Tips for Beach Shoot?

[DuneRose]

I need to take a few pictures for a friend's modeling portfolio, and I'm a beginner. What tips would you recommend?

 

[LizardKing]

Hello!

Well, you're probably not going to get much with these types of questions. This isn't cooking, where you can ask tips for cooking a steak. You have to begin to understand how light behaves on different conditions and how exposure works, and you'll be able to think for yourself what are the best settings to take the photos when you are at the place.

Best you can probably do, is set your camera to Scene and choose Beach, assuming you're not that used to work with other modes and that your camera has this.

One think I can say, is to bring some kind of reflective surface to fill the shadows on your friend by reflecting the sun. But that alone is not going to do much for the outcome of the pictures, plus you'll need an assistant.

 

[Forkie]

I would disregard the advice to set your camera to an auto "scene" mode. I would try to get down there before hand with a friend and practice some shots on your friend. Take a reflector with you, a white piece of card or board, or a proper reflector. Try to take your photos an hour before and after sunset and play with your camera settings in manual mode. We can't give you any exact settings to use because that will depend entirely on the quality of light on the day.

While you're there with your friend look for nice places to place the model paying attention to backgrounds and where the light falls in the areas you like.

Preparation is the key here, so get down there and scope the place out!

Good luck!

 

[Solarflare]

I should make a standard posting about this ...

1. For portraits of a single person, use aperture priority (A or Av on your mode dial) and a low aperture, thus blurring the background so the viewer will focus on your subject. Inform yourself about the lens you're using. Some are kind of soft when completely open (i.e. at highest aperture, or lowest f-number), so step them down a bit if you want sharpness (but some softness might even be good for portaits). Others are fine even wide open. For example I can use f/1.8 on my 35mm f/1.8 DX prime quite nicely, its just a bit soft at the borders, but the center is already very sharp.

Ideally you want a lens thats sharp and has good Bokeh, i.e. good behavior in the out of focus areas of your picture.

2. Since this starts to appear quite often in pictures: set your camera to ISO 100 (or whatever ISO your camera works best at, again inform yourself about that, some cameras actually work best at ISO 400 etc). If you get above maxium shutter speed with this, you might want to try grayfilters to compensate.

3. Always set the focus on the eyes.

4. Always try to get some nice light to the eyes, not too much, to add the extra magic everyone wants in a portrait. But dont make your subject squint or worse, get watery eyes.

5. Good focal lenghts for portrait are between about 35mm and 135mm, relative to full frame (for example my camera is APS-C / crop factor 1.5, that means my 35mm lens is 53mm relative to full frame). Where 35mm is really only full body standing, and 135mm is face only. A good compromise is 85mm which still allows full body, but also smaller framing, as long as you have enough room.

6. The ideal distance between person portrayed and camera is about 5 meter. More far away means people will start to look somewhat flat. Closer means people will be increasingly distorted.

7. Harsh sunlight, as it is typical for a beach without clouds, are the worst light you can possibly have for a portrait. It will cause hard shadows. If you have to photograph in harsh sunlight, the typical strategy is to put the person between the sun and the camera. This way the person portrait will not squint from the sunlight, and the sun will create a nice outline of the body. You can then use fill flash and/or reflectors (artifical or natural ones, like white house walls or large white rocks) to put some more pleasing light onto the front of the subject. Avoid light that comes from too much below, it will make look people kind of freaky, an effect popular in movies for monster characters like Dracula.

8. Shadow is much better, but again you want some light into the eyes of your subject, with the same tricks as before.

9. Cloudy is also much better, making people having almost no shadows at all, with the sky working as a huge "softbox" that diffuses light into all directions. But its can also be somewhat undramatic.

10. The "golden hour", i.e. the minutes of dawn and right after sunrise and right before sunset, is the best light for portraits (and landscapes), since then there will be the most interesting light. While the name is "golden hour", the actual time might be much slower (or somewhat longer).

11. If you have a cheap camera that doesnt support high sync speed mode, i.e. cannot use a flash at shutter speeds above x-sync, but you still want to use fill flash, you may want to get a couple graycards so you can lower your shutter speed to whatever flash sync speed your camera has (for example, my camera has 1/200s as sync speed. More expensive cameras might have 1/250s or even better).

12. Another idea is to have a moveable flash, i.e. a flash with which you can flash from the side.

 

[LizardKing]

I would disregard the advice to set your camera to an auto "scene" mode. I would try to get down there before hand with a friend and practice some shots on your friend. Take a reflector with you, a white piece of card or board, or a proper reflector. Try to take your photos an hour before and after sunset and play with your camera settings in manual mode. We can't give you any exact settings to use because that will depend entirely on the quality of light on the day.

While you're there with your friend look for nice places to place the model paying attention to backgrounds and where the light falls in the areas you like.

Preparation is the key here, so get down there and scope the place out!

Good luck!

@Forkie: I'd usually agree with you, except when the OP is asking for 'tips on beach shoot' and specifying he/she's a beginner. Using Manual is definitely the way to go if you know what you're doing or if he/she can go there with his/her friend/client as many times as needed to get decent shots (according to their taste and skill of course). Auto scene modes are not the best way to learn, but if you have little idea about exposure it's probably the best way to go if you want to get acceptable results. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

@OP: As Forkie said, it'd be nice if you can go there in advance with someone to play the model. And early morning / late afternoon light is definitely the time to do it. Good luck and let us know how it went

 

[Forkie]

I would disregard the advice to set your camera to an auto "scene" mode. I would try to get down there before hand with a friend and practice some shots on your friend. Take a reflector with you, a white piece of card or board, or a proper reflector. Try to take your photos an hour before and after sunset and play with your camera settings in manual mode. We can't give you any exact settings to use because that will depend entirely on the quality of light on the day.

While you're there with your friend look for nice places to place the model paying attention to backgrounds and where the light falls in the areas you like.

Preparation is the key here, so get down there and scope the place out!

Good luck!

@Forkie: I'd usually agree with you, except when the OP is asking for 'tips on beach shoot' and specifying he/she's a beginner. Using Manual is definitely the way to go if you know what you're doing or if he/she can go there with his/her friend/client as many times as needed to get decent shots (according to their taste and skill of course). Auto scene modes are not the best way to learn, but if you have little idea about exposure it's probably the best way to go if you want to get acceptable results. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

You may be right if the OP is a proper beginning beginner.

 

[KmH]

I think when someone says to 'use a low aperture' to blur the background, they mean - use a wide aperture to blur the background, and are referring to the technical aspect of doing photography known as depth-of-field.
F/1.8 is a wider aperture than f/4 is. 1.8 may be a smaller, or lower, number than f/4, but f/1.8 is a bigger number than f/4 is because those numbers are fractions.

How blurred a background is, is dependent on more than just the lens aperture. In fact, the point of focus distance relative to the lens focal length has more effect on depth-of-field. Plus controlling focus is directly related to depth-of-field so it's a fundamental technical concept that has to be understood quite well if one hope to consistently produce sharply focused photographs.

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

Next, and as alluded to in the other posts, lighting is critical for portrait shots of any kind.

So you might look at Making the Most of Natural Light in Photography.

Introduction to Portrait Lighting

The direction the beach faces will have a lot to do with what time of day is best to shoot. No doubt, the hours in the middle of the day is the worst time. Actors and working models know location shoots mean getting up before sunrise, and/or working past sunset.

 

[Derrel]

1. Sunscreen. Avoid that lobster look!
2. Lens cleaning material, in plastic bags. Keep the sea spray wiped OFF of lens fronts and UV/clear filters!
3. Change lenses with your back to the surf line to avoid airborne sea spray on the rear element!
4. Plan things out as far as location, time spent, sun direction, privacy afforded.

 

[Robin Usagani]

skimpy bikini

post them here

I assumed it is a girl

 

[SoCalTiger]

skimpy bikini

post them here

I assumed it is a girl

You're going to regret it if your assumption is wrong.

 

[Alpha]

Here's a tip: don't do it. I would rather pour molasses on my gear. The last time I did a beach shoot I spent the next 6 months finding grains of sand in various part of my camera.

 

[Solarflare]

... I'm fairly sure you're too late with that tip ...

 

[ABPPhotography]

Hire me to do it!

In all seriousness... All the above advice is good, but they're missing something. You need to know how to work with models a bit. Sure it's a friend, but the dynamic will change when you get behind the camera and he/she in front of it. Learn a few poses. Try and figure out what specifically is going to look good or bad with the person. Let them contribute a few ideas, but if it's not working, don't force the issue, move on to a new pose/idea. Make sure they're comfortable and cool. Bring a towel to wipe of sweat/sand/seaweed. Have them bring a couple of outfits. Bring some water and food if it's a lengthy shoot.

 

[timputtick]

for such a brief post this sure has got a lot of attention!

 

[gsgary]

One tip i tell male photographers when shooting sexy beach babes is don't get a semi