The difference between a flat photo and a glowing one in San Jose is usually forty-five minutes. The calculator below shows exactly which forty-five minutes — today's sunset, sunrise, golden and blue hour, live. 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.
Local tip: Find an open west-facing view for sunset and an east-facing one for sunrise — buildings and hills eat the last 15 minutes of light in most city centers.
In San Jose, sunset ranges from 4:49 PM in December to 8:32 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for San Jose's coordinates (37.3394, -121.895) and shown in America/Los_Angeles.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:20 AM | 5:13 PM | 4:34 PM – 5:13 PM | 39 min | 9h 53m |
| February | 6:56 AM | 5:47 PM | 5:11 PM – 5:47 PM | 36 min | 10h 51m |
| March | 7:18 AM | 7:15 PM | 6:40 PM – 7:15 PM | 35 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:32 AM | 7:42 PM | 7:07 PM – 7:42 PM | 35 min | 13h 10m |
| May | 5:58 AM | 8:09 PM | 7:32 PM – 8:09 PM | 37 min | 14h 11m |
| June | 5:46 AM | 8:30 PM | 7:51 PM – 8:30 PM | 39 min | 14h 44m |
| July | 5:59 AM | 8:27 PM | 7:49 PM – 8:27 PM | 38 min | 14h 29m |
| August | 6:24 AM | 7:59 PM | 7:23 PM – 7:59 PM | 36 min | 13h 35m |
| September | 6:49 AM | 7:14 PM | 6:40 PM – 7:14 PM | 34 min | 12h 25m |
| October | 7:15 AM | 6:30 PM | 5:54 PM – 6:30 PM | 36 min | 11h 15m |
| November | 6:47 AM | 4:57 PM | 4:18 PM – 4:57 PM | 39 min | 10h 10m |
| December | 7:14 AM | 4:51 PM | 4:10 PM – 4:51 PM | 41 min | 9h 36m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in San Jose. It is longest in December at about 41 minutes and shortest in September at about 34 minutes — a difference of 7 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
San Jose gets 5h 08m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:51 PM in December to 8:30 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 9:01 PM, and in December until about 5:20 PM.
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.
