Description is the art of making a character or place so vivid that readers feel as if they were there.  Setting not only deals with description of a place, but of a time and mood as well.  Here are articles to help:

Using Real Places as a Story Setting   Set a fictional story in a real place: use local maps and topography to start, and include the flavor of the town for an accurate, vivid sense of place.

Use All Five Senses   Make your fiction settings real with sensory details. How do you work in the “forgotten” senses of touch, taste and smell? And how much do you need them?

Historical Fiction Settings   Use historical details to anchor your story in time and place, says Calkins Creek editor Carolyn P. Yoder.

Descriptive Writing Exercises #1    Include all five senses – sound, smell, taste, touch and sight – in descriptive writing to build vivid scenes and settings.

Descriptive Writing Exercises #2   Character-driven descriptive writing exercises to help make your settings and description real.

Descriptive Writing Exercises #3   Good creative writing requires good description, but what should you describe, and how much? Here are writing lesson assignments to help.

Description, Dialogue, Narrative   An easy way to determine if your novel or short story is balanced between dialogue, description and narrative, plus some tips on corrections if you need them.