On the east coast, Miami's best golden light comes at dawn — the sun climbs out of the ocean and side-lights the waterfront. Set an early alarm; this calculator tells you exactly how early. The times below are computed live for Miami'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: South Pointe Park at the tip of South Beach. 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 Miami is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:29 PM in November to 8:16 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Miami's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Miami starts about 33 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:40 PM – 8:13 PM; in December it is 4:58 PM – 5:32 PM.
Sunset in Miami is earliest at 5:29 PM on November 22 and latest at 8:16 PM on June 27, a swing of about 3 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 33 minutes in midsummer and 34 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 34 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 30 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:09 AM | 5:51 PM | 5:18 PM – 5:51 PM | 33 min | 10h 43m |
| February | 6:55 AM | 6:14 PM | 5:42 PM – 6:14 PM | 32 min | 11h 18m |
| March | 7:29 AM | 7:29 PM | 6:59 PM – 7:29 PM | 30 min | 12h 00m |
| April | 6:57 AM | 7:44 PM | 7:13 PM – 7:44 PM | 31 min | 12h 46m |
| May | 6:35 AM | 7:59 PM | 7:27 PM – 7:59 PM | 32 min | 13h 24m |
| June | 6:29 AM | 8:13 PM | 7:40 PM – 8:13 PM | 33 min | 13h 44m |
| July | 6:38 AM | 8:14 PM | 7:41 PM – 8:14 PM | 33 min | 13h 36m |
| August | 6:53 AM | 7:56 PM | 7:24 PM – 7:56 PM | 32 min | 13h 02m |
| September | 7:06 AM | 7:24 PM | 6:54 PM – 7:24 PM | 30 min | 12h 18m |
| October | 7:19 AM | 6:53 PM | 6:22 PM – 6:53 PM | 31 min | 11h 34m |
| November | 6:38 AM | 5:31 PM | 4:59 PM – 5:31 PM | 32 min | 10h 53m |
| December | 6:59 AM | 5:32 PM | 4:58 PM – 5:32 PM | 34 min | 10h 33m |
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.
