If you love the beach, you will of course want to share photos of your experience with your family and friends or remember your favorite moments long after your vacation. Specially if you are in locations like Cancun, Mexico or any Caribbean beach. However, it is not always easy to photograph the beauty of the beach. You can enjoy the sun, water and sand, but under these conditions the camera will not be able to take the best pictures. Here are some beach photography tips to ensure you get high quality photos in your next photo session.
- Shoot During Golden Hour
What's better than watching a sunrise or sunset on the beach, and it turns out that those "golden hours" are also the best times to take pictures. "Golden hour" is the period immediately after sunrise and just before sunset when the sky is redder and softer than other times of day. During this time, the photo is less likely to be overexposed. Photographers consider this to be the most desirable time of day to photograph nature and outdoor portraits.
The "golden hour" has many advantages but a big one disadvantage, the blue color of sky and water loses natural saturation during "golden hour", if you like this stunning turquoise blue color we have in Cancun, Mexico area you should consider doing your photoshoot little before sunset or after sunrise "golden hour".
- Keep it Clean
Very often on the beach the wind blows very hard, if you are in a photoshoot or just taking photos on the beach you should check your lens every few minutes, the wind always carries particles of water that stick on your camera and lens.
There's nothing more annoying than finding during photo editing dark spots and low contrast pictures caused by sand and moisture. Consider buying a lens tissue and a blower. These tools help keep dangerous sand and moisture away from your lens. Regular cleaning of the lens will improve a lot the quality of the shot.
- Polarizing Lens Filter
Polarizing filters are so useful and very underrated, people don't use them very often. After the lens, a polarizing filter is the most important piece of gear for outdoor photoshoots. Polarizing filters enhance blues and eliminates glare from reflective surfaces. It's a priceless investment, especially if you're shooting in a very sunny bright day, a polarized filter can improve a lot your beach photography.
- Carry a Tripod
A tripod is your BF when shooting portraits during sunset or sunrise, it allows you to capture longer exposures with slower shutter speeds avoiding blurry pictures. A tripod is also very useful if you want to shoot the movement of water and clouds using a special lens filter.
Even though a tripod helps shooting portraits it is useless for most lifestyle or action shots. Chasing kids, making them chase me or running and playing with my clients are my favorite ways to capture their true essence.
- Shoot in RAW Format
The main image formats available on digital cameras are JPG and RAW. JPG is the compressed version of the image file. Each camera brand has its own type of RAW file format. When you shoot in RAW, you retain all uncompressed image data. This means you can easily edit your photos in post-processing. Shooting portraits with water and sun reflection might be a challenge. The RAW format will allow you to correct overexposure or underexposure that lead to low quality photos.