How To Get Great Photos At The Beach

Wonder How To Get Great Photos At The Beach?

Sum­mer means long days at the beach. Play­ing in the sand and surf, build­ing sand­cas­tles and sunkissed noses. If you want to cap­ture Insta­gram-wor­thy pho­tos of your fam­i­ly enjoy­ing the beach this sum­mer, It’s not too late, and I’ve put togeth­er some great tips to help make sure that you get great pho­tos at the beach! 

Use The Light…

I ALWAYS say, “Shoot for light and not the loca­tion.” Shoot­ing at the beach is no dif­fer­ent. Now, obvi­ous­ly, you have a fan­tas­tic loca­tion, but you real­ly have to con­sid­er the light when shoot­ing at the beach. You are not only deal­ing with strong sum­mer light but reflec­tions from the sand and water. Shoot­ing at “high noon” will be very dif­fi­cult, so you may want to avoid that if pos­si­ble. Start­ing ear­ly when the sun is ris­ing can give you beau­ti­ful shots. Shoot­ing at the gold­en hour is mag­i­cal, and shoot­ing on a slight­ly over­cast day can be very help­ful. Play with the sum­mer light and have fun!

Pay Attention To Your Surroundings…

Pay atten­tion to your sur­round­ings. Anoth­er thing that I often say is, “clean up the clut­ter!” You want to do this at the beach as well. That being said…don’t steal your child’s buck­et while he’s build­ing his sand­cas­tle, but if you have the chance, clean­ing up the sur­round­ings of your sub­ject and mak­ing sure that what you see in the viewfind­er is what you want in your pho­to will give it a more pol­ished,
edi­to­r­i­al-like feel.

Think Outside Of The Box…

Think out­side of the sand­box. Look for those per­fect spots away from the water. Are there piers at your lake or beach spot? Some beau­ti­ful beach canopies? A row of col­or­ful umbrel­las? Sand dunes that the kids can play on? Also, remem­ber the details. Push your cre­ativ­i­ty to cap­ture some great shots.

Patience Is Key…

Patience is key. You don’t want to ruin the day at the beach for your kids and fam­i­ly. Don’t have them pose, or direct them. Sit back and let the shots come nat­u­ral­ly. I often bring a longer lens to the beach and just let them do their thing. I love the relaxed pho­tos of them laugh­ing, hav­ing fun, and not even real­iz­ing that they are hav­ing their pho­tos tak­en. Just remem­ber to be ready.

The Devil Is In The Details…

Pay atten­tion to the details. Remem­ber to get your hori­zons straight when shoot­ing at the beach, and remem­ber you can straight­en slight­ly lat­er in post-pro­cess­ing. How­ev­er, a hori­zon run­ning through some­one’s head can not be fixed, so pay atten­tion to your horizons.

Use these five tips to help you get great pho­tos on your next beach vaca­tion, and if you are ready to learn more about how to take great pho­tos check out the Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Program!