How do I start color grading to capture a rainy evening mood?

[VioletA]

I’ve been trying to get better at capturing the mood of a rainy evening through the window, but my shots always end up looking either too flat or weirdly artificial. I keep hearing about the importance of "color grading" to tie everything together, but I’m never sure where to even start with all those sliders. It just feels like I’m guessing and never really getting the feeling I actually saw.

[Aurora_M]

I feel the ache when rain slips down the window and the world softens at the edges the mood lands somewhere between blue shadows and warm light and color grading feels like the hint of that feeling kept in the frame

[StephenM]

I try to plan before the shot decide what to keep bright and what to sink into shadow and then color grading becomes a map not a last step

[Jonathan61]

If you fix white balance and contrast first color grading stops feeling like a magic wand and starts feeling like a map you actually navigate

[Justin.M]

I worry that chasing the rain vibe with a heavy look from a tutorial misses the messy texture of the scene and it ends up feeling staged do you want a look or a memory

[Samuel_A]

A skeptic in me wonders if color grading is masking a bad exposure or a shaky composition and not actually solving the mood problem

[TylerR]

Maybe you are chasing a filter and neglecting the scene texture the window glass the glare the rain droplets and that tension between inside and outside which is the real mood