In Knoxville, the mountains change the math: the sun can drop behind a ridge well before the 'official' sunset below. Scout your horizon line and treat the calculated times as your latest-possible window. The times below are computed live for Knoxville'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 Bluffs at River Bluff Wildlife Area. 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 Knoxville is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:21 PM in November to 8:56 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Knoxville's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Knoxville starts about 38 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:16 PM – 8:54 PM; in December it is 4:43 PM – 5:22 PM.
Sunset in Knoxville is earliest at 5:21 PM on November 29 and latest at 8:56 PM on June 23, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 38 minutes in midsummer and 39 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in January at about 39 minutes; the shortest is in September at about 33 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:45 AM | 5:45 PM | 5:06 PM – 5:45 PM | 39 min | 10h 00m |
| February | 7:22 AM | 6:17 PM | 5:41 PM – 6:17 PM | 36 min | 10h 55m |
| March | 7:46 AM | 7:43 PM | 7:09 PM – 7:43 PM | 34 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 7:02 AM | 8:09 PM | 7:35 PM – 8:09 PM | 34 min | 13h 07m |
| May | 6:29 AM | 8:34 PM | 7:58 PM – 8:34 PM | 36 min | 14h 05m |
| June | 6:18 AM | 8:54 PM | 8:16 PM – 8:54 PM | 38 min | 14h 35m |
| July | 6:30 AM | 8:52 PM | 8:15 PM – 8:52 PM | 37 min | 14h 22m |
| August | 6:54 AM | 8:25 PM | 7:50 PM – 8:25 PM | 35 min | 13h 31m |
| September | 7:18 AM | 7:42 PM | 7:09 PM – 7:42 PM | 33 min | 12h 24m |
| October | 7:42 AM | 6:59 PM | 6:25 PM – 6:59 PM | 34 min | 11h 17m |
| November | 7:12 AM | 5:28 PM | 4:50 PM – 5:28 PM | 38 min | 10h 16m |
| December | 7:38 AM | 5:22 PM | 4:43 PM – 5:22 PM | 39 min | 9h 44m |
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.
