America/Denver.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:21 AM | 4:58 PM | 4:16 PM – 4:58 PM | 42 min | 9h 36m |
| February | 6:53 AM | 5:35 PM | 4:57 PM – 5:35 PM | 38 min | 10h 42m |
| March | 7:11 AM | 7:07 PM | 6:31 PM – 7:07 PM | 36 min | 11h 56m |
| April | 6:21 AM | 7:39 PM | 7:03 PM – 7:39 PM | 36 min | 13h 18m |
| May | 5:43 AM | 8:10 PM | 7:31 PM – 8:10 PM | 39 min | 14h 27m |
| June | 5:29 AM | 8:32 PM | 7:51 PM – 8:32 PM | 41 min | 15h 04m |
| July | 5:42 AM | 8:29 PM | 7:49 PM – 8:29 PM | 40 min | 14h 47m |
| August | 6:11 AM | 7:57 PM | 7:20 PM – 7:57 PM | 37 min | 13h 47m |
| September | 6:41 AM | 7:09 PM | 6:33 PM – 7:09 PM | 36 min | 12h 28m |
| October | 7:11 AM | 6:19 PM | 5:42 PM – 6:19 PM | 37 min | 11h 08m |
| November | 6:47 AM | 4:42 PM | 4:01 PM – 4:42 PM | 41 min | 9h 55m |
| December | 7:16 AM | 4:34 PM | 3:50 PM – 4:34 PM | 44 min | 9h 17m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in Fort Collins. It is longest in December at about 44 minutes and shortest in March at about 36 minutes — a difference of 8 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
Fort Collins gets 5h 47m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:34 PM in December to 8:32 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 9:06 PM, and in December until about 5:05 PM.
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.
