Leighton House Museum, a ‘private palace of art’ and former home of Victorian artist Frederic Leighton in London’s Holland Park, does not normally permit photography, so it was a real treat to be able to participate in an LPS shoot within some of the museum’s dramatic spaces. The ‘Arab Hall’, designed to showcase Leighton’s huge collection of sixteenth-century Middle Eastern glazed tiles is particularly amazing, but sadly so subtly lit on a dreary January morning that it would require a better photographer (or at least a better prepared one) to capture its magnificence along with the portraiture I was there to shoot (to protect the paintings, no flash photography is permitted, but LEDs are okay).

However, after ascending a dramatic staircase, the first floor offered more possibilities with a number of living spaces and galleries more generously lit by larger windows. In particular, I kept being drawn to small single bedroom with blue wallpaper, bearskin rug and old brass bed. Just behind the bed frame was an area with a blue wooden door and a single small pendant light with decorative shade and low-wattage tungsten bulb hanging just above head height. Three times I went back to that room, determined to take at least one image that I would be pleased with, but it was only when I got home that I figured out most likely why I was so enamoured by that space in particular. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there seems to be a particular trend at the moment in TV dramas and films to colour grade everything teal and orange. It’s pretty much ubiquitous (at least one program I watched on TV last night [Mrs Wilson] uses it extensively). Guess I just subconsciously find that particular combination attractive now.