San Diego faces the Pacific, which makes evening golden hour the headline act: the sun drops all the way into open water, so the warm light holds right up until sunset and the blue hour afterward glows over the ocean. The times below are computed live for San Diego'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: Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
In San Diego, sunset ranges from 4:42 PM in November to 8:00 PM in June. Evening golden hour lasts about 37 minutes at the summer solstice and 38 minutes at the winter solstice. Times below are local to San Diego (America/Los_Angeles).
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6:50 AM | 5:05 PM | 4:29 PM – 5:05 PM | 36 min | 10h 15m |
| February | 6:31 AM | 5:34 PM | 5:00 PM – 5:34 PM | 34 min | 11h 03m |
| March | 6:58 AM | 6:56 PM | 6:24 PM – 6:56 PM | 32 min | 11h 58m |
| April | 6:18 AM | 7:18 PM | 6:45 PM – 7:18 PM | 33 min | 13h 00m |
| May | 5:49 AM | 7:40 PM | 7:05 PM – 7:40 PM | 35 min | 13h 51m |
| June | 5:40 AM | 7:58 PM | 7:21 PM – 7:58 PM | 37 min | 14h 18m |
| July | 5:51 AM | 7:57 PM | 7:21 PM – 7:57 PM | 36 min | 14h 06m |
| August | 6:12 AM | 7:33 PM | 6:59 PM – 7:33 PM | 34 min | 13h 21m |
| September | 6:32 AM | 6:54 PM | 6:22 PM – 6:54 PM | 32 min | 12h 22m |
| October | 6:52 AM | 6:15 PM | 5:42 PM – 6:15 PM | 33 min | 11h 23m |
| November | 6:18 AM | 4:47 PM | 4:11 PM – 4:47 PM | 36 min | 10h 29m |
| December | 6:43 AM | 4:44 PM | 4:06 PM – 4:44 PM | 38 min | 10h 01m |
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.
