What golden hour actually is
Photographers love the hour before sunset because the sun is low: light travels through more atmosphere, turns warmer, and comes in from the side instead of from overhead, so faces are lit evenly without the harsh shadows of midday. There is no single official definition. This site uses the one built into SunCalc, the widely used open-source sun-position library: golden hour starts when the centre of the sun is 6° above the horizon and ends at sunset.
Right after sunset comes blue hour. Here it means the time from sunset to civil dusk, when the sun is 6° below the horizon — the same boundary the National Weather Service uses for the end of civil twilight. The sky turns deep blue, venue lights start to glow, and photographers switch to flash.
Hills, trees and buildings change what you see. These are calculations for a flat horizon: in a valley, behind a city block or at a lakeside venue with mountains to the west, direct sun can disappear 20–30 minutes before the official sunset. Walk your portrait spot at the same time of day before the wedding if you can.
How golden hour moves through the year
Here is golden hour and sunset on mid-month Saturdays in 2027, computed for each city centre:
| City | March 20 | June 19 | September 18 | October 16 | December 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 5:29–6:13 pm | 8:28–9:22 pm | 6:28–7:12 pm | 5:22–6:08 pm | 2:52–3:53 pm |
| Edinburgh | 5:37–6:26 pm | 8:59–10:03 pm | 6:38–7:27 pm | 5:21–6:13 pm | 2:21–3:40 pm |
| New York | 6:32–7:08 pm | 7:50–8:31 pm | 6:27–7:03 pm | 5:39–6:17 pm | 3:48–4:32 pm |
| Charleston | 6:59–7:32 pm | 7:55–8:32 pm | 6:52–7:24 pm | 6:14–6:48 pm | 4:40–5:17 pm |
| Sydney | 6:37–7:10 pm | 4:16–4:55 pm | 5:16–5:49 pm | 6:36–7:09 pm | 7:28–8:05 pm |
Three things stand out.
The swing is huge. In London, sunset on a mid-December Saturday is 5 h 29 min earlier on the clock than in mid-June. A 4 pm ceremony that sits comfortably before a June golden hour ends in the dark in December.
Latitude stretches the hour. Near the equator the sun drops steeply, so golden hour is short — about 33 minutes in Charleston in September, against 49 minutes in Edinburgh. Far north in midsummer it stretches past an hour (64 minutes in Edinburgh in June), and blue hour does too.
The southern hemisphere is reversed. Sydney’s latest sunsets are in December and January; June is the darkest month. Daylight saving there runs from October to April, so the clock jumps an hour in early October and early April.
For any of the 16 destinations covered, the month pages list every Saturday — for example London in June, New York in October or Sydney in March.
Fitting golden-hour portraits into the day
There are three places portraits can go, and the right one depends on when sunset falls relative to your ceremony.
During cocktail hour
If the ceremony ends roughly 1–2 hours before sunset, golden hour overlaps the cocktail hour. That is the easy case: after family and wedding party photos, the couple portraits are the golden-hour portraits. Keep the family list tight so you reach them in time — every extra grouping costs 2–3 minutes of the best light.
Between dinner courses
With a ceremony 3½–4 hours before sunset, golden hour lands during dinner. Plan a 20-minute slip-away between courses: the planner or coordinator tells the couple when to go, the photographer leaves their own meal, and the caterer holds the couple’s plates. In the timeline generator this is the default for a classic 4 pm summer wedding.
If speeches are scheduled between courses at the same moment, something has to give. The planner moves the speeches until the couple is back rather than sending them out mid-toast.
Between the formalities
When golden hour lands right on the parent dances or the cake, the engine inserts the portraits into the reception sequence instead — dances, then portraits, then cake — so nothing clashes and the slot still ends before sunset. You will see a tip explaining what moved.
When sunset comes too early
From October to February in the UK and the northern US, sunset can arrive before or during an afternoon ceremony. Options:
- First look. See each other before the ceremony and take couple and wedding-party portraits in the afternoon light. This is the only way to get daylight portraits with a ceremony after sunset. The first look timeline guide shows both versions of the day.
- Move the ceremony earlier. A 1 or 2 pm start in December keeps family photos in daylight; see the 2 pm ceremony timeline.
- Plan for the dark. Blue hour is short but beautiful, and night portraits with off-camera flash, fairy lights or sparklers are their own style. Ask your photographer to show you examples of their night work.
When sunset comes too late
The opposite happens in Scotland and northern England in June, where sunset is after 10 pm. Golden hour then falls during dancing, which is fine — but a sparkler exit at 10:30 pm will still be in twilight. The planner warns when an exit happens before civil dusk.
How to use this on your own date
- Enter the date, venue and ceremony time in the planner. If your venue isn’t in the town list, use your phone’s location or paste coordinates from a map.
- Read the three numbers above the sky ribbon: golden hour starts, sunset, blue hour ends.
- Check where the gold portrait block landed and whether a tip or conflict appeared.
- Drag the portrait block if your photographer prefers a different moment; anything it collides with is flagged.
- Send the photographer their run sheet — it includes golden hour, sunset and blue hour for your date.