How to use it
- Choose the Date you plan to shoot.
- Type a City from the list. Or leave it empty and type the Latitude, the Longitude and the Time zone.
- Read Golden hour, evening first; the other three periods are above the result and in the table.
- Check the Place and time zone line: every clock time is in that zone, including its daylight saving time.
How the periods are defined
The Golden hour (photography) article on Wikipedia notes that there is no single definition in terms of the Sun's altitude. Planning applications vary, and one of the ranges they use is 4 degrees below the horizon to 6 degrees above it; this calculator uses that range for the golden hour.
The Blue hour article on Wikipedia places the blue hour in the twilight around sunrise and sunset, when the Sun is several degrees below the horizon. It has no official definition, and it gives 4 to 6 degrees below as the typical planning range, which this calculator uses.
Golden hour: the Sun's centre from −4° to +6°
Blue hour: the Sun's centre from −6° to −4°
Morning: the Sun rises through the first altitude and then the second
Evening: the Sun sets through the upper altitude and then the lowerHow the times are found
Each time is the instant when the centre of the Sun crosses an altitude, computed with astronomy-engine, an open-source astronomy library under the MIT licence. The altitude is geometric: the calculator does not correct for refraction, so the boundary is the true centre of the disc, not its visible edge.
The city list comes from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). A city's time zone is the zone of its entry in that list, and a time is written in that zone, with its daylight saving time on the chosen date.
What this page does not show
- The weather and the light on the day: the times are astronomy, not a forecast of cloud or haze.
- The direction of the light, the shadows and the look of a particular subject.
- Days when the Sun does not reach these altitudes, which happen far to the north or south in summer and winter. Those periods show a dash.
Worked example: Istanbul, 21 June 2026
Istanbul is at 41.01° N, 28.95° E in the time zone Europe/Istanbul. On 21 June 2026 the morning blue hour runs from 04:58 to 05:11, and the morning golden hour from 05:11 to 06:13.
The evening golden hour runs from 19:58, when the Sun is 6 degrees above the horizon, to 21:00, when it is 4 degrees below. The evening blue hour follows from 21:00 to 21:13, when the Sun reaches 6 degrees below the horizon.
| Period | Starts | Ends | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue hour, morning | 04:58 | 05:11 | 13 |
| Golden hour, morning | 05:11 | 06:13 | 62 |
| Golden hour, evening | 19:58 | 21:00 | 62 |
| Blue hour, evening | 21:00 | 21:13 | 13 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the golden hour?
The golden hour is the period around sunrise and sunset when the Sun is low over the horizon. The Golden hour (photography) article on Wikipedia notes that it has no single definition in altitude, so this page uses the planning range of 4 degrees below to 6 degrees above.
What is the blue hour?
The blue hour is the twilight period when the Sun is between 4 and 6 degrees below the horizon, before sunrise or after sunset. The Blue hour article on Wikipedia says the term has no official definition and gives 4 to 6 degrees below as the typical planning range.
Why do the times change from one city to another?
Each place has its own latitude, longitude and time zone. The height of the Sun at a given time depends on the latitude and the season, and the clock time depends on the longitude within the zone, so two cities in the same zone can have different times.
Are the times in local time?
Yes. Each time is written on the clock of the place's time zone, such as Europe/Istanbul, and that includes daylight saving time on the date you choose.
Why is one of the periods missing for some dates?
Far to the north or south, in summer or in winter, the Sun may not reach the altitudes on that date. The calculator shows a dash for a period the Sun does not complete on that day.
Does the calculator allow for the air bending the light?
No. The altitudes are those of the centre of the Sun, with no correction for the refraction of the atmosphere, which is how the astronomy library computes twilight periods.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Golden hour (photography), the altitude ranges used for planning
- Wikipedia: Blue hour, the 4 to 6 degree range below the horizon
- astronomy-engine, the open-source astronomy library (MIT) that computes the Sun's altitude crossings
- GeoNames: cities with more than 15,000 people (CC BY 4.0)
Figures and text last checked on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.