For people with experience shooting at the beach, what's the best time for a portrait session? Yes, this is totally a newbie-sounding question. I have a family who would like to set up a portrait session. My husband and I only have experience shooting at parks and homes where we can usually find shade under a tree if the sunlight is too harsh. But what about the beach? I know e-sessions look romantic at sunset, but what about family portraits? I would love to hear your thoughts.

I only shoot beach portraits an hour before sunset. The last few minutes before sunset are obviously the best. So...if my clients have really small children that might not last an hour - I push it back even more and start about 30-40 minutes before.

Thanks, Jill. I really appreciate the feedback.

+1

What about those of you who've shot weddings on the sand before sunset, or even early afternoon? Are there any lighting tips or things to do or avoid?

Exactly what Jill said.... Around here the sun doesn't set until 9:30 or 10:00 in the summer. When I tell parents of little kids that we have to do them at 8:30 or 9:00, they freak out and say that it is too late for thier young children. I tell them they are welcome to wait until October when the sun sets earlier...

There have been a few times where I caved to the parents pressure of going earlier to the beach for the kids. Every time I did, I regreted it. The light is too harsh.

Now, when doing a wedding, you don't have a lot of choice on time. So, just go with it, and do the best you can. I will try the sun both at their backs and on theri faces. If you shoot with the sun at your back, they sky looks bluer than if it is at thier back. If you shoot with the sun at thier back, there is nicer light on thier faces.

I just went to a beach photography class, and he used a lot of scrims for the shots of the bride and groom models. Of course you can't do that with the wedding party.

Oh, and one more thing... if it is very overcast, the last hour can be too dark. The clouds almost act like a horizon, and it is like the sun sets earlier. I usually try to warn my customers that if that happens, I will call them to go earlier to the beach.

Anytime after 4 would be fine to me. I would bring a reflector if you have one and also be aware of the tide charts in your area.

Being in Australia alot of people like to have beach weddings where we live. They often choose midday ceremonies - EEK!


... sun behind, gold reflector throwing light back into them. No assistant - just me!


...shooting into the sun with a little fill flash


... scrimmed with a reflector


... reflector held under, flash with sto-fen attached shooting directly at them.

I try to shoot manual - meter off the whites in their dress / shirts and then dial up the flash compensation to about 1 2/3
example...


When it is really bright you will need to sacrifice the background (overexpose) to make sure they are not underexposed.

Hope this is somewhat helpful

If I had a choice ID shoot really early morning or just before the sunset - but Im learning how to be versatile. (You can't always have shade to shoot in in the middle of the day!)

Jonathan

Wow! Thanks for all the advice. And Jonathan, THANK YOU for including a few of your photos. You've learned to manage that mid-day sun really well. The examples help a lot!

Jonathan, you're my new hero. In the first shot, were you bouncing your fill flash off of a gold reflector or did you just have it sititng behind you while you used the fill flash straight on?

aww shucks!!



This shot...



details: 5D, 24-70L @35mm (Manual mode, 100iso, f4, 1/500)
I exposed for their faces while the light was being reflected onto them and then shot at this for this location.

Here is another shot taken without the reflector...


Same exposure, same distance etc.

I was hand holding the reflector in my left hand, while shooting with the 5D without grip in my right hand. I was using a lastolite tri-flip 33' reflector. The reflector was between me and the couple, off to the left. This reflector has different surfaces, I used the zebra style - gold and silver stripes. If you remove this surface you have a 2 stop diffusion panel which is also quite handy. Lastolite's link to this product is here.

I shot it pretty much like this - video link - which shows you how I hold the reflector and shoot at the same time.

Ive been eyeing up the california sunbounce system and Ill probably upgrade to that soon - although I do like how the tri-flip folds down and I clip it on my Boda bag.

Thanks!

Jonathan

I do a lot of beach and I go either at 9am (the best because we get fog almost everyday in the summer afternoons/evenings) or 7ish and pray for no fog.

With seniors, I can use reflectors. With little ones, I let them go and try to pop in a fill here in there...while the beach light is harsh in pictures, it's also harsh in real life and since I shoot Lifestyle it's okay to let that come through. I just did a family of 5 at 7pm w/out any reflectors and a fill only here and there...there are shadows and overexposed backgrounds and sun flare...I did this on purpose to create a feeling of being there and it worked really well. There something about letting the beach environment photograph exactly how it is that's pretty cool!

Wow, beautifully done. That reflector looks pretty nice. But boy is it expensive! I noticed they have the smaller 18" reflector. Is it better to go big just incase? I shoot primarily dogs (small to big) and babies.

I would go the bigger one - they do have a model without removable covers - just the tri-grip series which is cheaper. I lost 4 of the surfaces for mine (black and a few others I wasnt likely to use anyway) so its essentially a trip grip anyway. Id probably go with a white / gold + silver surface. (they have a surface per side - spin it round for more or less reflection.)

The reason Id go bigger is because, although it is more rigid than a circular reflector, it still has a fairly narrow concentration of light (one reason why the sunbounce system is calling me) And if it is particulaly windy it can be quite hit and miss although alot more managable than the circular bottletop reflector I also have.

As it is more of a wedge shape the bottom wedge is where most of the light is caught.

I do like how it has a flat bottom - it is handy for resting on the ground against your leg and not rolling away!

I realize I'm a bit late to this discussion, but if you haven't yet, check out Carey Schumacher's videos on beach portraits here and here. I don't think they cover lighting, but they do cover several other important things - sand, tide charts, etc. Do you know what type of sand works best for footprint shots? I didn't until I watched those.

As to lighting, I did a shoot last year in October on an Oregon beach. The first part was in the late afternoon, with some pretty harsh lighting. Here's the family's favorite:
Click to view attachment
I set the sun at their backs and to the side as best I could - due to the background we wanted in the shot it still hit the sides of their faces a bit. I used an off-camera flash to my left, opposite the sun, to bring their exposure up so I could retain detail in the beach behind them.

Here's my favorite:
Click to view attachment
Same type of setup, but this time I held the flash in my left hand as I walked backward.

In both of these cases I could have done without the flash, but the background would have mostly blown out. I often do that, but in this case, the beach was integral to the images.