Photography at the beach
Moni Caron www.monicaron.com
I love the sea and the beach; they have been part of my life for many years. I have so much fun going to the beach; I am very concerned with making special pictures on this theme.
Unfortunately, the theme beach, destination of many vacations, is one of the most misunderstood in photography.
Thousands of times, I’ve seen people complaining about how awful their pictures are compared to how wonderful it was when they took the pictures.
There are some common mistakes that people make, let’s take a look at some of these problems and try to fix them.
First, I would like you to think about the camera you have. What kind is it? A single lens camera or a point-and-shoot camera.
If you have an automatic point-and-shoot camera with auto-focus and built-in flash where you have no control at all, you have to know how the camera “understands” the light and (please!!!), don’t forget to read the manual!
The film is a very nice technologic piece of chemistry, but it has its limitations. Without control over your camera, you’re tide into what the camera was “programmed” to do. And most cameras, actually the majority of the cameras sold in dealers, are point-and-shoot or more ordinary ones.
So what do you do? Buy another expensive camera? No! You’re likely to get good pictures with the camera you own; you just need to know how to use it better.
With beach scenes, we usually have a very harsh light with heavy shadows.
Both sand and sea reflect a lot of light, like a mirror. You blink for a second, before your eyes get used to so much light and can see all the details in shadow, light, near and far.
The film, though, understands the light in “stops”. It needs a minimum and a maximum amount of light to have an adequate exposure, not too bright, not too dark. The film understands these “stops” of light in a perfect match between its diaphragm and shutter. In case one of these two variables is not the perfect match, you can have too much light or not enough light. It is a pity, but the film still can’t be as perfect as your eyes and can’t catch the richness of details in light and shadow as good as you.
Film can “see” a difference of about five stops of light, while our eyes can see about 16 stops of light.
When you are at the beach, with all that shining sun, the film tends to “understand” that there’s too much light there and try to compensate, recording an exposure that usually is too dark.
Try to keep in mind the direction of sunlight and avoid shooting into the sun. If you can, move so the sun is behind you or slightly to the side to light your subject. Watch the direction of the shadows, especially close to noon, when there are deep shadows that can be very unflattering.
If you have an single lens reflex (SLR) camera with controls over your exposure (and know how to use them), take the meter reading and open up 1 to 1 ½ stops from the reading your camera gives you. This will give you an exposure able to capture the scene as you see. If in doubt bracket, that is, take one picture with the reading your camera gives you and re-shoot with an exposure opened up from 1 to 1 ½ stops, to guarantee a good shoot.
Second, I would like you to remember that in a bright day at the beach, pay attention to the film you are going to use. Avoid ISO 400 and up on these days. You don’t need them.
The better options are ISO 100 and ISO 200, both are less grainy and more appropriate to give you vibrant, colorful results and nice enlargements.
Third, I would like to tell you that there’s something else you can do to improve your pictures at the beach: use the flash! It may sound strange at first, but if you use a flash to light the foreground (usually people), you are not going to influence the light in the background (the flash does not reach large distances) and you minimize the harsh shadow of the sun on people’s face.
Forth, and a relief for you, I would like to remark that the majority of dreadful pictures you look at when you pick them up at the lab are not your fault! Notice I am not talking about composition in photography! I am talking about the too bright or too dark, or faint pictures. Labs are responsible for about 80% of most under or overexposed pictures for mass market.
The machines are set up to the most used films in the lab and although dealers and labs have been trained to change this set up every time you put a different film on them, most simply don’t. Also, if chemistry is old, it can change the color, contrast and brightness of your pictures. A good example is when you receive a picture where the people’s skin looks like “Hulk” or too red.
When you go to the lab to have your film developed and processed, tell them you were at the beach and that it was too sunny (in case it was). They will understand and will try to “correct” what the film captured in order to give you a better chance to have the picture you actually saw.
Remember that you can, and should, ask your lab for reprints if you’re not satisfied with the results. They know when they are wrong and will usually do a reprint if you ask them.
Last, but not least, keep your memory fresh and try to think about all these tips first!
