Houston's flat horizon and humid air stretch golden hour's color — expect glowing skies reflected in the bayous, and dramatic clouds most evenings in summer. The times below are computed live for Houston's exact coordinates and update automatically for any date you pick.
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 golden hour spot: the Sabine Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
Golden hour in Houston is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:21 PM in November to 8:26 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Houston's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Houston starts about 35 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:48 PM – 8:23 PM; in December it is 4:48 PM – 5:24 PM.
Sunset in Houston is earliest at 5:21 PM on November 28 and latest at 8:26 PM on June 27, a swing of about 3 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 35 minutes in midsummer and 36 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 36 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 31 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:17 AM | 5:44 PM | 5:09 PM – 5:44 PM | 35 min | 10h 27m |
| February | 7:00 AM | 6:10 PM | 5:37 PM – 6:10 PM | 33 min | 11h 10m |
| March | 7:31 AM | 7:29 PM | 6:58 PM – 7:29 PM | 31 min | 11h 59m |
| April | 6:54 AM | 7:48 PM | 7:16 PM – 7:48 PM | 32 min | 12h 54m |
| May | 6:28 AM | 8:07 PM | 7:33 PM – 8:07 PM | 34 min | 13h 39m |
| June | 6:20 AM | 8:23 PM | 7:48 PM – 8:23 PM | 35 min | 14h 03m |
| July | 6:31 AM | 8:23 PM | 7:49 PM – 8:23 PM | 34 min | 13h 52m |
| August | 6:49 AM | 8:02 PM | 7:29 PM – 8:02 PM | 33 min | 13h 13m |
| September | 7:06 AM | 7:26 PM | 6:55 PM – 7:26 PM | 31 min | 12h 20m |
| October | 7:23 AM | 6:50 PM | 6:18 PM – 6:50 PM | 32 min | 11h 27m |
| November | 6:46 AM | 5:25 PM | 4:51 PM – 5:25 PM | 34 min | 10h 39m |
| December | 7:09 AM | 5:24 PM | 4:48 PM – 5:24 PM | 36 min | 10h 15m |
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.
