Early Blue Hour
N/AN/Aelevation
Cool twilight begins well before sunrise. Deep blue tones dominate; ambient light is minimal. Excellent for long exposures.
Find your
golden hour.
New York, NY, USA
Time zone: America/New_York · Lat: 40.7128 · Lng: -74.0060
Su
Mo
Tu
We
Th
Fr
Sa
New York, NY, USA · 40.71°N · 74.01°W · America/New_York
Golden Hour Calculator: Find the Best Natural Light for Photography
Plan your photography around the changing position of the sun. Golden Hour Time is a free online golden hour calculator that helps you find golden hour and blue hour times for any location and date. Check morning and evening light windows, sunrise and sunset, solar position and weather conditions to understand how natural light will change throughout the day.
Whether you're planning a landscape, portrait, architecture, travel or outdoor commercial shoot, knowing when the light will be right makes it easier to prepare. Choose your location, select a date and use the results to build your photography schedule around the available natural light.
Find Golden Hour Times for Any Location and Date
Golden hour doesn't happen at the same time everywhere. Its timing and duration change with your geographical location, latitude, longitude and date. Even at the same location, the available light windows shift throughout the year as the sun's position changes.
Use the golden hour calculator to find golden hour times by location and date for your chosen place. You can check golden hour today, look up golden hour tomorrow or select a future date to plan a shoot in advance.
Instead of relying on a general sunrise or sunset schedule, calculate the light windows for the exact place and date where you intend to photograph.
What Is Golden Hour in Photography?
Golden hour is the period when the sun is low near the horizon, producing warm, directional light and softer shadows. It generally occurs shortly after sunrise and before sunset, although its duration varies depending on location and season.
Photographers value this light for its warmth, direction and ability to add depth to an image. It can create longer shadows, richer highlights and a more dimensional look without relying entirely on artificial lighting.
Golden hour is useful for outdoor portraits, landscapes, architecture, travel and lifestyle photography. Understanding when it begins and ends helps you choose the right time to shoot and make better use of the available light.
Morning and Evening Golden Hour
Golden hour occurs around both sunrise and sunset, but the two periods can offer different shooting conditions.
Morning golden hour brings the first warm light of the day. It can be useful for landscapes, outdoor portraits and architecture, particularly when you want softer surroundings and a quieter location.
Evening golden hour takes place as the sun approaches the horizon. It can produce warm directional light, longer shadows and opportunities for backlighting and silhouettes.
Golden Hour Time displays both windows so you can compare their timings and plan when to arrive, prepare your equipment and start shooting.
Calculate Blue Hour Times
Blue hour is the period around sunrise and sunset when the sun is below the horizon and the sky takes on cooler blue tones. The available light is softer and more subdued than during golden hour.
A blue hour calculator helps you identify the morning and evening blue hour windows for your selected location and date. This period can be especially useful for cityscapes, architecture, landscapes and photographs that combine ambient daylight with artificial lighting.
Use the calculator to check morning and evening blue hour timings and plan your shoot around the changing colours of the sky.
Sunrise, Sunset and Sun Position
Sunrise and sunset times provide useful reference points, but they don't tell the whole story of how light will behave during the day.
The calculator also provides solar information, including the sun's position and elevation, so you can understand how its angle changes over time. Solar noon helps you identify when the sun reaches its highest position for the day.
These details can help photographers think about shooting direction, shadow length and the relationship between the sun and their subject. They are useful when planning outdoor compositions, particularly for architecture and landscape photography.
Plan Your Shoot With Weather and Lighting Insights
The quality of natural light is influenced by more than the position of the sun. Cloud cover, wind and precipitation can all affect the conditions you encounter on location.
Golden Hour Time brings weather information together with solar timings to give you a broader picture of the day. Review the available weather conditions before deciding when to shoot, what equipment to prepare and whether you may need an alternative plan.
The Natural Light Report brings the day's solar information, weather context and lighting insights together in one place, making it easier to prepare before you leave for a shoot.
How to Use the Golden Hour Calculator
Planning your next photography session takes just a few steps:
- Enter a city or choose your shooting location.
- Select the date you want to photograph.
- Calculate the results for your chosen location and date.
- Review morning and evening golden hour or blue hour timings.
- Check sunrise, sunset, solar position and weather information.
- Use the Preparation Timeline and Natural Light Report to organise your shoot.
Plan a Shoot Around Natural Light
Golden Hour Time is designed to help photographers, cinematographers and videographers make better-informed decisions about outdoor shooting schedules.
The calculator uses astronomical calculations based on Jean Meeus' work to determine solar events for the selected location and date. Results are presented in the relevant local time zone, helping you compare light windows and understand how the sun moves throughout the day.
Use the Preparation Timeline to organise your arrival, setup, shooting window and wrap-up. Check the available conditions in advance, decide which period suits your subject and make the most of the natural light at your location.
Find the light. Plan your shoot. Make every hour count.
Frequently Asked Questions
Golden hour is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun sits low on the horizon. The light is warm, directional, and softer than midday sun. Photographers use it for portraits, landscapes, and outdoor scenes because long shadows and warm colour temperature add depth and atmosphere.
Duration varies by season, latitude, and date. Near the equator it can be brief; at higher latitudes in summer it may extend well over an hour. The calculator shows the exact duration in minutes for the selected location and date.
Yes. The calculator accepts GPS coordinates and computes solar events for that precise geographic point. The results assume a flat horizon, so local terrain, buildings, or trees will alter actual sunrise, sunset, and light conditions at the site.
The calculations use astronomical algorithms based on Jean Meeus' work. They are accurate for the geographic coordinates and date selected. The results assume a flat horizon, so local terrain, buildings, trees, or other obstructions may alter actual sunrise, sunset, and light conditions at the site.
The calculator provides morning and evening golden hour and blue hour timings, sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, sun position and elevation, and weather conditions such as cloud cover, wind and precipitation probability.
Weather provides useful planning context, such as cloud cover, temperature, wind, and precipitation probability, which influence how the scene looks. However, weather information does not change the underlying astronomical solar calculations; sunrise, sunset, and golden hour times are based purely on location and date.
Blue hour is the period of civil twilight before sunrise and after sunset when the sun is below the horizon but indirect light gives the sky a cool, deep blue tone. It produces a different mood from golden hour and is preferred for atmospheric portraits, city scenes, and long-exposure photography.
Blue hour times depend on your location and the selected date. Enter your city or GPS coordinates, choose the date and calculate to find the morning and evening blue hour timings for your chosen location.
Golden hour produces warm directional light shortly after sunrise and before sunset. Blue hour is the shorter civil twilight window before sunrise and after sunset, when indirect light gives the sky a cool, deep tone. The calculator provides both modes for different photographic needs.
Enter your city or GPS coordinates in the calculator, select your preferred date and click Calculate. The results provide the morning and evening blue hour timings for your selected location.