Shot on my Canon R6 with an 85mm f/1.8, this portrait was taken during what was meant to be a full family beach session that pivoted last minute into a motherhood shoot when Dad couldn’t make it.
The overcast sky gave me clean, diffused light with no need for modifiers, which let me shoot wide open at f/1.8 for a soft, shallow depth of field. The moment itself was quiet but intentional; her daughter leaned into her, and Mum instinctively closed her eyes. No performance, just presence.
Post-processing was handled in Lightroom. I lightened the background to subtly separate subject from environment, and sharpened the subjects to reinforce focus. Tonal adjustments included small exposure bumps and a warmer temp shift to balance out the cool light.
My biggest challenge (apart from the last minute absence of one crucial family member) was cropping which went through several iterations to find the right tension between intimacy and space. Eventually this frame landed where I wanted: natural, honest, composition-led, and one of my favourite photos from a family session.
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