Key West sits on the Gulf, where sunsets over warm, humid water produce some of the most saturated golden hours in the country — expect deep oranges and pinks that linger well into blue hour. The times below are computed live for Key West'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: Mallory Square's nightly sunset celebration. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
In Key West, sunset ranges from 5:37 PM in November to 8:20 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Key West's coordinates (24.5551, -81.78) and shown in America/New_York.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:13 AM | 6:00 PM | 5:27 PM – 6:00 PM | 33 min | 10h 47m |
| February | 7:00 AM | 6:21 PM | 5:50 PM – 6:21 PM | 31 min | 11h 21m |
| March | 7:36 AM | 7:36 PM | 7:06 PM – 7:36 PM | 30 min | 12h 00m |
| April | 7:05 AM | 7:49 PM | 7:18 PM – 7:49 PM | 31 min | 12h 44m |
| May | 6:43 AM | 8:03 PM | 7:31 PM – 8:03 PM | 32 min | 13h 20m |
| June | 6:38 AM | 8:17 PM | 7:44 PM – 8:17 PM | 33 min | 13h 39m |
| July | 6:47 AM | 8:18 PM | 7:45 PM – 8:18 PM | 33 min | 13h 31m |
| August | 7:01 AM | 8:01 PM | 7:30 PM – 8:01 PM | 31 min | 12h 59m |
| September | 7:13 AM | 7:30 PM | 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM | 30 min | 12h 17m |
| October | 7:25 AM | 7:00 PM | 6:29 PM – 7:00 PM | 31 min | 11h 35m |
| November | 6:43 AM | 5:40 PM | 5:07 PM – 5:40 PM | 33 min | 10h 57m |
| December | 7:03 AM | 5:41 PM | 5:07 PM – 5:41 PM | 34 min | 10h 38m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in Key West. It is longest in December at about 34 minutes and shortest in March at about 30 minutes — a difference of 4 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
Key West gets 3h 01m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:41 PM in December to 8:17 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 8:42 PM, and in December until about 6:06 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.
