Sunrise's golden hour is short, specific, and worth planning around. The times below are computed live for Sunrise's exact coordinates (26.134, -80.1131) and update automatically for any date you pick — sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour, all in local time. 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 Sunrise is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:28 PM in November to 8:16 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Sunrise's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Sunrise starts about 34 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:40 PM – 8:14 PM; in December it is 4:56 PM – 5:31 PM.
Sunset in Sunrise is earliest at 5:28 PM on November 22 and latest at 8:16 PM on June 23, a swing of about 3 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 34 minutes in midsummer and 35 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 35 minutes; the shortest is in September at about 30 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:09 AM | 5:50 PM | 5:17 PM – 5:50 PM | 33 min | 10h 41m |
| February | 6:55 AM | 6:13 PM | 5:41 PM – 6:13 PM | 32 min | 11h 18m |
| March | 7:29 AM | 7:29 PM | 6:58 PM – 7:29 PM | 31 min | 12h 00m |
| April | 6:57 AM | 7:44 PM | 7:13 PM – 7:44 PM | 31 min | 12h 47m |
| May | 6:34 AM | 7:59 PM | 7:27 PM – 7:59 PM | 32 min | 13h 26m |
| June | 6:27 AM | 8:14 PM | 7:40 PM – 8:14 PM | 34 min | 13h 46m |
| July | 6:37 AM | 8:14 PM | 7:41 PM – 8:14 PM | 33 min | 13h 37m |
| August | 6:53 AM | 7:56 PM | 7:25 PM – 7:56 PM | 31 min | 13h 03m |
| September | 7:06 AM | 7:24 PM | 6:54 PM – 7:24 PM | 30 min | 12h 18m |
| October | 7:19 AM | 6:52 PM | 6:21 PM – 6:52 PM | 31 min | 11h 33m |
| November | 6:38 AM | 5:30 PM | 4:58 PM – 5:30 PM | 32 min | 10h 52m |
| December | 7:00 AM | 5:31 PM | 4:56 PM – 5:31 PM | 35 min | 10h 31m |
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.
