Golden Hour Calculator

Check the planning inputs

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Location source:

Start from a city preset, search a place, use browser GPS, approximate by IP, or enter coordinates manually.

City preset:

Presets are quick starts; check the UTC offset for daylight saving time before a real shoot.

Place search:

Search a city, landmark, or address, then confirm the UTC offset. Place search uses OpenStreetMap data.

Browser GPS:

Best for standing at the shooting spot; permission and device accuracy depend on the browser.

Approximate IP location:

Use only for rough planning when city search or GPS is unavailable.

Latitude:

Use decimal degrees for the planned shooting spot.

deg

Longitude:

Coordinates determine solar noon, rise/set times, and sun direction estimates.

deg

Shoot date:

Planning dates are interpreted with the UTC offset below.

UTC offset:

Examples: London summer +1, New York daylight time -4, Tokyo +9.

UTC

Planning focus:

Use evening for sunset portraits, morning for sunrise scenes, or both for a full shoot day.

Shoot profile:

Shape the recommendation around portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, video, or travel coverage.

Arrival buffer: {{ arrival_buffer }} min

Clock format:

Choose 24-hour labels for call sheets or 12-hour labels for casual planning.

Golden upper angle: {{ formatSignedDegrees(golden_altitude) }}

Blue outer angle: {{ formatSignedDegrees(blue_outer) }}

Blue/golden handoff: {{ formatSignedDegrees(blue_inner) }}

Window	Start	End	Duration	Shoot cue	Copy
{{ row.window }}	{{ row.start }}	{{ row.end }}	{{ row.duration }}	{{ row.cue }}

Planning item	Value	Detail	Copy
{{ row.item }}	{{ row.value }}	{{ row.detail }}

Marker	Time	Altitude	Azimuth	Note	Copy
{{ row.marker }}	{{ row.time }}	{{ row.altitude }}	{{ row.azimuth }}	{{ row.note }}

Chart renderer unavailable; use the Solar Markers table for azimuth and altitude values.

No finite solar direction markers are available for the selected date and altitude thresholds.

Chart renderer unavailable; use the Window Plan and Solar Markers tables for the same timing data.

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Golden hour is the low-sun period around sunrise and sunset when direct sunlight is warmer, softer, and more directional than midday light. Photographers and filmmakers use it for portraits, landscapes, city scenes, travel coverage, and b-roll because long shadows and lower contrast can make a scene easier to shape.

The clock time of golden hour is not fixed. It depends on date, latitude, longitude, and local time offset because those values determine the sun's apparent height above or below the horizon. Near the equator, the sun often moves through twilight quickly. At higher latitudes, the same altitude band can stretch much longer or may not be crossed in the standard way on some dates.

Solar altitude scale with horizon, golden hour, and blue hour boundaries.

Blue hour sits next to golden hour while the sun is still below the horizon and the sky can hold a deeper blue tone. These names describe useful planning windows, not promises about color. Clouds, haze, mountains, buildings, sea horizon, smoke, altitude, and local weather can move the useful light earlier or later than a calculated solar-altitude crossing.

How to Use This Tool:

Start by setting the shooting location and date, then shape the recommendation around the kind of shoot you are planning.

Choose a Location source. Use City preset for a fast planning example, Place search for a named city or landmark, Browser GPS when you are at the shooting spot, Approximate IP location only for rough planning, or Manual coordinates when you already know the latitude and longitude.
Set the Shoot date and UTC offset for the shoot location. The date controls the sun's seasonal path, while the offset controls the local clock labels. Check daylight saving time before using the result on a call sheet.
Select Planning focus for evening, morning, or both windows. The summary highlights that focus while the result tabs still keep the full day available.
Pick a Shoot profile and set the Arrival buffer. The profile changes practical cues for portraits, landscapes, city scenes, video, or travel scouting, and the buffer tells you when to be set before the chosen window starts.
Open Advanced when you need 12-hour or 24-hour clock labels, a different golden upper angle, a wider or narrower blue outer angle, or a different blue/golden handoff.
If a warning appears, correct the date, latitude, longitude, UTC offset, or angle order. Blue outer angle must stay below the handoff angle, and golden upper angle must stay above it.
Read Window Plan first, then use Shoot Brief, Solar Markers, Sun Direction, Light Curve, and JSON for call-sheet detail, chart review, or structured export.

Interpreting Results:

The summary highlights the selected morning, evening, or full-day golden-hour target. It also shows the location label, the golden-light duration, the arrival time after applying your setup buffer, and badges for shoot profile, latitude band, and UTC offset.

Window Plan lists morning blue hour, morning golden hour, evening golden hour, and evening blue hour with start time, end time, duration, and a shoot cue. A row can say that no crossing exists when the selected date and latitude do not pass through the configured altitude boundary.

Shoot Brief turns the calculation into planning language: target window, arrival time, profile cue, daylight span, location source, and method note. Solar Markers gives sunrise, sunset, solar noon, blue-hour edges, golden-hour edges, altitude labels, and azimuth directions. Sun Direction plots those azimuth markers against altitude so you can see whether key light is coming from the east, south, west, or another bearing during the planned window. Azimuth is measured clockwise from north, so east is about 90, south is about 180, and west is about 270.

Sun Direction: maps marker azimuth and altitude for composition planning, with a CSV export that matches the plotted points.
Light Curve: shows solar altitude through the local day so you can see how steeply the sun moves through the chosen bands.
Polar caution: means the normal low-angle crossing may not occur on that date. Long twilight, midnight sun, or very low winter sun can make the standard window idea less useful.
Fast twilight: usually appears near lower latitudes, where useful color can change quickly and the arrival buffer matters more.
IP estimate: is a planning fallback. Treat it as a city-level hint, not a precise shooting position.

Technical Details:

Solar altitude is the angle of the sun above or below the observer's horizon. A value of 0 deg is the geometric horizon, positive values put the sun above the horizon, and negative values put the sun below it. Golden-hour and blue-hour windows are found by solving for the local clock times when solar altitude crosses selected angle thresholds.

The seasonal part of the calculation comes from the day of year, the equation of time, and solar declination. The equation of time accounts for the difference between mean clock time and apparent solar time. Solar declination describes how far north or south of the celestial equator the sun appears on that date. Together with latitude, longitude, and UTC offset, those terms determine solar noon and the morning/evening crossing times.

Formula Core:

The core crossing equation solves the hour angle for a requested solar altitude. Angles are evaluated in radians internally and converted back to degrees or minutes for display.

\begin{matrix} z & = & 90 - a \\ \cos (H) & = & \frac{\cos (z)}{\cos (phi) \cos (delta)} - \tan (phi) \tan (delta) \\ M_{noon} & = & 720 - 4 lambda - E + 60 T \\ M_{morning} & = & M_{noon} - 4 H \\ M_{evening} & = & M_{noon} + 4 H \end{matrix}

Golden hour formula symbols
Symbol	Meaning	User-facing source or output
`a`	Target solar altitude in degrees.	Golden upper angle, blue/golden handoff, blue outer angle, or sunrise/sunset boundary.
`z`	Solar zenith angle, measured down from overhead.	Derived from the target altitude.
`H`	Hour angle from solar noon to the requested crossing.	Converted to minutes by multiplying degrees by 4.
`phi`	Latitude of the shooting location.	Latitude.
`lambda`	Longitude of the shooting location, east positive and west negative.	Longitude.
`delta`	Solar declination for the selected date.	Shown in the structured output as a solar term.
`E`	Equation of time in minutes.	Shown in the structured output as a solar term.
`T`	UTC offset in hours.	UTC offset.

For a given altitude threshold, the morning crossing is before solar noon and the evening crossing is after solar noon. The same equation is used for the upper golden boundary, the blue/golden handoff, and the blue outer edge. Sunrise and sunset use an apparent horizon value of -0.833 deg to account for the sun's apparent upper edge and a standard refraction allowance.

Window Boundaries:

Golden hour and blue hour boundary rules
Boundary	Default value	Adjustable range	Planning meaning
Golden upper angle	+6 deg	+4 deg to +10 deg	Upper edge of low warm sunlight before ordinary daylight takes over.
Blue/golden handoff	-4 deg	-5 deg to -2 deg	Shared edge between the blue-hour and golden-hour planning bands.
Blue outer angle	-6 deg	-10 deg to -5 deg	Outer blue-hour edge, near the civil twilight boundary at the default setting.
Sunrise or sunset	-0.833 deg	Fixed	Apparent upper-limb sunrise or sunset estimate with standard refraction allowance.

The phase labels follow inclusive boundaries at the handoff and golden upper angle. Altitudes from the handoff through the golden upper angle are labeled golden hour. Altitudes from the blue outer angle up to, but not including, the handoff are labeled blue hour. Higher values are daylight, and lower values are night or darker twilight.

Validation and Edge Cases:

Golden hour validation boundaries
Input or condition	Accepted range or rule	Why it matters
Latitude	-90 to +90 degrees	Determines the sun's seasonal arc and twilight duration.
Longitude	-180 to +180 degrees	Moves solar noon earlier or later within the selected UTC offset.
UTC offset	-12 to +14 hours	Converts solar minutes into local clock labels.
Angle order	Blue outer below handoff; golden upper above handoff.	Prevents overlapping or inverted blue and golden windows.
No altitude crossing	Returned when the requested altitude is never reached.	Common near polar seasons or when the configured upper angle is above the day's maximum sun altitude.

Displayed times are rounded to minute-level planning labels. The Light Curve samples solar altitude through the local day for visual review, while the window and marker rows use the calculated threshold crossings. Small differences from observatory-grade ephemerides can occur because this is a planning model, not a full astronomical almanac.

Limitations, Privacy, and Accuracy Notes:

Golden-hour timing should be treated as field-planning guidance. Terrain, skyline height, tree cover, mountains, coastal refraction, haze, smoke, clouds, and local weather can change when usable light reaches the subject. A west-facing street canyon can lose direct sun before the astronomical sunset, and an elevated overlook can hold light longer than a flat-horizon estimate.

The UTC offset is manual. If daylight saving time is wrong for the selected date, every local clock label can shift by an hour even when the solar geometry is otherwise correct. Verify the offset for the location and date before sending arrival times to other people.

Manual coordinates, city presets, and the solar calculation can run without a requested location lookup. Place search sends the entered place text to OpenStreetMap Nominatim when you press the search button. Browser GPS asks for permission before using the device location. Approximate IP location uses network-derived location data and can point to an ISP, VPN, proxy, carrier gateway, or city center rather than the actual shooting spot.

Do not use the result for safety-critical navigation, aviation, legal sunrise/sunset determinations, or any decision where a few minutes of error could matter. For those cases, use an authoritative almanac or local survey source and confirm field conditions on site.

Worked Examples:

Evening portrait session. Choose the city or coordinates, set the shoot date and correct UTC offset, select Evening golden hour, and use the portrait profile. If the summary says the evening window is 20:05 to 21:17 with a 25 minute buffer, plan to have the subject, framing, and exposure ready by 19:40.

Cityscape with blue-hour handoff. Use the city profile and read Window Plan, Solar Markers, and Sun Direction. The evening golden end and evening blue end help split handheld warm-light shots from tripod work when street lights and building lights start balancing against the sky.

High-latitude summer scouting. A location such as Reykjavik in summer can report long twilight or no standard crossing for one of the configured boundaries. In that case, the latitude badge and Light Curve matter more than the word "hour"; use the curve to decide when the sun is low enough for the look you want.

Manual field location. For a remote viewpoint, enter decimal latitude and longitude and set the UTC offset yourself. This avoids a search mismatch, but the result still assumes the visible horizon is not blocked by terrain or structures.

FAQ:

Why is golden hour sometimes much shorter or longer than one hour?

The name is traditional. The actual duration depends on how quickly the sun moves through the selected altitude band, which changes with latitude, date, and the angle of the sun's path near the horizon.

Why do I need to set the UTC offset manually?

Coordinates determine solar geometry, but the UTC offset determines the local clock label. Daylight saving time and regional time-zone rules can change by date, so the offset should be checked before relying on the schedule.

What does "No standard crossing" mean?

It means the sun does not pass through that configured altitude boundary on the selected date and location. This can happen in polar seasons, very long twilight, or winter days when the sun never climbs above the selected upper angle.

Is browser GPS more accurate than IP location?

Usually, yes, especially outdoors on a device with a clear location signal. IP location is only an approximate fallback and may describe network infrastructure rather than the actual camera position.

What is solar azimuth useful for?

Azimuth gives the compass direction of the sun at a marker time. It helps compare a planned shot direction with sunrise, sunset, or low-angle light direction, but it does not account for blocked horizons or reflected light.

Do exported tables make the timing exact?

No. Exports preserve the same planning estimate shown on the page. Use them for notes, scouting, and call sheets, then verify weather, access, foreground, and horizon conditions before the shoot.

Glossary:

Golden hour: The low-sun planning band around sunrise or sunset, using the configured handoff and upper altitude boundaries.
Blue hour: The nearby twilight band below the golden handoff, often useful for skyline color, city lights, silhouettes, and reflections.
Solar altitude: The sun's angle above or below the horizon. Positive values are above the horizon, and negative values are below it.
Solar azimuth: The sun's compass direction measured clockwise from north.
Solar noon: The time when the sun reaches its highest altitude for that date and longitude.
Equation of time: The date-dependent difference between apparent solar time and mean clock time.
Solar declination: The sun's apparent north-south position over the year, which drives seasonal changes in sun height.
UTC offset: The number of hours added to or subtracted from UTC to label the result in local clock time.