Beach photography is one of the most popular types of photography simply because the beauty of the beach can enhance almost any photography or situation.  However, it is also a very difficult type of photography to master because of the dramatic lighting effects that you can and will deal with depending on the weather and time of day.

Here are some tips to follow for great beach photography:

·         Plan to take the beach pictures either after sunrise or before sunset, or on a cloudy day.  Everyone knows that the best times to take pictures is during the early morning hours or later evening hours, after sunrise and before sunset.  This is especially true when it comes to beach photography, and even more true when trying to photography people at the beach. 

If you are taking landscape pictures, then by far the most popular time of day will either be sunrise or sunset (if on the east coast of the USA then probably sunrise, and if on the west coast probably sunset so you can capture the sun in the picture).  In fact, it was a picture I took of a sunrise in Brazil that got me interested into photography in the first place!

There are a few techniques you can use to create dramatic effects when taking pictures of the beach at sunrise/sunset.   One that I love is positioning your subject directly in front of the sun as it comes up or goes down.  You will need to spot meter on your subject and not the sun, and use a slower F-stop than you would if you were just photographing the landscape.  This can be tricky, but produces amazing results when done properly.  Remember to spot meter on the subject (and probably will have to do so in manual mode), or you will end up with just a pure black silhouette for your subject.   The goal here is to produce a glimmering shot of your subject where you can still see the subject details.    I find that using a wide aperture and a fairly quick shutter speed does the trick, but you will have to play around with your settings to find just how you like it.

However, if you want to get that silhouette look, then do just the opposite!  Spot meter for the sun behind your subject, increase your f-stop to gain more depth of field, and then take the picture!  Both effects are great, but you will use the effects differently depending on your subject.    I personally like the first effect for up-close shots where the focus of the picture is the person or other subject and not the landscape.  I like the silhouette effect for distance shots where you want to concentrate on the landscape.

·         Use a split neutral density filter.  A split ND filter will allow you to still get detail out of the sand, rocks and other landscapes while not completely washing out the sky.  All that a split neutral density filter will do is change the amount of light coming through to the lens, allowing more light to come through from the landscapes and less light from the sun/sky areas.  A must have for great beach photography shots and inexpensive as  well!

·         For taking pictures during the day, use fast shutter speeds, fill flash and a reflector if possible.  One challenging aspect of beach photography is that the sun will reflect off the sand.   When you combine this with the fact that the sunlight on the beach is even more harsh than normal, you have some challenges to overcome.  The best way?  Get a stand-alone flash, like the Nikon SB-900 speedlight flash or Canon 580EX speedlight flash.  With these you can overpower the sun and get the correct exposure that you want.  If you don’t have these, I would suggest to buy them (very strongly).  But, if you can’t then you can use the camera’s built-in flash, but your pictures will come out more flat than you want them to.   Another piece of equipment that is great for great beach photography is a reflector.  This piece is cheap (check amazon.com), light, and easy to carry.

·         If you don’t have a SLR (digital or film), and are trying to use a point and shoot camera, then try to make sure the sun is behind you when taking pictures.   Unless your point and shoot has manual settings and you can follow the above advice, it is important to make sure the sun is at your back (unless you want a silhouette picture).  Point and shoot cameras just won’t perform as well in harsh conditions, and will usually underexpose beach shots.

So, here is a summary of the equipment that you should buy if you are serious about getting into beach photography:

·         Stand-alone flash, such as the Nikon sb-900 or Canon 580EX

·         Collapsible Disc Reflector

·         Split neutral density filter

·         Digital SLR (if you only have a point and shoot camera)