Free photographer's tool

Golden Hour in Suffolk, VA

Great light in Suffolk isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Suffolk's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. 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.

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 Suffolk, sunset ranges from 4:49 PM in December to 8:29 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Suffolk's coordinates (36.7284, -76.585) and shown in America/New_York.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Suffolk by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:17 AM5:14 PM4:35 PM – 5:14 PM39 min9h 56m
February6:54 AM5:46 PM5:11 PM – 5:46 PM35 min10h 52m
March7:17 AM7:13 PM6:39 PM – 7:13 PM34 min11h 57m
April6:32 AM7:40 PM7:06 PM – 7:40 PM34 min13h 09m
May5:58 AM8:07 PM7:30 PM – 8:07 PM37 min14h 08m
June5:47 AM8:26 PM7:48 PM – 8:26 PM38 min14h 40m
July5:59 AM8:25 PM7:47 PM – 8:25 PM38 min14h 26m
August6:23 AM7:57 PM7:21 PM – 7:57 PM36 min13h 34m
September6:48 AM7:13 PM6:39 PM – 7:13 PM34 min12h 25m
October7:13 AM6:29 PM5:54 PM – 6:29 PM35 min11h 16m
November6:44 AM4:57 PM4:19 PM – 4:57 PM38 min10h 13m
December7:11 AM4:51 PM4:11 PM – 4:51 PM40 min9h 40m

How the light changes through the year in Suffolk

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Suffolk. It is longest in December at about 40 minutes and shortest in March at about 34 minutes — a difference of 6 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Suffolk gets 5h 00m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:51 PM in December to 8:26 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 8:57 PM, and in December until about 5:20 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 4:49 PM on December 6
  • Latest sunset: 8:29 PM on June 24
  • Longest day: 14h 41m on June 21
  • Shortest day: 9h 39m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 38 minutes in June, 40 minutes in December
  • Time zone: America/New_York

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.