Easily Add a Twilight Mood to Your Photos in Lightroom

Give your photos a mystical touch by transforming ordinary daylight or sunset shots into captivating twilight scenes. By combining simple adjustments with precise tweaks in the Color Mixer, enhancing tones with Color Grading, and adding a delicate layer of Grain, it’s possible to achieve a soft, cinematic glow. These subtle yet impactful edits can shift the mood of your images, creating a serene, atmospheric look that feels like the perfect blue hour moment.

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following free image from Unsplash: Download

Step 1

Open your image in Lightroom.

Step 2

Go to the Develop tab.

Step 3

Expand the "Basic" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 4

Expand the "Color Mixer" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 5

Expand the "Color Grading" tab, select "Shadows" and apply the following settings.

Step 6

Still in the "Color Grading" tab, select "Midtones" and apply the following settings.

Step 7

Now select "Highlights" and apply the following settings.

Step 8

Still in the "Color Grading" tab, select "Global" and apply the following settings.

Step 9

Expand the "Detail" tab and apply the following settings.

Step 10

Expand the "Effects" tab and set the Grain amount to about 15.

Step 11

If you plan to use this effect on more images, a good idea is to save all of these settings as a new Preset. To do that, on the left panel, click on the "Add New Presets" icon and from the dropdown menu select "Create Preset".

Step 12

In the "New Develop Preset" window, give your preset a name and click the "Create" button. This will create a new preset that you can later use over any other image you want.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve learned how to create a Twilight Mood in Lightroom, you can easily apply this soft, cinematic atmosphere to any image. Experiment with different Color Mixer settings, adjust the Color Grading to shift the mood, and vary the amount of Grain for a unique texture. By applying these adjustments to portraits, landscapes, or street scenes, you can capture the serene beauty of the perfect blue hour.