The Set - Sunroom

The sunroom wasn’t always a great place to take pictures. Once upon a time, it had pale peach walls and rotting gray carpet over crumbling red and green linoleum tile. I threw the carpet in the trash and did my best to make the space “work” for the first few years in the house.


The front of the room is all windows and a door. The other three sides share walls with the garage, kitchen, and living room. There is an exterior door (to the driveway) and a door into the living room, but, unfortunately, no door to the garage, so the space gets little (human) traffic. A pet door allows the cats access to and from the house and it is constantly a-swinging!


Over time, the space has evolved. I finally found the time to paint the walls white and the cash to replace the flooring. I originally envisioned the room as a miniature conservatory, but it gets too cold in the winter to support hothouse plants. The greenery is gone and I’ve chosen to adorn the room with frost-proof bird cages and mirrors instead.



I use only natural light when I photograph in this room. It gets direct sunlight in the morning, so it’s best to save outfit photos until afternoon or evening when the light is even and diffuse. The white walls, floor, and ceiling reflect light beautifully. Before I discovered the exposure compensation button, all that white was a challenge; my subject came out too dark. Now, I set the exposure compensation at +.3 to +.7 and get lovely results. I use an ISO of 400. The camera’s auto white balance usually gets colors right.

The Sunroom, through the blog years:


(The last photo shows the sunroom from the outside.)

This space belongs more to the cats than me. I removed everything but the pillows from any horizontal surface because rambunctious kittens sent my tchotchke tumbling. I even had to ditch the fake greenery (the fern visible in some photos) because they gnawed on it. I’m just grateful they let me take the occasional photo in here.

In May, I'll profile one of my often used outdoor locations. Any requests?

The Set - Mustard Hallway

When I tire of the India Room’s purple wall, I head for the Mustard Hallway.


When I bought the house, all the walls were plain white. I wanted to paint the hall a warm, golden color (as in the inspiration photo to the left), but my first attempt came out as pumpkin puke:


The wall décor was also a disaster. I loved the idea of a “mask gallery,” but the passage simply isn’t wide enough to accommodate the bulky masks and a grown adult. The masks were constantly knocked askew.


I tried tried again with Golden Cricket paint and polished silver platters and I’m quite pleased with the new décor.


The mustard yellow wall is a great contrast to my outfits, but all that reflected yellow light is a challenge. While it gives my skin a golden glow, it also skews the colors of my clothing. The yellow aura bothered one reader so much that she wrote to tell me so. I stubbornly continued to pose here, but soon learned to set the white balance to incandescent +3 to correct for all that yellow. (Photoshop “auto levels” also helps….if there is some true white and true black in the image.)

When I take my photo against the yellow wall, I position my camera and tripod in the bathroom. Glamorous, right?


To light the photos, I turn on all the fixtures in the bathroom, the hallway light, the dining room light, and the light in the India Room. Still, I have to pump up the exposure compensation because the camera takes its light read from the white woodwork in the bathroom, not the darker subject in the doorway. I set the exposure compensation between +.3 and +1.0 and use an ISO of 800. (The camera is in "P" or Program mode.)

The Mustard Hallway, through the blog years...

Here’s the pumpkin puke:

I used the flash back in the pumpkin days.
After painting the hallway Golden Cricket, and discontinuing use of the flash, I often looked a little jaundiced:


Taking a digital photography class through Communiversity changed my life…and my photos:


Hello, white balance!
Finally, I stopped cropping my photos to odd sizes and adopted a standard 2 x 3 ratio. As a result, you now see the bathroom woodwork at the edges of my photos, but I don’t care:


Next month: The Sunroom!

The Set - India Room

This year, I’m introducing a new feature on my blog: The Set. I’ll highlight one of my recurring photo locations in each entry. You’ll get to see the rest of the “set,” hear a little about the location’s history and/or purpose, and learn the camera settings I use for the site’s conditions.

The first location may be my most used: The India Room.




This room started as a guest bedroom but is now the summer bedroom (as it is on the first floor) and my workwear closet. I store most of my accessories in this room, as well. You can see the closet “in use” in my closet tour video. (The kittens also make a guest appearance!)

I call it the India room because I’ve used a dupatta and saris in the décor. The fuchsia and turquoise dupatta over one window inspired the color scheme. Most of the furniture is actually from Thailand and Indonesia. I used to have a lovely off-white flokati rug on the floor, but the kittens can’t resist soiling it.

This room isn’t as well-lit as it may seem. The only illumination comes from three compact fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling fan. I use my SLR camera (Nikon D40) and a tripod when I shoot here. I turn the dial to the P mode, set the ISO to 800, and use the incandescent white balance. I get the best results when I pose in front of the purple wall. When I stand in front of a white background, I adjust the exposure compensation to anywhere from +.3 to +1.0.

The India Room, through the blog years:

At first, I used the flash…


And then I got good enough with the camera to use only the overhead light…


Of all the rooms in the house, the India Room is my favorite location. The purple wall sets off my outfits well and the remaining white walls reflect plenty of light.

(More about painting that purple wall on my Cincinnati Cape Cod blog.)