From time to time we like to invite guest bloggers to contribute to the Mpix blog. Today we have invited Carey Schumacher of Barefoot Memories. Carey has become known for her outdoor family portraits that really capture the life and personality of each individual. We are happy to have her sharing some her thoughts and techniques with the rest of the Mpix community.
Here in San Diego, we’re in the middle of the annual Arizona Invasion. It seems Arizona license plates outnumber California cars on the roads every July & August (and don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to hear louder cheers for the visiting team at Diamonbacks/Padres games at Petco Park!). This is all for good reason—it’s beach season! Time to escape the heat and hit the beach!
Beach photography is intimidating sometimes. Lack of shade, full sun, and white outfits can add up to a photographer’s nightmare. Add in the potential camera damage from sand & water, and that’s enough to make many photographers run like the dickens for the soft and safe open shade of a local park. The siren song of beautiful beach photography doesn’t have to be a scary thing! If you’re hitting the beach this summer, don’t be afraid! Here are some tips for you.
First, a side note on light: You’ve probably heard about the “golden glow” of the light right before sunset. The “Golden Hour” is desirable for many photographers, but personally, I don’t structure my beach sessions completely around sunset time. I love the light at the beach in the morning, midday, and sunset, and I think it’s much more important to have HAPPY KIDS than supposed “perfect light”. Many toddlers “melt down” in late afternoon, and all of the perfect light in the world will not help get pictures of happy children if they’re in their “melt down hour”. It will take more work to seek out good angles and creative compositions (more on that later), but don’t feel tied to the “golden hour” for your beach sessions.
Now, on to some tips!
1) Metering mode, metering mode, metering mode! One of the most important settings on your camera is the METERING MODE. For compositions that include a lot of sky, water, and sand, I use the “evaluative” mode. This mode evaluates the whole scene, giving less emphasis to the center/metering area than “center weighted” metering. If you’re seeing a lot of blow-outs in your beach scenes, check your metering mode. If your camera’s metering is focusing on the center (“center-weighted” metering), you’re likely to blow-out the background and lose that beautiful blue sky and water.
2) HAVE FUN! Kids and families go to the beach to have fun and enjoy each other in a beautiful setting, so don’t spend a lot of time sitting still, posing, and looking at the camera! In full sun, you’ll only get squinting eyes anyway, so get out there and have fun!
3) Backlight is beautiful! Go in for some wonderful backlit close-ups. You may want to switch your metering mode back to “center weighted” for this one. Backlight your subject, then walk around your subject in a semi-circle. WATCH THE LIGHT coming off of the face (or faces), and it will change as you walk around! The ambient light will vary based on the angle you choose. If you look carefully, you’ll see skin tones improve & get worse, depending on where you’re standing as you circle your subject while the sun is to their backs. Find the angle with the light that is most pleasing to you. This takes practice and careful observation, but the results are worth the effort! Many photographers will use fill flash, but I’m lazy and don’t want to carry more equipment while I’m gallivanting around the beach, so I work hard to find those ambient light angles that give me good light. It’s hard sometimes with active kids, but keep trying!
4) Headless wonders. Chopped off heads can be beautiful! Go in tight for some detail shots—sandy toes, fingers grasping tiny shells, or grains of sand clinging to a beloved beach shovel. Open up your aperture on your lens as wide as it will go (go into Aperture Priority mode and lower that aperture number as low as you can, that opens up your lens and reduces the depth of field). Using the longest focal length possible on your lens will help as well. This will bring the viewer’s attention immediately to the detail you want to showcase. Everything else will fall in to a beautiful blur of softness.
5) Back at home…. Typically my camera has collected some sand during a photo session. Grains of sand in buttons and dials (unless you have a sealed body & lenses) can be disastrous! I rarely change lenses while at the beach for this reason—there’s too much of a chance for sand to get where I don’t want it! Every time I come home, I pull out my Dyson vacuum with the hand-held soft brush attachment. I leave the lens attached to my camera and the memory slot closed (don’t vacuum inside your sensor area—duh!).
I go over the camera and the lens with the vacuum brush, brushing & vacuuming all of the sand out of every dial, button, and groove. I do the same with my camera bag if any sand has made its way in there. This is the best way I’ve found to get my camera back in great shape after a beach session. I also keep a “Rocket Blower” in my bag at the beach for quick little “puffs” of air if there’s sand that just can’t wait for the vacuum back at home.
So, don’t let the beach scare you! Practice, practice, practice will always be the best way to improve, so HIT THE BEACH!
That’s a rough demand, I know. “Go to the beach! Have fun!” I’m such a slave driver.
Carey Schumacher, San Diego Barefoot Memories