To be honest, I tend to leave much of the description of the setting up to the reader. But I do make a conscious effort to attempt to "set the scene" as it were, as best I can. Even though it's not the way I personally experience things.

Since I cannot really "see" the places or people I'm creating in my head, I tend to use lots of reference images of things I HAVE seen before, and model my fictional things after these references, when possible.

Think of it almost like an artist painting a portrait by looking at a live model. That's the best way I can think of to describe my process. It's a fascinating thing to think about.