On the east coast, New York'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 New York'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: Gantry Plaza State Park facing Midtown. 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 New York is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:28 PM in December to 8:31 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in New York's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in New York starts about 42 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:47 PM – 8:29 PM; in December it is 3:45 PM – 4:29 PM.
Sunset in New York is earliest at 4:28 PM on December 3 and latest at 8:31 PM on June 23, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 42 minutes in midsummer and 44 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 44 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 36 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:17 AM | 4:53 PM | 4:11 PM – 4:53 PM | 42 min | 9h 36m |
| February | 6:49 AM | 5:30 PM | 4:52 PM – 5:30 PM | 38 min | 10h 41m |
| March | 7:07 AM | 7:02 PM | 6:26 PM – 7:02 PM | 36 min | 11h 55m |
| April | 6:17 AM | 7:35 PM | 6:58 PM – 7:35 PM | 37 min | 13h 18m |
| May | 5:38 AM | 8:06 PM | 7:27 PM – 8:06 PM | 39 min | 14h 28m |
| June | 5:24 AM | 8:29 PM | 7:47 PM – 8:29 PM | 42 min | 15h 05m |
| July | 5:37 AM | 8:25 PM | 7:45 PM – 8:25 PM | 40 min | 14h 48m |
| August | 6:06 AM | 7:53 PM | 7:16 PM – 7:53 PM | 37 min | 13h 47m |
| September | 6:36 AM | 7:04 PM | 6:28 PM – 7:04 PM | 36 min | 12h 28m |
| October | 7:07 AM | 6:15 PM | 5:38 PM – 6:15 PM | 37 min | 11h 08m |
| November | 6:42 AM | 4:37 PM | 3:57 PM – 4:37 PM | 40 min | 9h 55m |
| December | 7:12 AM | 4:29 PM | 3:45 PM – 4:29 PM | 44 min | 9h 17m |
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.
