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Golden Hour in Orange, CA

Orange's golden hour is short, specific, and worth planning around. The times below are computed live for Orange's exact coordinates (33.7878, -117.8531) and update automatically for any date you pick — sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour, all in local time. With a west-facing coastline nearby, evenings are the show — the sun drops toward the Pacific and the last hour of light runs warm and long.

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: Reflections double golden hour: water, glass buildings and wet pavement all pick up the sky's color in the hour around sunset.

In Orange, sunset ranges from 4:42 PM in November to 8:06 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Orange's coordinates (33.7878, -117.8531) and shown in America/Los_Angeles.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Orange by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January6:56 AM5:06 PM4:28 PM – 5:06 PM38 min10h 10m
February6:35 AM5:35 PM5:01 PM – 5:35 PM34 min11h 00m
March7:01 AM6:59 PM6:26 PM – 6:59 PM33 min11h 58m
April6:20 AM7:22 PM6:49 PM – 7:22 PM33 min13h 02m
May5:50 AM7:45 PM7:10 PM – 7:45 PM35 min13h 55m
June5:40 AM8:03 PM7:27 PM – 8:03 PM36 min14h 23m
July5:51 AM8:02 PM7:26 PM – 8:02 PM36 min14h 11m
August6:13 AM7:37 PM7:03 PM – 7:37 PM34 min13h 24m
September6:34 AM6:57 PM6:24 PM – 6:57 PM33 min12h 23m
October6:56 AM6:17 PM5:43 PM – 6:17 PM34 min11h 21m
November6:23 AM4:48 PM4:11 PM – 4:48 PM37 min10h 24m
December6:49 AM4:44 PM4:06 PM – 4:44 PM38 min9h 55m

How the light changes through the year in Orange

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Orange. It is longest in January at about 38 minutes and shortest in March at about 33 minutes — a difference of 5 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Orange gets 4h 28m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:44 PM in December to 8:03 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 8:32 PM, and in December until about 5:12 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 4:42 PM on November 29
  • Latest sunset: 8:06 PM on June 25
  • Longest day: 14h 24m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 9h 54m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 36 minutes in June, 38 minutes in December
  • Time zone: America/Los_Angeles

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.