Reading the times
| Time | The sun is | What the light does |
|---|---|---|
| Morning blue hour | 8 to 4 degrees below the horizon | Even, cool, blue sky with no direct sun |
| Morning golden hour | 4 below to 6 above | Low, warm, long shadows, soft contrast |
| Sunrise and sunset | Its center at 0.833 below, the top edge on the horizon | The moment the sun appears or goes |
| Solar noon | Highest in the sky | Hardest light and shortest shadows |
| Evening golden hour | 6 above to 4 below | The warm light most exteriors are scheduled around |
| Evening blue hour | 4 to 8 below | City lights and sky in balance |
There is no official definition of golden hour. Photographers and apps use slightly different angles, so treat the edges as a guide and plan to be ready before the window opens. Clouds, hills and buildings to the east or west change what you see on the day.
Worked example
For Orlando on Monday, November 2, 2026, the sun rises at 6:38 AM and sets at 5:40 PM, and the evening golden hour runs 5:07 PM to 5:55 PM. A brand film exterior on a dock would put the hero shots in that window, with the crew built and the talent in place 30 minutes before it opens. The interviews go indoors in the middle of the day, when the light outside is hardest. The production schedule template builds a shoot day around those times, and the call sheet maker prints them for the crew.
How it works
The sun's position comes from the published solar equations behind NOAA's solar calculator, which follow Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms. For a date and a place, the page works out the sun's declination and the equation of time, then the moments the sun crosses each angle. The times are shown in the time zone you choose, with daylight saving time applied by your browser.
| Source | What it gives |
|---|---|
| NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, solar calculation details | The equations and the 0.833-degree sunrise angle |
| Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms | The theory those equations come from |
Expect the times to be within about a minute between latitudes 72 north and 72 south, which covers nearly every place you are likely to shoot. Close to the poles the sun can stay up or down all day, and the page says so. No location service is asked and nothing leaves the page: the cities are a list in the page, and the sums run in your browser.
Questions it answers
Is golden hour an hour long?
Rarely. Near the equator it can be 20 minutes. In summer far north it can last more than two hours, and in winter there it can last all day. That is why a fixed "the hour before sunset" plan goes wrong.
What time zone are the times in?
The one shown under the place. For a city it is that city's zone. For typed coordinates, pick the zone of the place, or the times will be in the wrong one.
Can I share the times with the crew?
Press Copy the times and paste them into a message, or send the page's address, which keeps the place and date.
How Cutvey does this
In Cutvey the call sheet fills in sunrise, sunset and the forecast for the location and day by itself, so the crew sees them without you looking them up. Call sheet software shows the rest.