Photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, full length, standing beside a window at Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth, on the right, faces left, her head turned three quarters towards the camera. She holds her hands in front of her body. She wears a floor length dress decorated with sequins, a diamond tiara and a sash. Family orders and the Star of the Order of the Garter are pinned to the sash. Prince Philip, on the left, stands facing the camera, his arms hanging by his side. His head is turned to the left and he gazes out of the window. He wears a naval uniform.

Pleased with his portraits of their children (see RCIN 2119596), Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip commissioned Antony Armstrong-Jones to photograph them in connection with a forthcoming visit to Canada. Snowdon’s fondness for natural light clearly shows in this photograph portraying the royal couple in front of a palace window. While natural light often provides the best light source for photography, its unpredictability makes it difficult to control. The opposite is true for studio lighting. Tom Hustler reported that during an exchange between Armstrong-Jones and Dorothy Wilding about the merits of natural light, Wilding resolutely stated: ‘Mr Jones, in my studio I can put the sun where I want it’.