Tips & techniques for better beach photography

Image credit Kristina Sherk.

I’m not sure what sorcery the water holds over me, but it’s palpable. I often find myself deeply restored whenever I visit a beach. Someone once told me that since all the ocean water is connected (all over the globe), you’re literally connected to all the water on our planet at one time. Pretty major, right? So no wonder so many of us want to capture beach experiences and memories forever, and there's no better way than through beach photography.

Beach photography has become a passion of mine, and I'm thrilled to share my best tips and tricks for making sure those shots turn out perfectly. By following certain techniques, both while shooting and afterward when editing in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, you'll end up with photographs that transport you back to the sand, sun, and surf.

Before you go: Protecting your camera

Just as we pack sunscreen, hats, and umbrellas to protect us from the sun before we leave for the beach, it's a good idea to plan some protection for your cameras too. Prolonged exposure to sand, salt air, and heat may damage our cameras. Here are a few tips to avoid damage.

• Avoid changing the lens while at the beach to reduce the chance of sand getting onto the sensor. The best way to do that is to decide on one lens to take with you. A zoom lens is a good choice, as the focal length range from wide to telephoto is very practical.
• Protect the camera from getting wet, which is especially important with salt water. If the camera does get wet, dry it off with a clean dry cloth as soon as possible.
• Both digital and film cameras should be protected from extreme heat. A good rule of thumb is to keep the camera with you and if you are comfortable, the camera will be fine. Avoid keeping the camera in a hot car for extended periods of time.

Best times of day to shoot beach photography

The best time to go to the beach is all the time! But the best time to photograph at the beach is before and during sunrise and during and after sunset. Take these two images for example:

The position of the sun is quite important and can make or break your image. If you’re photographing in the middle of the day when the sun is the highest and brightest, it’s inevitable that you’ll encounter extremely contrasty light. Photographing in the middle of a sunny day will create unsightly shadows under eyes, noses, and chins. These shadows can be reduced with a small flash or the light bouncing off of light sand. Photographing on a cloudy day when the light is soft and bright is a great opportunity to create beautiful and flattering portraits.

Exposure tips for beach photography

In most beach photography, you’ll have a lot of light to work with. When photographing in Raw or DNG file format, on bright, sunny days, it’s a good idea to underexpose images by ½ to a full stop — this protects the highlights, for example in white puffy clouds, from being overexposed and losing detail. After adding the image to Lightroom, use the Shadows slider to brighten up the darker areas.

Get creative, get underwater

Now — before you go dunking your DSLR cameras into the ocean and saying, “Kristina told me to…”, let me just caution you, you’ll need an underwater housing to do any sort of over-under shot.

I was so excited after taking this image, I couldn’t wait until I got back to the house to pull the camera out of the housing, import the card, and find the frame in Lightroom.

Wildlife note: If you look closely, she isn’t holding a sea star above the water – it’s a bleached sand dollar. Live sand dollars are brown, so we knew it was already dead. Sea stars (or starfish) will die in less than a minute if pulled out of the water. So please don’t remove them from the water.

Lightroom mobile

You don't need a DSLR camera to take incredible beach photographs; photographers often say the best camera is “the one you have with you.” So pull out that smartphone, open Lightroom, and use the camera (by clicking the blue camera icon) to shoot directly in the app!

If you want to capture a specific look at the highest quality, you have many settings at your disposal. Once in the camera module, you’ll see the word “Auto” next to the shutter button. When tapped, this will reveal a fly out menu with three different cameras. For beach photography I recommend using High Dynamic Range.

­­Don’t worry about dark shadow areas when capturing your images — it’s more important to make sure the detail in the sky is captured, than worrying that the subjects are dark. Subjects can very easily be brightened with Lightroom.

Editing with Lightroom mobile

Image editing with Lightroom and Photoshop has always been my favorite part of the photography workflow. Editing on Lightroom (Mobile) has never been easier thanks to the new AI powered selection tools. Select Sky and Select Subject are so amazing — they make editing your beach photos a breeze (see what I did there? 😎)

Select your desired photo and in the upper left corner choose Edit. Locate the gray circle with the dotted line around it, and tap the blue button with the plus sign.

You’ll be asked HOW you’d like to create your mask. Choose either Select Subject or Select Sky to start and then watch the magic take place.

Don't be shy! Get in the shot

Lastly, don’t forget to turn the camera around! It’s important that the photographer also be in the family photographs. Switch over to your phone’s camera and activate the delayed timer capture. That way the photographer can also be in the shot.

Whether you’re a professional photographer or a passionate shutterbug, there’s no better way to capture family memories than taking photos on your beach trips. And if you’re really looking for a challenge, consider diving into underwater photography on one of your next beach trips. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find to capture down there. Maybe even a mermaid!

Download Kristina’s full PDF on how to edit on Lightroom Mobile here.