which lens should I use for my Nikon on the beach??

[Nessy024]

Hey everyone Im planning Holiday mini sessions on the beach during sunrise and I live on the east coast so the sun is always behind my subject....The last shoot I did was with my 50mm 1.4 lens (which I love!!) but I read its only good for low light situation and my images were really too bright Vanessa Julie Photography | Hill Family | Photo 50 I know I cant help it because im shooting into the sun but I dont think the 50mm helped.....soooo which would be the best lens for my main requirements are a very large aperture and sharpness!

 

[Big Mike]

The aperture on that lens stops down to at least F16...and the shutter speed of your camera can probably be as short/high as 1/4000....so if you had a problem where your images were 'really too bright'...it was an exposure error on your part. Getting a different lens won't change that.

 

[Nessy024]

but while I was on the beach for some reason my camera would not allow me to go more then 1/200....the iso was 100 and f1.4 or 1.8 i believe...

 

[MLeeK]

Your 50MM is awesome for that and no lens is going to handle it any differently. Why a large aperture? Are you looking for bokeh or an extremely shallow DOF? If your focus was off and you were having a hard time I'd have stopped aperture down from 1.4 to get that crispness in the subject. The background is a million miles away from you. You are still going to have it soft even at f/5.6.
1/200 shutter tells me you were using flash. Which is good and correct on the beach in back lighting, but you need to be in manual mode and set your own exposure in this situation. You can use a priority mode, but that requires some knowledge too and it's not a guarantee that your exposures would be the same.
If you aren't comfortable with full manual put it in shutter priority mode and shoot a shot of the sand with no sunrise/sky whatever in it. If it's typical brown sand those settings the camera chose are going to be pretty fair for entering into manual mode. When you are taking that shot use the shutter speed that is your sync speed. I think it's 200 for Nikon? And 250 for Canon? I used shutter priority precisely because of that. You have to have the other settings fall in around the flash in a minute...
Then you know that you are going to use a little bit of fill flash to keep the sky exposed properly while also exposing the subject properly, so reduce that exposure that the camera chose to accommodate for the flash. You can lower your shutter, raise your aperture, lower your ISO, whatever you want to do.

 

[Nessy024]

wow that was soooo helpful! thank you so much!

 

[zacshan]

wow that was soooo helpful! thank you so much!

I don't want to buy a new lens as I recently purchased Canon 700D with 18-55mm kit lens. What is all your suggestion regarding beach and portrait photography in beach using this kit lens? What settings can I try?

 

[Braineack]

You're talking to a ghost if you expect nessy to respond.

 

[Derrel]

wow that was soooo helpful! thank you so much!

I don't want to buy a new lens as I recently purchased Canon 700D with 18-55mm kit lens. What is all your suggestion regarding beach and portrait photography in beach using this kit lens? What settings can I try?

Yes, zach, the thread is old, but you brought it up...beaches are usually VERY bright if the sun is out. Later in the day, around 4 to 8 PM, when the sun is low, the light on a beach can be very,very beautiful. Exposures of around f/6.3 at 1/1000 second at ISO 250 to ISO 400 can be nice if it is bright AND ALSO windy. When shooting in the wind, it really helps to have a fast shutter speed, to keep the images sharp, and to keep hair looking good, and not too billowy.

During the day, if it is very sunny,and you want to shoot with the sun BEHIND the people, ie--with the people being "back-lighted" or "backlit", then a good idea is to get very close to the people, and use the in-camera light meter to take a close-up reading of their face, and set that exposure in manual metering mode, then back up and take the picture.