Presidential Dining Room in Washington, DC

This view toward the dining room fireplace in the Woodrow Wilson House Museum @wwilsonhouse,  Washington, DC reveals a portrait of Woodrow Wilson's wife Edith, painted in 1920 by Seymour Stone.  If you look carefully at Edith's portrait, you'll notice her chair has no left arm.  The story goes that after the portrait was completed Edith requested a revision that her waistline be made to look more "trim". Stone grudgingly obliged but in doing so he only painted one arm of the chair in subtle protest!  I chose this composition with the stair case's rail and newel post in the foreground to frame the image and add a first-person experience.

President Woodrow Wilson House Museum in Washington, DC.  Vignette of the second floor hallway looking into th dining room.  Photo: ©Todd A. Smith

Since we could not actually light the fireplace of this historic property I used special lighting to create the illusion of fire to add interest to this otherwise empty area. From there I spotlit both the child's portrait and Edith's portrait to draw the viewer's eye to them and then added other accent lights around the room to bring out form and detail.  Had I just used ambient light I could not have achieved these enhancements.  Photo: ©Todd A. Smith

Todd A. Smith is a VA, DC, DE, MD, PA, NJ, NY architectural photographer based in Alexandria, VA. Please visit www.tasphoto.com to see examples of his award-winning architectural photography and contact information.  Instagram: @toddasmithphoto