Your Best Shot August 2026 - 'Soft light' - The winners!

30 September 2026

Your Best Shot is a photo competition open to Australian residents. There's a different theme every couple of months, and a selection of the winning shots will be published in AP mag and online.

Each issue, AP's Editor Mike O'Connor will choose six images to be published both in print and online, with both a winner and a runner-up selected. Our winner will also receive an amazing prize thanks to Retouch4me.

This was a challenging theme, and with more than 200 entries, we received a wonderfully diverse range of images that interpreted "soft light" in many creative and imaginative ways. Here are our picks.

Winner

Editor’s comment

Catherine Carey captured this stunning image during an African safari last year, after arriving at Lake Elmenteita in the early hours of the morning.

"Instead of the thousands of birds usually found there, only a handful were enjoying the misty dawn conditions," Catherine explains. "The water level was too high for the algae feeders that typically gather in large numbers, so only a few birds ventured into the shallows. The mist drifting across the lake and cloaking the surrounding mountains created a truly breathtaking scene."

What we liked about this image was the sense of space you've created, giving plenty of room for the subjects to breathe and the viewer to bathe in the soft, gentle light in the scene. The subjects are also interesting and diverse, making for a captivating frame.

The prize

As our winner, Catherine Carey takes home access to three Retouch4me photo retouching apps valued at $360. Retouch4me retouching apps are available as Photoshop plugins and standalone apps.

Options include Heal, Dodge & Burn, Eyes Bundle, Fabric, Skin Mask, Portrait Volumes, Clean Backdrop, Skin Tone, White Teeth, Mattifier, Color Match and Dust. You can find out more at Retouch4me.