For photographers
Photography forecast
Where the sky should colour this week, when the low sun lights the land, and the nights the aurora could show — for 28 places photographers come to Iceland for.
Updated 04:00
Where to be
Every spot ranked for the day and the light you pick, best first
The week, place by place
Each chip is a sunrise or a sunset, painted the colour we expect; the dot below is the aurora night.
Aurora, the weeks ahead
NOAA's three-day Kp forecast, then its 27-day outlook from what the sun did last time round — a long shot, but it shows which weeks to watch.
Kp, the day's highest. Darker green: more active. ~ marks the 27-day outlook. Cloud decides as much as Kp — see each night on the place pages.
Golden hour through the year
How high the sun climbs over Reykjavík and how long the golden light lasts, month by month
Golden hour, hours a dayHighest sun (0–52°)
Reykjavík month by month (the 15th)
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour, a day | Highest sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10:54 | 16:20 | 6 h 52 min | 5° |
| February | 09:23 | 18:01 | 3 h 41 min | 13° |
| March | 07:46 | 19:28 | 3 h 6 min | 24° |
| April | 05:56 | 21:01 | 3 h 19 min | 36° |
| May | 04:13 | 22:37 | 4 h 34 min | 45° |
| June | 02:57 | 00:00 | 6 h 49 min | 49° |
| July | 03:40 | 23:24 | 6 h 7 min | 47° |
| August | 05:18 | 21:43 | 3 h 37 min | 40° |
| September | 06:50 | 19:53 | 3 h 5 min | 29° |
| October | 08:17 | 18:07 | 3 h 20 min | 17° |
| November | 09:56 | 16:27 | 5 h 16 min | 7° |
| December | 11:16 | 15:29 | 5 h 56 min | 3° |
Shooting Iceland's light
The wind beats the tripod
Gusts over 15 m/s shake any tripod. Shoot from the car's lee side, hang your bag from the centre column, keep the legs short and the shutter fast.
Golden hour can last all day
In December the sun barely clears the horizon, so the light stays low and warm from sunrise to sunset. In June it barely sets: the best light comes around midnight.
Look the other way
While the sky burns in the west, the mountains and glaciers to the east turn pink, and after sunset the Earth's shadow rises as a blue band under a rosy one.
Aurora: a starting point
Tripod, a wide lens wide open (f/1.4–2.8), ISO 1600–3200, 2–15 seconds — shorter when it moves fast. Focus by hand on a bright star, and turn off image stabilisation.
Cold batteries die early
Keep spares in an inside pocket and swap them in. Let the camera warm up in its bag before you open it indoors, or the lens fogs.
Drones need checking first
Many protected areas, Þingvellir and Vatnajökull National Park among them, ban drones or need a permit. Keep below 120 m and well away from people and nesting birds.
Never turn your back on the sea
At Reynisfjara and the other black beaches, sneaker waves run far up the sand without warning and have killed people. Shoot from well above the waterline.
Stay on the path
Iceland's moss takes decades to grow back. Driving off the road is illegal, and stepping over the ropes for a better angle is how sights get closed.
Questions visitors ask
Where is the best place for sunset photos in Iceland this week?
On the forecast as of 27 October 2026, the most promising sunsets this week are at Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon (tomorrow, sky on fire, sunset 17:01); Stokksnes / Vestrahorn (tomorrow, clear and golden, sunset 16:55); Diamond Beach (tomorrow, sky on fire, sunset 17:01). Cloud forecasts more than three days out are rough, so check again the day before.
When is golden hour in Iceland?
In Reykjavík today, the evening golden hour runs 16:07–17:59 and the morning one 08:22–10:14 (Iceland time, with the sun between 6° above and 4° below the horizon). In December the sun climbs no higher than about 3°, so the light stays warm all day; in June it barely sets and the best light comes around midnight.
What time is sunset in Iceland today?
Today (27 October) the sun sets at 17:27 in Reykjavík, 17:21 in Ísafjörður, 17:03 in Akureyri and 16:49 in Seyðisfjörður. Sunrise in Reykjavík is at 08:55. The further east, the earlier: Iceland spans about 11° of longitude, some 45 minutes of sun time, on one clock (UTC, all year).
Can you forecast a colourful sunset?
Roughly, yes. Three things have to line up: high or mid-level cloud overhead to catch the light, not much low cloud overhead to hide it, and a clear path toward the sun 60–300 km out, so the light can reach under the clouds from below the horizon. We read cloud by layer from DMI's HARMONIE and ECMWF along the sun's direction and score every sunrise and sunset. Skies like to surprise, so treat it as a guide to whether it's worth going out.
Where and when is the best chance to photograph the northern lights in Iceland this week?
On the current forecast, Seyðisfjörður Saturday night (great chance). The aurora season runs from late August to mid-April; a clear sky and darkness away from lights matter as much as the Kp number.
When is the best time of year for photography in Iceland?
It depends on the light you want. For the aurora, the nights are dark enough from about 15 August to 26 April in Reykjavík (a little shorter in the north); September and March pair dark nights with sunsets at an easy hour (about 19:53 and 19:28). For golden light, midwinter keeps the sun so low that it lasts about 6 h 52 min a day in January; around midsummer sunset runs into sunrise and the light stays soft all night (about 6 h 49 min in June); around the equinoxes it's about 3 h 6 min a day. Iceland time.
Do I need a permit to fly a drone in Iceland?
It depends where. Many protected areas, including parts of Þingvellir and Vatnajökull National Park, ban drones or need a permit, and some popular sights restrict them in summer. Check the local rules before you fly, stay below 120 m and keep clear of people, buildings and nesting birds.
Cloud by layer from DMI's HARMONIE and ECMWF (via Open-Meteo), read toward the sun out to 300 km; skyline from ÍslandsDEM (Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands, CC BY 4.0) and AWS Terrain Tiles; aurora activity from NOAA. The colour score is our own estimate, and skies like to surprise.