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.)