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Golden Hour in Miami Beach, FL

Photographers plan around two windows: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Here are both for Miami Beach — 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: For skylines and wide shots, the 15 minutes after sunset usually beats the sunset itself: the sky holds color while buildings and streetlights come up.

In Miami Beach, sunset ranges from 5:28 PM in November to 8:16 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Miami Beach's coordinates (25.7906, -80.13) and shown in America/New_York.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Miami Beach by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:08 AM5:51 PM5:17 PM – 5:51 PM34 min10h 43m
February6:55 AM6:13 PM5:42 PM – 6:13 PM31 min11h 18m
March7:29 AM7:29 PM6:59 PM – 7:29 PM30 min12h 00m
April6:57 AM7:43 PM7:13 PM – 7:43 PM30 min12h 46m
May6:34 AM7:59 PM7:27 PM – 7:59 PM32 min13h 25m
June6:28 AM8:13 PM7:39 PM – 8:13 PM34 min13h 45m
July6:38 AM8:14 PM7:41 PM – 8:14 PM33 min13h 36m
August6:53 AM7:56 PM7:24 PM – 7:56 PM32 min13h 02m
September7:06 AM7:24 PM6:54 PM – 7:24 PM30 min12h 18m
October7:19 AM6:52 PM6:21 PM – 6:52 PM31 min11h 33m
November6:38 AM5:31 PM4:58 PM – 5:31 PM33 min10h 53m
December6:59 AM5:31 PM4:57 PM – 5:31 PM34 min10h 32m

How the light changes through the year in Miami Beach

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Miami Beach. It is longest in January at about 34 minutes and shortest in March at about 30 minutes — a difference of 4 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Miami Beach gets 3h 13m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 5:31 PM in December to 8:13 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 8:39 PM, and in December until about 5:57 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 5:28 PM on November 27
  • Latest sunset: 8:16 PM on June 29
  • Longest day: 13h 45m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 10h 32m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 34 minutes in June, 34 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.