Photographers plan around two windows: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Here are both for Roanoke — 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.
Local tip: Shoot with the sun behind your subject during golden hour and expose for the face — the rim light does the rest.
Golden hour in Roanoke is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:01 PM in December to 8:44 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Roanoke's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Roanoke starts about 38 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:03 PM – 8:41 PM; in December it is 4:22 PM – 5:03 PM.
Sunset in Roanoke is earliest at 5:01 PM on December 5 and latest at 8:44 PM on June 24, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 38 minutes in midsummer and 41 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 41 minutes; the shortest is in April at about 34 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:32 AM | 5:26 PM | 4:46 PM – 5:26 PM | 40 min | 9h 53m |
| February | 7:08 AM | 5:59 PM | 5:23 PM – 5:59 PM | 36 min | 10h 51m |
| March | 7:30 AM | 7:27 PM | 6:52 PM – 7:27 PM | 35 min | 11h 56m |
| April | 6:45 AM | 7:54 PM | 7:20 PM – 7:54 PM | 34 min | 13h 10m |
| May | 6:11 AM | 8:21 PM | 7:44 PM – 8:21 PM | 37 min | 14h 11m |
| June | 5:58 AM | 8:41 PM | 8:03 PM – 8:41 PM | 38 min | 14h 43m |
| July | 6:11 AM | 8:39 PM | 8:01 PM – 8:39 PM | 38 min | 14h 29m |
| August | 6:36 AM | 8:11 PM | 7:36 PM – 8:11 PM | 35 min | 13h 35m |
| September | 7:01 AM | 7:27 PM | 6:52 PM – 7:27 PM | 35 min | 12h 25m |
| October | 7:27 AM | 6:42 PM | 6:07 PM – 6:42 PM | 35 min | 11h 15m |
| November | 6:59 AM | 5:09 PM | 4:31 PM – 5:09 PM | 38 min | 10h 10m |
| December | 7:26 AM | 5:03 PM | 4:22 PM – 5:03 PM | 41 min | 9h 37m |
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.
