--- title: "Golden Hour & Blue Hour Calculator | Blue Hour Club" description: "Golden hour and blue hour times for any city and date, with sunrise and sunset direction, a sun elevation chart and a week ahead. Free and offline." url: https://bluehourclub.cyou/ --- # Golden hour and blue hour calculator When the light turns warm and low, and when the sky glows deep blue after sunset, for any place and date, with the direction the Sun rises and sets. ## How the times are worked out Golden and blue hour are defined by how high the Sun is, not by the clock. Here, by default, **golden hour** is while the Sun's centre is between 4° below and 6° above the horizon, and **blue hour** while it is between 6° and 4° below. These are common choices in photography planning apps, but there is no official definition: some apps use 0° to 6° or 0° to 10° for golden hour, and the blue tones are strongest with the Sun 4° to 8° down, so you can switch to those ranges. Elevations are geometric, the convention the US Naval Observatory uses for twilight, so with the default ranges the morning blue hour begins exactly when civil twilight does, with the Sun 6° below the horizon. ## Reading the results Pick a city or type coordinates, then a date. The four frames give the morning and evening blue and golden hours with their length. Sunrise and sunset show the compass bearing of the Sun, so you know which way to face. The chart traces the Sun's height through the day; on today's date a marker shows where it is now. The week table helps you pick a shoot day, and *Add golden hours* saves the week's evening golden hours as calendar events. ## Latitude and season Near the equator the Sun drops steeply, so golden hour can last under half an hour. Far north or south it slides along the horizon: in a Scandinavian midwinter the whole short day can be golden, and in midsummer there may be no blue hour at all because the Sun never gets 4° below the horizon. The calculator says so when that happens. ## Sources - Wikipedia, [Golden hour (photography)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography)) and [Blue hour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_hour) (the elevation ranges used by planning apps). - US Naval Observatory, [Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/RST_defs). - Jean Meeus, *Astronomical Algorithms*, 2nd ed., Willmann-Bell, 1998 ([Open Library record](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24327734M)), for the Sun's position. ## More photo calculators Exposure, sharpness, filters and prints. Every tool runs on your device and keeps working offline. - [Exposure value (EV) calculator](https://bluehourclub.cyou/exposure-value-calculator/): EV from aperture, shutter and ISO, with every equivalent exposure. - [Depth of field calculator](https://bluehourclub.cyou/depth-of-field-calculator/): Near and far limits of sharpness, hyperfocal distance and circle of confusion. - [ND filter exposure calculator](https://bluehourclub.cyou/nd-filter-calculator/): Long-exposure shutter times behind ND filters, with a countdown timer. - [Print size and DPI calculator](https://bluehourclub.cyou/print-size-calculator/): Pixels to inches or centimetres at any DPI, and the largest good print. ## Recommended Two free tools from elsewhere that come in handy around a photography hobby. ### Enter photo contests without the newsletter flood Photo competitions, free preset packs and gear giveaways nearly always ask for an email address. CleanTempMail gives you a free temporary inbox, no sign-up, and its messages are deleted after three days, so the marketing that follows never reaches your real inbox. [Get a temporary inbox](https://cleantempmail.com/) ### Check a lens bargain before you pay A used lens at half the usual price from a shop you have never heard of? WebTraceCheck's free domain lookup shows how long the site has existed, and its security headers check shows how carefully it is run, before you hand over card details. [Look up a shop's domain](https://webtracecheck.com/) ## Questions **Why is the evening golden hour longer than an hour?** It depends on how steeply the Sun sets. At mid latitudes in winter it sinks at a shallow angle, so the 10° of golden-hour elevation take well over an hour. **Does weather change the times?** No. Cloud and haze change the colour and contrast, not when the Sun reaches each elevation. Hills or buildings to the west end your evening light earlier. **How accurate are the times?** Sunrise, sunset and twilight from the same code match the US Naval Observatory's tables for London, Sydney and Tromsø to within about a minute.