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Golden Hour Calculator

Overview

Find the morning and evening golden hour and blue hour for any city and date, with sunrise, sunset and how long each golden window lasts, in the city's local time.

Good light does not wait. Choose the city you are shooting in and the day of the shoot, and the calculator gives you both windows of warm, low sunlight, morning and evening, plus the blue hour on the dark side of each, so you know when to be set up and when to switch to long exposures. Golden hour here is the Sun between 4° below and 6° above the horizon and blue hour 4° to 6° below, worked out with the NOAA solar equations and shown in the city's own time zone, daylight saving included. The length of each golden window tells you how much shooting time you really have: about 44 minutes near the equator, close to an hour and a half in London in midwinter, and most of the short day in Reykjavik in December.

Formula and example

cos⁡Hour angle=sin⁡Alt−sin⁡Latsin⁡Deccos⁡Latcos⁡Dec\displaystyle \cos \text{Hour angle} = \frac{\sin \text{Alt} - \sin \text{Lat} \sin \text{Dec}}{\cos \text{Lat} \cos \text{Dec}}
Morning=Noon−4×Hour angleEvening=Noon+4×Hour angle\displaystyle \begin{gathered} \text{Morning} = \text{Noon} - 4 \times \text{Hour angle} \\[12pt] \text{Evening} = \text{Noon} + 4 \times \text{Hour angle} \end{gathered}
Length=4×(Hour angle−4∘−Hour angle+6∘)\displaystyle \text{Length} = 4 \times (\text{Hour angle}_{-4^{\circ}} - \text{Hour angle}_{+6^{\circ}})

Where:

Hour angle
— How many degrees the Earth turns between solar noon and the moment the Sun reaches the altitude. It turns 15° an hour, so each degree is 4 minutes.
Alt
— The Sun's altitude at the edge of a window: +6° and −4° for golden hour, −4° and −6° for blue hour.
Lat
— The city's latitude in degrees, north positive.
Dec
— The Sun's declination that day: the latitude where it is overhead, from about −23.44° in December to +23.44° in June.
Noon
— Solar noon, when the Sun is highest, in minutes after local midnight.
Morning
— Morning edges come before noon: the −4° crossing starts golden hour and the +6° crossing ends it.
Evening
— Evening edges come after noon: the +6° crossing starts golden hour and the −4° crossing ends it.
Length
— How long one golden window lasts, in minutes. If the fraction is above 1 or below −1 the Sun never reaches that altitude and the window is clamped or does not occur.

Worked example

An evening shoot in London (51.5074° N, 0.1278° W) on 21 June 2024. That day the Sun's declination is 23.437° and solar noon is at 13:02 BST, 782.44 minutes after midnight.

  1. Hour angle where the Sun is 6° up and golden hour starts (sin 6° = 0.10453)

    arccos⁡0.10453−0.78269×0.397740.62241×0.91750≈111.23∘\displaystyle \arccos \frac{0.10453 - 0.78269 \times 0.39774}{0.62241 \times 0.91750} \approx 111.23^{\circ}

  2. Hour angle where the Sun is 4° down and golden hour ends (sin −4° = −0.06976)

    arccos⁡−0.06976−0.311310.57106≈131.86∘\displaystyle \arccos \frac{-0.06976 - 0.31131}{0.57106} \approx 131.86^{\circ}

  3. Start: 1227.36 minutes after midnight is 20:27 BST

    782.44+4×111.23≈1227.36\displaystyle 782.44 + 4 \times 111.23 \approx 1227.36

  4. End: 1309.88 minutes after midnight is 21:49 BST

    782.44+4×131.86≈1309.88\displaystyle 782.44 + 4 \times 131.86 \approx 1309.88

  5. Length of the evening golden hour

    4×(131.86−111.23)≈82.5 min\displaystyle 4 \times (131.86 - 111.23) \approx 82.5 \text{ min}

Result

The evening golden hour runs from 20:27 to 21:49 BST, 1h 23m of warm light, followed by blue hour until 22:09. The calculator refines each edge at its own instant, which moves the times by seconds, not minutes.

FAQs

How long does golden hour last?

Rarely exactly an hour. In London on 21 June 2024 each golden hour lasts 1h 23m (04:14 to 05:37 and 20:27 to 21:49 BST); on 20 March it is 1h 4m and on 21 December 1h 27m. In New York it is about 1h 2m in June and 1h 3m in December, and in Quito, on the equator, 44 minutes every day. The calculator shows the length of both windows for the date you pick.

Why is golden hour longer in winter at high latitudes?

Golden hour lasts as long as the Sun takes to cross a 10° band of sky, from 4° below to 6° above the horizon. Far from the equator the winter Sun moves along a shallow path, almost sideways, so it crosses that band slowly. In Oslo each golden hour lasts 2h 43m on 21 December 2024 against 2h 11m on 21 June. In Reykjavik on 21 December the Sun peaks at only 2.4°, so the morning and evening windows meet at solar noon and the light stays golden from 10:30 to 16:21. Around the equinoxes, when the Sun climbs most steeply, golden hour is at its shortest: 1h 4m in London.

What is the difference between golden hour and blue hour?

Golden hour is when the Sun is low, from 4° below to 6° above the horizon, giving warm light and long, soft shadows. Blue hour is the deeper twilight beyond it, with the Sun 4° to 6° below the horizon: no direct sunlight, a deep blue sky and city lights that balance with it. Blue hour comes before the morning golden hour and after the evening one. In London on 21 June 2024 the evening golden hour runs from 20:27 to 21:49 BST and blue hour from 21:49 to 22:09, 20 minutes; on 21 December blue hour lasts 15 minutes.

Is there a golden hour at the equator?

Yes, but it is short, because the Sun rises and sets almost vertically there and crosses the golden band quickly. In Quito golden hour lasts 44 minutes morning and evening all year, and blue hour about 9 minutes; on 21 June 2024 the evening golden hour runs from 17:49 to 18:33. Singapore, at 1.35° N, also gets 44 minutes. Be in position early: the light changes fast.

What does the calculator show during the midnight sun or polar night?

In Tromsø (69.6° N) on 15 June 2024 the Sun never sets and never drops below −4°, so the morning golden hour shows as until 02:58 and the evening one as from 22:32: golden light lasts all night, and blue hour does not occur. On 27 November 2024 Tromsø has polar night, yet the Sun climbs to 0.9° below the horizon at noon, so there is golden-hour light from 09:17 to 13:45 without a sunrise, with blue hour before and after it.

Why do other apps give different golden hour times?

There is no official definition. This calculator uses the Sun between −4° and +6°, which includes the warm afterglow just after sunset. Apps that end golden hour at sunset, or that simply take the hour after sunrise and before sunset, give shorter windows: in London on 21 June 2024 the Sun sets at 21:21 BST, but the evening golden hour here runs on to 21:49. Hills, buildings and cloud also change when the light actually reaches your subject.

How to use

Pick the shoot location and date to get both golden hour windows and the blue hour next to them in local time.

  1. Choose where you are shootingType the city's name and pick it from the list. Times are worked out for the city centre and shown in its time zone, so you can plan a shoot abroad without converting anything.
  2. Pick the shoot dateToday is filled in by default. Change the day, month or year and the windows update at once; check a few dates if your schedule is flexible.
  3. Read the golden hour windowsThe top card shows the morning and evening golden hour, for example 20:27 to 21:49 BST in London on 21 June 2024. Arrive before the window opens so you are set up when the light turns.
  4. Plan the blue hour and compare datesThe table adds the blue hour on the dark side of each golden hour, sunrise, sunset and how long each golden window lasts. Save a scenario, then try another date to compare window lengths.

Assumptions

  • Golden hour is the Sun's centre between −4° and +6° altitude and blue hour between −6° and −4°. Other apps use other bands, and some end golden hour at sunset, so their times can differ by up to half an hour.
  • Times assume a sea-level observer with a flat horizon and standard refraction. Mountains, buildings or cloud change when direct light reaches your subject and what colour it is.
  • Each city is a single point at its centre; times are shown in its time zone with daylight saving and rounded down to the minute, and a window that crosses midnight names the weekday.
  • If the Sun never climbs above 6°, the morning and evening windows meet at solar noon; if it never sinks below −4°, the window is open from the start of the day or runs into the night and no length is shown.

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