This portrait was taken at a social event called “Fall Into Portraits” — a gathering meant to celebrate the colours and atmosphere of autumn. I wanted to capture the warmth of the season while using shallow depth of field to isolate Zee from the background and let her vivid red hair and orange dress blend seamlessly with the fall tones.

The biggest challenge was balancing the natural ambient light with my off-camera flash so the background remained softly blurred but still rich in colour. The light kept shifting as clouds moved, so I had to continuously adjust the flash power and aperture to maintain that creamy bokeh without overexposing her skin tones.

I used a Canon R5 with a Sigma Art 85mm f/1.4 lens, shooting wide open at f/1.4 to achieve maximum background separation and buttery bokeh. The lighting setup was simple — one Godox AD400 with a softbox camera left to shape the light gently across her face.

The goal was to make the portrait feel timeless — elegant, soft, and deeply autumnal — where the bokeh itself becomes part of the story.