Beach Photo Shoot

[ajohnson15]

I am looking to do a photo shoot with a female on the beach in the near future. I have searched google and youtube and can't find any good tutorials or decent help. I would like to know what would i definitely need on composing a photo shoot on the beach. And yes i know i will need my camera and a model lol. I mean as in will i need off camera flash, reflectors, lens filters, etc.

PS: i plan to sure around mid-day when then sun is at its peak and around evening time when the sun starts to set.

Thank you.

 

[Tamgerine]

Honestly the beach is just another location. What do you normally bring to a shoot? If you're not familiar with off camera flash on a regular basis, I wouldn't recommend bringing it to the beach and trying it out for the first time. Make sure to bring a lens cleaning kit because the sea spray will get on your lenses a lot.

My standard shoot setup is my off camera flash kit with modifiers, the same stuff I bring to any shoot. However I do bring beach-specific props for subjects to interact with. My shoots typically consist of a good amount of images so I like for there to be a lot of variation.

I shot this couple session at the beach fairly recently, and this shoot was around noon but it was a little stormy so my skies weren't incredibly hot. I supplied the props. Candice + Jacob!

You can get very different images in regards to whether you shoot at noon or sunset, so it's kind of up to you and what your style normally is.

 

[KmH]

The mid-day summer sun provides some of the worst light for portraiture there is. It's harsh and unflattering.

Your model will likely have shaded eye sockets, a.k.a. - 'raccoon eyes'.

Mid-day, using open shade solves a lot of lighting problems. But at the very least a reflector or 2 are needed for accent and fill lighting even using open shade.

 

[Solarflare]

What KmH said.

Also, things I heard about this:
- As always with portrait, the best option is to use a prime lens, or a high quality zoom lens, so you can use wide apertures like f/2.8 and get a shallow depth of field. Remember that in broad daylight this means that you get extremely fast shutter speeds even at ISO 100 (or whatever the optimal ISO of your camera is), so better bring a grayfilter, too.
- Advised distance for portrait is something close to about 5 meters. This is the distance which makes people look best in pictures. More distance has a tendency to make them look flat and less distance starts to distort their faces.
- Put the model between the sun and the camera. This way the sun will put a nice framing of light around the model.
- After that, try to get SOME light into the model again, especially into the face and the eyes. Not too much or your model will get uncomfortable, will get squinty, watery eyes etc.
- The most powerful option is getting a helper and various reflective surfaces.
- The second option would be using a fill flash. You might want to use a grayfilter for this, in order to be able to use slow shutter speeds below your flash x-sync even in broad daylight. Or you have an expensive camera that has the option for fast sync; but for example my D5100 doesnt allow this and you need more powerful flashes for this one too.
- Or, much easier, get into the shade. Again you want some light into the eyes of your model.
- Wait for clouds. A cloudy sky is almost ideal for portrait, except it lacks drama. Light is just equal quality from all sides and that can be boring, too. So again reflectors and/or fill flash can help.
- There is also the possibility to use natural reflectors. There might be something like white rock around.

 

[Dao]

- The second option would be using a fill flash. You might want to use a grayfilter for this, in order to be able to use slow shutter speeds below your flash x-sync even in broad daylight. Or you have an expensive camera that has the option for fast sync; but for example my D5100 doesnt allow this and you need more powerful flashes for this one too.

One thing to point out though, even high end DSLR cameras such as Nikon D3x, D4 or Canon 1Dx, the flash sync speed is only 1/250. If you want faster sync speed, actually look for older generation of low end Nikon camera such as D40, D50 or D70.

Or you can use the flash that support high speed sync instead.

 

[Dao]

As for shooting in sunny mid day. The good thing is the environment is quit colorful, but you need to find a way to diffuse the light. I once saw a video of a photographer taking photos (may at the beach as well) in mid day. The sky and the sea were beautiful around that time. As for the model, they have a huge booth with white diffusion panels in which it only covered the top and both sides.

The model stepped inside the diffusion booth and the photographer took photos of her with the nice beach background.

 

[KmH]

One can get an apparent shallow DoF without using a wide open aperture. The wide open apertures of fast lenses often deliver softer than desired focus sharpness.

Lens focal length, focus point distance, and focus point distance from the background are also DoF factors the photographer can control.

 

[kundalini]

I have searched google and youtube and can't find any good tutorials or decent help.

This might help give you some ideas.

Using the Skylite outdoors « Lastolite School of Photography

 

[KmH]

One thing to point out though, even high end DSLR cameras such as Nikon D3x, D4 or Canon 1Dx, the flash sync speed is only 1/250. If you want faster sync speed, actually look for older generation of low end Nikon camera such as D40, D50 or D70.

Or you can use the flash that support high speed sync instead.[/QUOTE]Well sort of. All of those cameras, and Nikon's from the D90 up, have FP-sync mode that can use a hot shoe flash at shutter speeds up to 1/8000 as long as the flash unit is also FP-sync capable.

 

[HughTFall]

@ajohnson15 , you don't need a flash when photo shooting at the beach. You need to consider bringing lenses, and it's cleaner in shooting in this area.