Beach shoot - inspiration needed!

rbrown74

rbrown74

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Rick
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hi all,

I have just been approached about doing a beach shoot this week with an 18 year old model.

If anyone could post up a picture of their fav beach shot that would be a great help as inspiration for myself. I dont think she has any specific shot she is looking! :shrug: and I'd like to be able to make a few suggestions for composition. (y)

(Probably be an evening shoot BTW - anytime from 6-9pm)

Any help greatly appreciated!!:cool:
 
Saw some gorgeous beach portrait shots on PicasaWeb last year by a woman (in NZ I think) called Tehila Zeinfield. Sadly she's taken all her brilliant arty pics off there now so I can't point you at them.

Anyway, she was supremely good with strobes. She managed to balance it to perfection in broad daylight so as to give dark drama to the seascape with perfect model exposure and yet still manage to make it look natural. Fabulous effect.

But I'd caution that it probably took huge skill, knowledge and practice to get it just right and therefore it may not be the best bet for a proper shoot where you can't afford experiments that might not work.
 
i'm doing a beach shoot with a couple of friends this weekend, so i've been looking for some ideas myself. i remembered a video i saw on karl taylor's you tube channel a while back which shows some useful techniques for using natural light on a portrait shoot and just happens to be on a beach lol.

hopefully it helps

http://www.youtube.com/user/GreatPhotographyTips#p/u/19/pjEjCC-6aTQ

where abouts in n.ireland are you btw?
 
Kalibr8 said:
Probably best searching Flickr with beach and portrait keywords...
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Done that and got a few samples to get me started, thanks for the tip.

Imagical said:
........ She managed to balance it to perfection in broad daylight so as to give dark drama to the seascape with perfect model exposure and yet still manage to make it look natural. Fabulous effect.

But I'd caution that it probably took huge skill, knowledge and practice to get it just right and therefore it may not be the best bet for a proper shoot where you can't afford experiments that might not work.
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Had a test shoot this evening with my wife and I just dont have the flash firepower unless the sun is almost set so I dont think I'll experiment too much but I must try and track down some of her work if I can! Many thanks.

lexie said:
i'm doing a beach shoot with a couple of friends this weekend, so i've been looking for some ideas myself. i remembered a video i saw on karl taylor's you tube channel a while back which shows some useful techniques for using natural light on a portrait shoot and just happens to be on a beach lol.

hopefully it helps

http://www.youtube.com/user/GreatPhotographyTips#p/u/19/pjEjCC-6aTQ

where abouts in n.ireland are you btw?
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Excellent wee video there, thanks! I'll bookmark that page for further reference I think! (y)

I'm from Cookstown area in Tyrone. Going to go to White Rocks outside Portrush most likely. Looks like Saturday is going to be a good day but it gives rain on Sunday! I'm hoping to go out before the weekend as it should be quieter.


One thing I noticed from my shoot today (and a couple of previous outdoor shoots) is that the images arent that sharp. I'm certainly not happy with them and I'm starting to think that the Canon doesnt like the Sigma 17-70 lens which I bought second hand a while back. Seems to focus not so bad when doing close ups but if the subject is 20-25 odd feet away it just doesnt seem to focus right!

Edit: On review the focusing problems seem to be only in overcast or shadowy light situations where I'm using off camera manual flash, so am I right in saying that the onboard flash is needed to get pinpoint accurate focusing when the lighting isnt ideal??

Edit no.2: Lexie - I see you're also into VW's. What have you got? Im restoring a 1303 convertible at the minute!
 
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rbrown74 said:
Done that and got a few samples to get me started, thanks for the tip.



Had a test shoot this evening with my wife and I just dont have the flash firepower unless the sun is almost set so I dont think I'll experiment too much but I must try and track down some of her work if I can! Many thanks.



Excellent wee video there, thanks! I'll bookmark that page for further reference I think! (y)

I'm from Cookstown area in Tyrone. Going to go to White Rocks outside Portrush most likely. Looks like Saturday is going to be a good day but it gives rain on Sunday! I'm hoping to go out before the weekend as it should be quieter.


One thing I noticed from my shoot today (and a couple of previous outdoor shoots) is that the images arent that sharp. I'm certainly not happy with them and I'm starting to think that the Canon doesnt like the Sigma 17-70 lens which I bought second hand a while back. Seems to focus not so bad when doing close ups but if the subject is 20-25 odd feet away it just doesnt seem to focus right!

Edit: On review the focusing problems seem to be only in overcast or shadowy light situations where I'm using off camera manual flash, so am I right in saying that the onboard flash is needed to get pinpoint accurate focusing when the lighting isnt ideal??

Edit no.2: Lexie - I see you're also into VW's. What have you got? Im restoring a 1303 convertible at the minute!
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the white rocks would be a great location, busy in good weather though but i guess that's to be expected with antywhere in portrush when the sun comes out lol. i was planning to head to downhill on sunday but might have to reschedule that if there is rain on the way if the couple aren't too keen on potentially getting wet.

for your lens af issue-it seems that sigma have a reputation for front/back focussing issues and the consistancy of their quality control leaves something to be desired. some people say it's down to user fault, others that the equipment is to blame. is it at the longer end of the range at wider apertures that you're noticing the softness? remember that the further you are from your subject the depth of field at a particular aperture with be smaller than if you were closer to the subject (ie. the dof @f/4 and 17mm will be a lot wider than f/4 on a 70mm lens).

i don't use flash(on or off camera) so i can't help with your problem there.

but for vw's i could talk all day :)
i run a 1.8 20valve turbo mk4 golf gti at the minute, my grandad had a 1300 beetle years ago and i always had a real soft spot for it and blame him for getting me into vw's. i've been tryimg to talk the mrs into letting me get another golf as a project but she's having none of it lol. i'm pining for a mk3 vr6 though at the minute even though petrol costs would cripple me running two thirsty cars.
 
Hi Rick , here's one of mine from a few weeks ago (but note the useful crit others have posted to improve the shot)

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=333453

The trick is to balance the flash and ambient light. My method is to expose for the background and then use the off camera flash to light the model. The background (sea/sky etc) will almost certainly be brighter than the subject. So set your camera for a good exposure of background and use enough flash to correctly expose for the model and put light in her eyes.

As it is a beach shoot, I think it's good to show the sea/beach in the pics while keeping the model as the centre of attention.

Good luck and look forward to seeing the results.
 
lexie said:
...for your lens af issue-it seems that sigma have a reputation for front/back focussing issues and the consistancy of their quality control leaves something to be desired. some people say it's down to user fault, others that the equipment is to blame. is it at the longer end of the range at wider apertures that you're noticing the softness? remember that the further you are from your subject the depth of field at a particular aperture with be smaller than if you were closer to the subject (ie. the dof @f/4 and 17mm will be a lot wider than f/4 on a 70mm lens).

i don't use flash(on or off camera) so i can't help with your problem there.

but for vw's i could talk all day :)
i run a 1.8 20valve turbo mk4 golf gti at the minute, my grandad had a 1300 beetle years ago and i always had a real soft spot for it and blame him for getting me into vw's. i've been tryimg to talk the mrs into letting me get another golf as a project but she's having none of it lol. i'm pining for a mk3 vr6 though at the minute even though petrol costs would cripple me running two thirsty cars.
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It just seems the whole image is soft - I have trouble finding one area of the images that is sharp!! :shrug: - I dont use it that often so may try sticking to the nifty fifty as much as possible on the day.

As for Veedubs... hard to beat having a project on the go (even though I'm getting fed up throwing money at mine now! ...and it's keeping me from getting much photography done!) Get yourself a small economical runaround and then keep the thirsty cars for special occasions!(y)

this is my build thread on Volkszone: http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=713384
 
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PatrickO said:
Hi Rick , here's one of mine from a few weeks ago (but note the useful crit others have posted to improve the shot)

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=333453

The trick is to balance the flash and ambient light. My method is to expose for the background and then use the off camera flash to light the model. The background (sea/sky etc) will almost certainly be brighter than the subject. So set your camera for a good exposure of background and use enough flash to correctly expose for the model and put light in her eyes.

As it is a beach shoot, I think it's good to show the sea/beach in the pics while keeping the model as the centre of attention.

Good luck and look forward to seeing the results.
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I'd seen that picture earlier (and really liked it!!) What off camera flash were you using? and what time of day was it? I assume it was overcast when you took the shot? Excellent shot and I if I can get an image half as good I'll be happy.... and thanks for the exposure tips! :clap:
 
rbrown74 said:
I'd seen that picture earlier (and really liked it!!) What off camera flash were you using? and what time of day was it? I assume it was overcast when you took the shot? Excellent shot and I if I can get an image half as good I'll be happy.... and thanks for the exposure tips! :clap:
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Thanks.

It was an evening shoot and the sun was coming and going. We were also dodging rain showers!

It's a single cheapo Chinese Yongnuo 460 speedlight (about £35 on e-bay). Shot though an umbrella and triggered with an rf-602 radio trigger. The flash would definitely be on manual.

Can't remember exactly where the light was, but looking at the shadows and catchlights it must have pretty much straight in front of her and a bit above.
 
I think I'll be in a similar situation. It's giving some sun but the cloud looks pretty close ont eh forecast. I have a cheapy Jesops flash on manual trigger so that gives me hope that I could (maybe) get something similar in results!!! Many thanks man!
 
rbrown74 said:
It just seems the whole image is soft - I have trouble finding one area of the images that is sharp!! :shrug: - I dont use it that often so may try sticking to the nifty fifty as much as possible on the day.

As for Veedubs... hard to beat having a project on the go (even though I'm getting fed up throwing money at mine now! ...and it's keeping me from getting much photography done!) Get yourself a small economical runaround and then keep the thirsty cars for special occasions!(y)

this is my build thread on Volkszone: http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=713384
Click to expand...

have you tried manually focussing to check if the af is out a bit? i recently bought a sigma 24-70 2.8 and spent the first couple of days shooting everything at 2.8 (just because i could lol) but only some of my shots were coming out sharp out of camera, it was mostly down to error on my part with me moving or the subject moving while i was taking the shot. are you shooting raw or jpeg? raw will need some sharpening when you're editing the pics, whereas jpegs have sharpening applied in-camera. stopped down to f4 though and it is very sharp and most of the time any pp sharpening is kept to a minimum.

i had a look at your build thread dude, it looks like the cars coming on well. are they porsche tombstones you had re-covered? they look well (y)
 
lexie said:
have you tried manually focussing to check if the af is out a bit? i recently bought a sigma 24-70 2.8 and spent the first couple of days shooting everything at 2.8 (just because i could lol) but only some of my shots were coming out sharp out of camera, it was mostly down to error on my part with me moving or the subject moving while i was taking the shot. are you shooting raw or jpeg? raw will need some sharpening when you're editing the pics, whereas jpegs have sharpening applied in-camera. stopped down to f4 though and it is very sharp and most of the time any pp sharpening is kept to a minimum.

i had a look at your build thread dude, it looks like the cars coming on well. are they porsche tombstones you had re-covered? they look well (y)
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Thanks for the help. I think it is likely an accumulation of the af struggling in low light, my technique and shooting in RAW. I'll try to analyse it closer and see what happens. The big shot is tomorrow evening so it should be fun. Gonna get wet probably (and not from rain!)!!!:D

VW talk: seats are genuine Beetle cabrio seats from the US of A. They came as standard in cabrios from 74-76 or something like that. Mines a 79 so not standard to mine but it's supposed to have fuel injection and a 1600 engine. Mine doesnt have either of those! :) Its being built from all sorts of bits and is ending up costing me around £6500! :shake: Will hopefully look the part when done though. Almost ready for paint now!(y)
 
rbrown74 said:
Seems I've wasted your time guys. Got a text this morning saying that she doesnt think she can make it. Typical teenagers!:bonk:
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that sucks dude. why not take some time to get to the bottom of your softness issues so that if you get the chance to do something similar you'll be on top of your game ;)

best of luck with the project as well, it's looking good even in the primer-really starting to take shape now. hopefully it won't run you for much more cash lol.
 
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