Beach photoshoot advise.

ShepsMom

I have to go to St. Pete's beach tomorrow to do photoshoot for the family of 8. Mom dad and 6 kids, well, 3 girls and 3 boys, ages from 14 to 26
They're all dressing up as they have a dinner at 6, so, it's not going to be all white or same colors type thing. Ack! I'm pretty sure girls will be wearing some bling-bling and i hope there would be no sparkles. :huh

I suggested few shots posed and most of the shots to be journalistic style, they thought it was a great idea. Ok, whatever LOL

Anyway, my question is, i'm not sure about your typical "sit at the beach" type posing, it looks good with "white" but i'm not sure about "all dressed-up" part of it. :scratch What creative posing would you suggest for this fun group? I relaly not into posing anyone, but i need to find more creative ways of doing it.

I'll be bringing my 50mm and 18-200m for the shoot, along with my SB-800 flash (hopefully wont have to use it)

So, what i'm looking for is suggestions on posing, and may be some lighting. It should be still bright enough at 5pm, along with white sand.

Any advice from you, fine people, would be appreciated.


Thanks in advance!:thumb

jeffreaux2

I have never done a beach shoot, so take it with a grain of you know what.

I would be prepared to use the flash for fill, and possibly a gel to balance the color temp.

I think what truely seperates the extraordinary beach sessions from the ho hum are those sets that make use of long afternoon shadows- the shadows of the subjects that is, reflections of the subjects off the wet sand near the water and nicely done sillouttes exposing for dramatic skys. I agree that the posey ones have less impact. I think that some context shots would be cool though I doubt they would buy them.....some thing like a shot of the families name drawn in the sand with a stick...."the bradys" . It might look cool to have something like that included in one of those collage frames full of 4x6's from the shoot. When you do pose them, don't pose them......just have them sit however is comfortable for them. Arrange the people so they are rougly in a diamond or triangle pattern, and if you can, try to keep their heads no more than 1 1/2 heads apart. At least keep them close. Once they are comfortable YOU should pay close attention to their hands and feet. Hands should be relaxed- no fists....and well I personally don't like to see feet bottoms in photos (except of infants). I would also make use of my time by capturing individual shots of each of them, and some of smaller groups.....the guys....the girls......just mom n dad etc. You may have to bump up exposure compensation in dealing with the sand. I hope I have been of a little help. I am sure you will do fine, and I can't wait to see the results.

Good luck,
and happy holidays to you and yours.

ShepsMom

Thank you Jeff, don't say you didn't help a lot, i think you have some good ideas. I've been sitting here and looking through some beach photography shots on line. They all are just.... BORING!
I like to have fun with my peeps . I have few ideas, and planning to integrate into my shooting. I agree, they all should be relaxed and just have fun with it. I'll keep shooting, usually it's 300-500 shots, and i shoot raw. Will be fun to see how many actually will be keepers .


Thanks again!!!

Travis

Marina, Check out the work of Bill McIntosh. He and his daughter are located here in VA Beach and have practically defined the beach shoot. They are pretty incredible and can give you some great ideas to get you started. http://www.portraitsbymcintosh.com/

ShepsMom

Travis, thank you so much for the link. bow I'm going to check it out right now. I just opened front page, and i have a feeling i'll get some useful info there.

Appreciate your help!!

pathfinder

Travis wrote:

Marina, Check out the work of Bill McIntosh. He and his daughter are located here in VA Beach and have practically defined the beach shoot. They are pretty incredible and can give you some great ideas to get you started. http://www.portraitsbymcintosh.com/

Great link, Travis. He does have has portrait work dialed in.

Most of his beach shots look, to my eye, like he is using an off camera flash system of some sort.

Nice, warm side lighting, with great separation of foreground and background by lighting differentials. Looks like creative use of fill flash to me.

Very well done.

Travis

pathfinder wrote:

Great link, Travis. He does have has portrait work dialed in.

Most of his beach shots look, to my eye, like he is using an off camera flash system of some sort.

Nice, warm side lighting, but with great separation of foreground and background by lighting differentials. Looks like creative use of fill flash to me.

Very well done.

Yep. If you read any of Bill Hurter's portraiture books, you will notice that he uses a lot of McIntosh's work for examples - especially of off-camera flash at the golden hour with back/side lighting. Absolutely beautiful work. Being in VB, it is almost intimidating any time I do a shoot at the oceanfront .

ShepsMom

And you should Travis, go shoot and share with us. I love that link, very well done, great lightning, definately something to learn. I don't have any special equipment and will have to work with what i've got. Sun should be beautiful at that time of the day.

pathfinder

Try a white foam core reflector then, Marina. Or even a white towel.

ShepsMom

I wouldn't know what to do with it, now that you had to say it twice
I only have flash diffuser for my SB-800 and for my on camera flash. I know, i need something better then that. Hmm, may be i constract somethig with pain white printing paper. Will that work?? I think i've seen it somewhere online, about that. But how useful is it ousite, i always assumed all the light diffusers are mostly used inside. Live and learn i guess.

I have few shots that i did a while back with a baby.
These were only shot with my pop-up. It was right at sunset, so light was beautiful.

pathfinder

Marina, I didn't see my duplicate post, I really wasn't trying to repeat myself.

A 3x4 foot sheet of white poster board will work if you have a good assistant. Just something to add a little light into the backlit faces.

ShepsMom

Unfortunately, no assistants here Hmm, i'm not sure about board though, i'll try with what i have, there is always photoshop to the rescue. I will use my flash for flill light, of course!!
Thanks for suggestions

CookieS

Would love to see how the shoot ended up marina. I need to practice and shoot more at the beach especially work on blancing flash. it sure helps.

ShepsMom

Cookie, i'm uploading shots as i type, i'll post some on People's forum later today