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Golden Hour & Blue Hour Planner —
Shoot Timer for Photographers & Drone Pilots
Missing the light by ten minutes is the most expensive mistake in outdoor photography — and it happens because most shooters guess instead of calculate. Enter your location and date and this planner gives you exact golden hour and blue hour windows, a live countdown to your next shootable phase, sun direction for your compass, and mode-specific recommendations for timelapse, drone, portrait, city, and nature shoots.
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The Fundamentals
What Is Golden Hour — and How Long Does It Actually Last?
Golden hour is the period when the sun sits between −4° and +6° above the horizon. At those altitudes, sunlight travels through a much thicker slice of atmosphere than at midday, which scatters the short blue wavelengths and lets the long warm wavelengths — amber, orange, red — dominate. The result is soft, directional light with naturally long shadows and a colour temperature that drops from around 5,000K at the edges to roughly 3,200K at the core of the window.
The name is misleading. Golden hour rarely lasts a full hour. At mid-latitudes in summer it can run close to 90 minutes in the morning and again in the evening. In winter at the same location it can compress to under 30 minutes. Near the poles it can stretch across the entire day. The only way to know your actual window is to calculate it for your specific latitude, longitude, and date — which is exactly what this tool does.
What Is Blue Hour?
Blue hour is the phase immediately before golden hour in the morning and immediately after it in the evening — when the sun sits between −6° and −4° below the horizon. The sky is illuminated entirely by indirect, scattered light. There is no direct sun, no harsh shadows, and no hot spots. The colour temperature is extremely high — around 10,000–12,000K — which renders as the deep, even blue that gives the phase its name.
For timelapse photographers, blue hour is the most technically demanding window of the day: exposure values are changing rapidly, the sky is still bright enough to compete with artificial lights, and the transition into golden hour happens faster than most people expect. For urban and architectural photographers, it is often the single best window of the day — the moment when city lights and ambient sky reach the same exposure value and you stop needing to bracket.
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Step-by-Step Guide
How to Use the Golden Hour & Blue Hour Planner
Step 1 — Set your location.
Type your city name and select it from the dropdown, or click Use My Location to use your device's GPS. You can also paste coordinates directly in the format 48.13, 11.58. The tool calculates for any location on Earth.
Step 2 — Select your date.
The date defaults to today. Use the arrow buttons to step forward or backward by one day, or pick any date from the calendar. Use the Compare panel at the bottom to find which date gives you the longest golden hour window at your location.
Step 3 — Choose your shoot mode.
Select Timelapse, Drone, Photo, City, or Nature. The Shoot Planner section updates immediately with mode-specific timing recommendations, legal flight windows for drone pilots, ND filter guidance, and workflow notes for your shoot type.
Step 4 — Check the countdown.
The countdown shows time remaining until your next shootable phase and calculates your arrive-by time based on your selected lead time (15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes). Set a reminder before you leave the house.
Step 5 — Read the compass.
The Sun Direction compass shows today's sunrise and sunset azimuths — the compass bearing where the sun will rise and set — along with the full arc of the sun's path across the sky. Use this to pre-position your camera, pick your hero angle, or confirm whether your subject will be front-lit or back-lit during the window you are planning to shoot.
Step 6 — Add phases to your shoot plan and export.
Click the + Plan button on any phase card to add it to your personal shoot plan for the day. Use Copy Shoot Brief to copy a formatted text summary of all your times, azimuths, moon data, and arrive-by time — ready to paste into a message or a notes app.
FAQ - Golden Hour & Blue Hour
What time is golden hour today?
Golden hour time depends entirely on your location and the date — it shifts by several minutes per week as the seasons change and by hours as you move between latitudes. This tool calculates exact golden hour start and end times for any location and date using the Jean Meeus solar algorithm, the same engine used by professional photography planning apps. Enter your location above to see today’s times.
How long does golden hour last?
At mid-latitudes (roughly 40°–55° north or south), morning and evening golden hour each last between 35 and 75 minutes. At latitudes closer to the equator the window compresses — sometimes to 20 minutes or less. At latitudes above 60° in summer, the sun can remain in the golden hour altitude band for most of the day. The planner shows the exact duration for your location and date.
What is the difference between golden hour and blue hour?
Golden hour occurs when the sun is between −4° and +6° above the horizon. The light is warm, directional, and low-angled, producing long shadows and rich amber tones. Blue hour occurs when the sun is between −6° and −4° below the horizon — meaning the sun has not yet risen or has already set. The sky is lit entirely by scattered indirect light, producing cool, even, shadowless illumination. Blue hour always precedes golden hour in the morning and follows it in the evening.
What altitude does the sun need to be for golden hour photography?
The sun needs to be between −4° and +6° above the horizon for golden hour light. The warmest, most directional quality occurs in the first 15–20 minutes after the sun crosses −4° in the morning (or the last 15–20 minutes before it descends back to −4° in the evening). The tool displays sun altitude in real time in the sky banner and on the compass.
Can I use this tool to plan drone flights during golden hour?
Yes. Select Drone mode in the Shoot Mode selector and the Planner will show your legal EASA flight window (civil twilight to civil twilight), the best orbit window for warm even light on your subject, and a battery timing recommendation. Under EU regulations, drone flight is generally permitted from civil twilight to civil twilight — the tool calculates those times for your specific location and date.
What sun direction should I face during golden hour?
For front-lit subjects with warm golden fill, face your subject toward the sun — your camera points toward the sun. For dramatic rim-lit or backlit shots, face your subject away from the sun so the light wraps around the edges. The compass on this page shows the sunrise and sunset azimuth in compass degrees so you can pre-position before you arrive on location.
Why does blue hour look better for cityscapes than golden hour?
During blue hour, city lights and the ambient sky reach a similar exposure value — usually within two to three stops of each other. This means you can expose for both in a single frame without the sky blowing out or the city going dark. During golden hour the sky is typically five or more stops brighter than artificial lights, making a balanced exposure much harder to achieve. Evening blue hour is also the window when long-exposure light trails from traffic are most visible against the sky.
What is the best ND filter for golden hour timelapse?
For golden hour timelapse using the 180° rule, a good starting point is an ND8 (3 stops) at the very start of the window when the sun is still low, moving to ND16 or ND32 (4–5 stops) as the sun rises and the scene brightens. The exact value depends on your aperture, ISO, and frame rate. Use the AeroTimelapse ND Filter Calculator for a precise recommendation based on your actual settings.
Also From AeroTimelapse
Complete Your Pre-Flight Workflow
The Drone Shot Planner handles your cinematic shot geometry and camera settings. These AeroTimelapse tools complete the rest of your planning:
Know Your Window. Arrive Ready. Get the Shot.
The difference between a mediocre frame and a portfolio shot is usually eight minutes of planning the night before. Set your location, read your times, check the compass bearing, and be on location with your gear ready before the light arrives.
Need help capturing professional drone footage for your next project but not ready to invest in the gear yet? Check out our Drone Videography service to see how Aero Timelapse Studio can help elevate your production.