Although, I found that twilight shots have a lot of personal preference involved. For example the homeowner of home in the photo above, that I used for this post wouldn’t let me use this shot on the flyer because she felt it was too dark and too blue. She insisted that I use the daylight version of this shot for all the marketing. She basically didn’t like twilight shots.

During the time just before sunset and after sunset the light changes rapidly. The sky changes from being bright to sometimes very dark depending on the direction you are shooting and the weather conditions. If it’s overcast twilight shots can be “ho-hum”. If it’s clear or scattered clouds it can be spectacular. As Scott mentioned above the siting of the home is always a big factor.

You have to experiment with the exposure and the white balance to find out what you like best for your situation. This is why I recommend shooting in RAW… that gives you the maximum opportunity to adjust exposure etc after the fact.

You have to experiment with things like porch lights and garage lights that are on the exterior. Many times these can be too bright.

Am I trying to expose the home? If so, the sky blows out and the interior lights are super bright.
Am I trying to expose the sky? Then only the sky and interior lights show.

So, basically, what is the purpose of a twilight shot? …a balance between exposing the home and exposing the sky?

When the front of the house faces east, the camera is facing into the sunset and the front of the house is in shadow. Now the sky will be much brighter than the front of the house and will be harder to get a balanced shot.