The difference between a flat photo and a glowing one in San Mateo 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: Golden hour moves every single day. If you're planning a shoot more than a week out, check the date itself — the window can shift by 20+ minutes.
Golden hour in San Mateo is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:50 PM in December to 8:34 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in San Mateo's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in San Mateo starts about 39 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:53 PM – 8:32 PM; in December it is 4:11 PM – 4:52 PM.
Sunset in San Mateo is earliest at 4:50 PM on December 2 and latest at 8:34 PM on June 21, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 39 minutes in midsummer and 41 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 41 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 34 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:22 AM | 5:15 PM | 4:35 PM – 5:15 PM | 40 min | 9h 52m |
| February | 6:58 AM | 5:48 PM | 5:12 PM – 5:48 PM | 36 min | 10h 50m |
| March | 7:20 AM | 7:16 PM | 6:42 PM – 7:16 PM | 34 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:34 AM | 7:44 PM | 7:09 PM – 7:44 PM | 35 min | 13h 11m |
| May | 5:59 AM | 8:12 PM | 7:34 PM – 8:12 PM | 38 min | 14h 12m |
| June | 5:47 AM | 8:32 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:32 PM | 39 min | 14h 45m |
| July | 6:00 AM | 8:30 PM | 7:52 PM – 8:30 PM | 38 min | 14h 30m |
| August | 6:25 AM | 8:01 PM | 7:25 PM – 8:01 PM | 36 min | 13h 36m |
| September | 6:51 AM | 7:16 PM | 6:42 PM – 7:16 PM | 34 min | 12h 25m |
| October | 7:17 AM | 6:31 PM | 5:56 PM – 6:31 PM | 35 min | 11h 14m |
| November | 6:49 AM | 4:58 PM | 4:19 PM – 4:58 PM | 39 min | 10h 09m |
| December | 7:16 AM | 4:52 PM | 4:11 PM – 4:52 PM | 41 min | 9h 35m |
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.
