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Golden Hour Calculator

Calculate golden hour timing for photography at a given latitude and date.

About Golden Hour Calculator

Golden hour lasts longer at higher latitudes because the sun crosses the horizon at a shallower angle. Near the equator it can be under half an hour, while at sixty degrees it stretches past an hour. Tropical photographers get very little golden light, which is why the same scene photographs so differently at high latitudes.

Formula

Golden Hour

Golden hour length scales with 1 ÷ cos(latitude), because the sun sets at a shallower angle

golden hour
The period after sunrise and before sunset with warm, soft light
blue hour
The twilight period when the sky is deep blue

Worked example

With the default values below, Golden Hour Calculator returns Golden Hour Duration of 49.5. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Latitudeaccepts -66–66 degrees
45 degrees
Day of the yearaccepts 1–366
172
Sunrise timeaccepts 0–23.75 h
5.5 h
Sunset timeaccepts 0–23.75 h
20.5 h

Results

Golden Hour Duration
49.5 min
Morning Golden Hour
05:30 to 06:19
Evening Golden Hour
19:41 to 20:30
Blue Hour Duration
31.1 min
Total Golden Light per Day
99.0 min

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Golden Hour
  3. 3Golden Hour Duration= 49.5 min
  4. 4Morning Golden Hour= 05:30 to 06:19
  5. 5Evening Golden Hour= 19:41 to 20:30
  6. 6Blue Hour Duration= 31.1 min
  7. 7Total Golden Light per Day= 99.0 min

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Golden Hour calculated?

Golden hour length scales with 1 ÷ cos(latitude), because the sun sets at a shallower angle Golden hour lasts longer at higher latitudes because the sun crosses the horizon at a shallower angle. Near the equator it can be under half an hour, while at sixty degrees it stretches past an hour.

Why does Golden Hour matter?

Tropical photographers get very little golden light, which is why the same scene photographs so differently at high latitudes.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 4 inputs: Latitude, Day of the year, Sunrise time, Sunset time. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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