Magic hour calculator
In film, magic hour is the time after sunset when there is no direct sun but the sky is still bright. Pick a place and a date to get it, with the golden hour before it and the blue hour inside it. Every time says which definition it uses.
Advanced: observer height and obstruction
Calculating…
Exposure ladder
My exposure at sunset (optional)
Enter what you shoot at sunset (sunrise for the morning) and every row gets exact settings. Kept only in this browser.
Clear-sky estimate, not a light meter
How the calculator works
For the place and date you pick, it computes the sun’s height above the horizon through the day and finds the moments it crosses 6° above, the horizon, 4° below, 6° below and 12° below. The three definitions differ only in which of those crossings they call golden hour and blue hour, so switching changes the labels, not the sun. Sunrise and sunset use the standard 0.833° below a flat horizon. Directions are compass bearings: 90° is east, 180° south, 270° west.
The curve shows the sun’s height over 24 hours in local time. The shaded bands are the golden and blue hours for the definition you chose; the red line is sunset.
The exposure ladder lists every five minutes from sunset to the end of civil twilight (or from first light to sunrise), with the sun’s height and how many stops darker the scene is than at sunset. It is a clear-sky estimate, not a light meter: the model runs from about 500 lux with the sun on the horizon to about 3 lux when it is 6° below, which is about 6⅓ stops between sunset and the end of civil twilight, or about one stop every 4 minutes in New York in late September. The ladder below the calculator works it out for your place and date. Enter your exposure at sunset and every row gets a setting, taking the ND out first, then opening the aperture, then raising EI.
Questions
Why do golden hour and blue hour times differ between apps?
Because there is no standard definition. Only sunrise, sunset and the three twilights have official definitions (US Naval Observatory). PhotoPills counts golden hour from the sun 6° above the horizon to 4° below it and blue hour from 4° to 6° below. The Photographer’s Ephemeris counts golden hour only while the sun is above the horizon (6° to 0°) and defines no blue hour. In film, magic hour usually means the time after sunset until the sun is 6° below the horizon. Pick a definition above and every time on this page is labelled with it.
Why do sites disagree about sunset by a minute or two?
Sunset is the moment the top of the sun touches a flat horizon, which astronomers put at the sun’s centre 0.833° below the horizon (half the sun’s width plus average refraction). Some sites use a slightly lower angle, round differently, or use a simpler solar model. For New York on September 27, 2026, published sunsets range from about 6:44 to 6:46 PM. For shooting, a minute does not matter; your horizon does.
How long is magic hour really?
Not an hour. From sunset to the end of civil twilight (sun 6° below the horizon) takes about 21 minutes at the equator and about 27 minutes in New York in late September; it gets longer toward the poles and near the solstices. Néstor Almendros, who shot Days of Heaven almost entirely in this light, said the usable part was about 20 to 25 minutes at most. Plan for 60 to 75% of the window shown here.
What do observer height and obstruction change?
Standing higher lowers the horizon, so the sun sets a little later (about a minute from 100 m at mid-latitudes). Buildings or a ridge toward the sunset do the opposite: direct sunlight ends when the sun drops behind them, which starts the soft, shadowless part of magic hour earlier. The calculator shows both times.
Does the calculator know the weather?
No. All times assume a clear sky and the horizon you set. Low cloud on the horizon ends the colour early; high cloud can light up after sunset. The light-level figures are clear-sky estimates, not a light meter.