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Golden Hour in Greensboro, NC

Photographers plan around two windows: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Here are both for Greensboro — 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.

Where to shoot it

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.

In Greensboro, sunset ranges from 5:04 PM in December to 8:40 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Greensboro's coordinates (36.0726, -79.792) and shown in America/New_York.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Greensboro by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:29 AM5:28 PM4:49 PM – 5:28 PM39 min9h 59m
February7:06 AM6:00 PM5:25 PM – 6:00 PM35 min10h 54m
March7:29 AM7:26 PM6:52 PM – 7:26 PM34 min11h 57m
April6:45 AM7:52 PM7:18 PM – 7:52 PM34 min13h 07m
May6:13 AM8:18 PM7:41 PM – 8:18 PM37 min14h 05m
June6:01 AM8:37 PM7:59 PM – 8:37 PM38 min14h 36m
July6:13 AM8:36 PM7:58 PM – 8:36 PM38 min14h 22m
August6:37 AM8:09 PM7:34 PM – 8:09 PM35 min13h 32m
September7:01 AM7:26 PM6:52 PM – 7:26 PM34 min12h 25m
October7:26 AM6:43 PM6:08 PM – 6:43 PM35 min11h 17m
November6:55 AM5:11 PM4:33 PM – 5:11 PM38 min10h 15m
December7:22 AM5:06 PM4:26 PM – 5:06 PM40 min9h 43m

How the light changes through the year in Greensboro

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Greensboro. It is longest in December at about 40 minutes and shortest in March at about 34 minutes — a difference of 6 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Greensboro gets 4h 53m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:06 PM in December to 8:37 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 9:08 PM, and in December until about 5:34 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 5:04 PM on December 1
  • Latest sunset: 8:40 PM on June 25
  • Longest day: 14h 37m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 9h 42m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 38 minutes in June, 40 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.