In Tacoma, golden hour works double duty — warm light rakes across the water while the hills and skyline hold shape. Stay 25 minutes past sunset for the harbor-lights blue hour. The times below are computed live for Tacoma'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: Ruston Way's waterfront with Rainier behind. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
In Tacoma, sunset ranges from 4:19 PM in December to 9:10 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Tacoma's coordinates (47.2529, -122.4443) and shown in America/Los_Angeles.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:51 AM | 4:47 PM | 3:57 PM – 4:47 PM | 50 min | 8h 55m |
| February | 7:14 AM | 5:34 PM | 4:50 PM – 5:34 PM | 44 min | 10h 20m |
| March | 7:22 AM | 7:15 PM | 6:35 PM – 7:15 PM | 40 min | 11h 53m |
| April | 6:21 AM | 7:59 PM | 7:17 PM – 7:59 PM | 42 min | 13h 38m |
| May | 5:33 AM | 8:39 PM | 7:54 PM – 8:39 PM | 45 min | 15h 06m |
| June | 5:13 AM | 9:07 PM | 8:20 PM – 9:07 PM | 47 min | 15h 55m |
| July | 5:29 AM | 9:01 PM | 8:15 PM – 9:01 PM | 46 min | 15h 33m |
| August | 6:06 AM | 8:20 PM | 7:38 PM – 8:20 PM | 42 min | 14h 14m |
| September | 6:47 AM | 7:21 PM | 6:41 PM – 7:21 PM | 40 min | 12h 34m |
| October | 7:28 AM | 6:21 PM | 5:39 PM – 6:21 PM | 42 min | 10h 53m |
| November | 7:14 AM | 4:34 PM | 3:46 PM – 4:34 PM | 48 min | 9h 20m |
| December | 7:50 AM | 4:20 PM | 3:27 PM – 4:20 PM | 53 min | 8h 30m |
Golden hour is not the same length all year in Tacoma. It is longest in December at about 53 minutes and shortest in March at about 40 minutes — a difference of 13 minutes of usable warm light per evening.
Tacoma gets 7h 25m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:20 PM in December to 9:07 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 9:48 PM, and in December until about 4:55 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.
