Thursday, May 26, 2011

Beach Photography Tips

beach photography tips
  "Mountain" by DailyPhotos (Click for More)  
One of the most photographed scenes in the world is the beach scene. The reason is that:
  1. The locale is beautiful by nature,
  2. People are usually relaxed and having fun and are not “stiff”
  3. A combination of the first two reasons.
This means that beach photography can be either landscape or portrait photography or a combination of both.

Unlike most other forms of photography, beach photography is about movement. The water is always in motion and if this plays a major part in the composition, you have to be able to balance this movement with the stillness of the rest of the image. The best way to do this is to keep the amount of motion in mind. If there is crashing surf, you will be best served by limiting the amount of surf in your composition or it may overshadow the non moving parts. The less the water movement, the more of it you can include in your compositions.


In beach photography, light is not always your best friend. We are accustomed to seeing bright sunlight in beach photos. But remember that if there is white sand, it can cause a lot of glare and result in stark high contrast photos that do not capture the feel of the beach.

When photographing objects or people on the beach, remember that you have a long flat unending background.

beach silhouette photo
  "Waiting" by Debra Vanderlaan (Click Image for more)  
If you are trying to capture just the openness of the beach, use a wide angle lens. The small lens will exaggerate the perspective and result in the background seeming to stretch away into the distance and thereby add a 3 dimensional effect to your photo. If you are shooting up the beach, the wide angle lens will let you keep everything, from the water in front of you to the rocky headland in the distance, in focus.

64 comments:

  1. Good tips for nice photos, Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice techniques, I never knew beach pictures can be THAT nice!

    How to Hack Life.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good tips, not much of a photographer myself but if I ever hit the beach I will take these into consideration

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for these tips!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Could you write about how to take macro photographs? Or these really small ones, what ever they're called :)

    following

    ReplyDelete
  6. nice tips and awesome pictures

    ReplyDelete
  7. cool tips, i realy like your pics :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. you're right, light can be a disaster but can make the differenc too !

    ReplyDelete
  9. something very calming about beach photos

    ReplyDelete
  10. best tips ever mang. now my photos will look like through professional laenses

    ReplyDelete
  11. thanks for advices, love photos of the sea.

    ReplyDelete
  12. great pictures; thanks for the advice

    ReplyDelete
  13. great tips and great photos! keep it up^^

    ReplyDelete
  14. wide angle lenses are good for almost everything.

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are very pretty photo's, i love em - if that first one was larger i'd use it as a wallpaper

    ReplyDelete
  16. More outstanding tips, i keep up with this blog every day.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautiful photos. Thanks for the tips!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Nice tips! Now I just have to go to the beach!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Again, great pics. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Where do you get all these images?

    ReplyDelete
  21. That last photo is amazing. It can be really hard to take beach photos, thanks for the tips!

    ReplyDelete
  22. nice read, thanks!

    by the way those photos, your handiwork?

    ReplyDelete
  23. I am a bigger fan of beach wildlife photos, or wildlife and environment. People are meh. :P

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you, i'll relay these tips to my photo friends and remember them myself.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Keep up with the tips! Thanks for helping us out ;)

    ReplyDelete
  26. i love good beach pictures :D thanks for the tips good post!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wow, I really love pictures of sunsets, and with beaches they get even mroe beautiful! Going to save that last one!

    ReplyDelete
  28. it looks shoped. haha, just kidding. followed

    ReplyDelete
  29. Great tips. I've been meaning to get into photography more.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I like your photo taking techniques, not just this post, but earlier ones. Think you could write something up about how to take better profile pictures? It would surely help me.

    ReplyDelete
  31. My girlfriend studies photography! I'll make sure she reads this too, she's just started and I'm sure she could use the tips.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Good tips. :) Nice blog.

    Following.

    ignoranceistruth.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  33. Going to Fiji in 9 days. Thanks for the tips :D

    ReplyDelete
  34. great blog with useful tips! tnx

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thanks. Wonderful photos and great tips.

    ReplyDelete
  36. whoa, those pictures are beautiful :)

    ReplyDelete
  37. I'm bloody awful at photography. I need help. ;_;

    ReplyDelete
  38. Will have to get into photography one day.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I need to get an SLR camera and follow your blog religiously, your posts are so inspiring!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Pretty much impossible to have a bad photo at the beach. Just the entire setting is near perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Professional camera, plus wide lens, plus sunset, plus hdr equals AMAZING.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Nice tips! and great pics wish my camera wasnt broken at the moment

    ReplyDelete
  43. very good tips I can surely use them for my cam whoring on facebook :P

    ReplyDelete
  44. Nice tips, what camera do you recomend ? a cheap, but good one ;)

    ReplyDelete
  45. hey man. i just wanted to comment because i really enjoy your blog. I'd thought anyone with a camera blog would just either run out of tips or their content would become dull after a few weeks but you keep going strong and they are interesting. I'm really impressed

    ReplyDelete
  46. thanks for the tips, keep them coming

    ReplyDelete
  47. These are so awesome and useful since I live near the beach. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  48. Ahh, sooo relaxing, just what I need :)

    ReplyDelete
  49. Good tips! I'd love to take my holga over there!

    ReplyDelete
  50. is it really all that cool!?

    ReplyDelete
  51. Oh wow, is all can say. Those photos are mind-blowing. Great tips as well. :D

    ReplyDelete