Portrait shot at the beach for family

NancyMoranG · Mar 1, 2013

Got my D7000 last May as my 1st DSLR. Had 35 mm yrs ago with a couple of lenses. Will be visiting my brother in Florida and he asked if I could take the proverbial beach photo....him and wife, in white shirts, at beach... I do not have any lighting except camera flash.
I do have a cheap tripod, 35 1.8, 70-300 4.5-5.6, 11-16 Tokina, cable for remote.
they probably will want 1 with sunset in background, and then maybe I can get them in sand dunes with good lighting. Any thoughts appreciated. We are a good family with appreciation for effort...so no big issues here, just a good photo if possible.
Thank you, Nancy

Judobreaker · Mar 2, 2013

No lighting...?
That shot with the sunset in the background is going to be somewhat impossible to get right I'm afraid.
You'll either get a pretty white sky or a pretty black family...
All of your light will be coming in from behind your subject so there's no way you can get the whole scene exposed correctly unless you use an extra light to light them from the front.

Getting them in the dunes with a setting sun will be much easier I expect, as long as the sun comes from behind the camera somewhere.
The setting sun will cast nice light on your subjects so that should give a nice effect.

tirediron · Mar 2, 2013

^^Agree!^^ You will need at least ONE speedlight; ideally two, off-camera with diffusers to make this shot work properly. There is one other possibility that might work... you could do shoot for an HDR (One exposure for the sunset, one for the faces, and 2-3 in between).

Judobreaker · Mar 2, 2013

HDR is possible but might be tricky when using live subjects, especially if it's windy (which it is a lot of the time on the beach

).

tirediron · Mar 2, 2013

Judobreaker said:
HDR is possible but might be tricky when using live subjects, especially if it's windy (which it is a lot of the time on the beach ).

Agreed, hence the "might", but I'm not sure there are many other options. The OP can pretentd he is an 1890s studio photographer and tell them that they're going to need to hold their poses for 60-80 seconds!