The twilight shot is the one that sells the listing before anyone reads a word: warm windows glowing against a deep blue sky, the house looking its most inviting. Getting it in-camera means sending a photographer back at dusk for a fifteen-minute window, and hoping the weather cooperates. Twilight produces the same shot from an ordinary daytime photo. It relights the windows, drops in a dusk sky, and warms the scene, so you get the hero image without the second trip.
What twilight does
Twilight takes a daytime photo and converts it to dusk. In the mode picker it's described as "Convert a daytime photo to dusk — lights on, dusk sky." It does three things together: replaces the daytime sky with a twilight one, turns the interior and exterior lights on so windows glow, and shifts the overall colour toward the warmth of the hour. Everything structural stays put. The building, the landscaping, and the composition are untouched; only the light and sky change.
It works best on exteriors and on any photo with sky and windows in frame, which is where the dusk effect has the most to work with. You can run it on a fresh upload, on a photo already in your project, or on a room you've already staged.
Twilight is a Pro feature.
Choose a look
Twilight has three looks, picked from the Look control in the command bar. They differ in how far past sunset the scene reads:
- Blue Hour (default) — the classic MLS twilight. A cool blue sky with warm glowing windows, the look most buyers picture when they think "twilight photo."
- Golden Dusk — the moment just after the sun sets, with a peachy horizon and a softer, more romantic glow.
- Night — full dark. A deep night sky with dramatic contrast between the black surroundings and the lit windows.
Here's the same daytime exterior run through each look, so you can see how far each one pushes the hour:
Dial in the interior warmth
Alongside the look, the Color temp control sets the white balance of the interior lights showing through the windows, measured in Kelvin. Lower is warmer:
- Daylight (5500K) — crisp, neutral whites with a hint of blue.
- Cool (5000K) — a slight cool cast on neutrals.
- Neutral (4000K) (default) — true white, no warm or cool cast.
- Warm (3000K) — an inviting golden cast on the walls.
- Tungsten (2700K) — deep amber, the classic incandescent glow.
How to use it
Switch to Twilight mode
In the staging command bar, open the mode picker and choose Twilight (the sunset icon). It sits alongside Stage, Declutter, Sky, and Perspective. Twilight requires a Pro plan.
The staging mode picker with Twilight selected Pick a look and color temp
Open the Look pill and choose Blue Hour, Golden Dusk, or Night. Then open Color temp to set how warm the interior lights glow. Both default sensibly (Blue Hour, Neutral), so you can leave them alone for a standard twilight and adjust only if you want a specific mood.
The Look picker showing the three twilight looks with swatches Generate
Click Convert to twilight. The converted image saves to the room's timeline, labelled "Twilight." The sky and lighting change; the building, landscaping, and composition stay exactly as they were.
Revisions are free
If the first pass isn't quite right, that a window should be lit, the sky is too heavy, the glow is too strong, run a twilight revision with a short note describing what to change. Revisions don't use credits, so you can try a different look, a different colour temp, or a small tweak until the shot lands.
Twilight vs sky replacement
Both modes touch the sky, but they're for different jobs:
- Twilight converts the whole scene to dusk: dusk sky, lights on, warmer colour. Use it for the hero shot.
- Sky replacement swaps only the sky, keeping the daytime lighting, so a grey overcast sky becomes a clear blue one without changing the time of day.
Reach for sky replacement when the photo is fine but the weather wasn't; reach for twilight when you want the dusk showpiece.
Limits
Next steps
- How to virtually stage a property — stage the interiors, then convert the exterior to twilight.
- How to photograph empty rooms — capture clean source photos that convert well.
- Browse the rest of the guides for more staging workflows.