Hi all ,
wondering if anyone has some good tips on a wedding shoot on the beach .
Its at 3pm in the arvo and we are almost in summer , so its going to be strong light and dont want everything washed out.
If you can, backlight your shots and use fill flash - that way you can go some way to balancing your bright backgrounds with your subjects. Just watch out for getting the sun in frame when doing this - lens flare can look really great, but it can also kill your shots.
When shooting mid-afternoon beach weddings I use the flash for almost every shot. For a normal wedding I'll go through one set of batteries in my flash. For a beach wedding, I'll go through three sets. If you have an external flash, use high-speed sync so you can keep your shutter speed up high. This does drain your flash batteries quicker, but otherwise you'll be severely limited in your settings choices.
For posed shots, get someone to hold a scrim/diffuser between the sun and your subjects (for close shots). Still use your fill flash, of course, but this allows a more even light on your subjects, and may also reduce how much they squint.
Use manual exposure and just change it when you see the light change, or you change position dramatically. Or, of course, if you need to change your aperture or shutterspeed for an effect. That way you can do a couple of test shots, get it right, then just concentrate on composition. Don't trust TTL to get it right for you - check, and recheck every time something changes. Shoot in RAW if you can, so you have more room to move in editing. Check your highlight detail by way of histogram or highlight alert to make sure you're not losing detail on your subjects (background doesn't matter so much - you will have highlight clipping at a beach shoot in at least some shots).
If you can't get something to work for you, move onto something else. You can always retry something later if you have time, but if you waste too much time trying to get one shot you may miss a whole lot of other shots.
While I love my Cokin square filters, I would say not to use them. Use your lens hood instead, because it will help prevent lens flare at times you don't want it. If you're shooting away form the sun for a time, that's when to get out your square filters. A circular polarise can be a good thing, but as you change angles you'll need to rotate it to get it right. It can get annoying for a wedding, because things move so fast. I just use a UV filter, and only to protect my front element from sand and sea spray. If I have a particular shot where I want to make the most of lens flare, I take it off (if I have time), but otherwise I don't worry about changing filters.
Lastly, if at all possible, don't change lenses on the beach. If you get sand or salt or water in your camera, you'll have problems. If you have to change, do it in a bag, off the ground, and keep it covered as much as you can. Keep your body between it and the wind, too, and keep the camera pointed down to minimise contaminants entering the body. Change quickly - worry more about your body, and less about your lenses. If you can, use two bodies so you have two lenses available to you without having to change.
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When shooting mid-afternoon beach weddings I use the flash for almost every shot. For a normal wedding I'll go through one set of batteries in my flash. For a beach wedding, I'll go through three sets. If you have an external flash, use high-speed sync so you can keep your shutter speed up high. This does drain your flash batteries quicker, but otherwise you'll be severely limited in your settings choices.
For posed shots, get someone to hold a scrim/diffuser between the sun and your subjects (for close shots). Still use your fill flash, of course, but this allows a more even light on your subjects, and may also reduce how much they squint.
Use manual exposure and just change it when you see the light change, or you change position dramatically. Or, of course, if you need to change your aperture or shutterspeed for an effect. That way you can do a couple of test shots, get it right, then just concentrate on composition. Don't trust TTL to get it right for you - check, and recheck every time something changes. Shoot in RAW if you can, so you have more room to move in editing. Check your highlight detail by way of histogram or highlight alert to make sure you're not losing detail on your subjects (background doesn't matter so much - you will have highlight clipping at a beach shoot in at least some shots).
If you can't get something to work for you, move onto something else. You can always retry something later if you have time, but if you waste too much time trying to get one shot you may miss a whole lot of other shots.
While I love my Cokin square filters, I would say not to use them. Use your lens hood instead, because it will help prevent lens flare at times you don't want it. If you're shooting away form the sun for a time, that's when to get out your square filters. A circular polarise can be a good thing, but as you change angles you'll need to rotate it to get it right. It can get annoying for a wedding, because things move so fast. I just use a UV filter, and only to protect my front element from sand and sea spray. If I have a particular shot where I want to make the most of lens flare, I take it off (if I have time), but otherwise I don't worry about changing filters.
Lastly, if at all possible, don't change lenses on the beach. If you get sand or salt or water in your camera, you'll have problems. If you have to change, do it in a bag, off the ground, and keep it covered as much as you can. Keep your body between it and the wind, too, and keep the camera pointed down to minimise contaminants entering the body. Change quickly - worry more about your body, and less about your lenses. If you can, use two bodies so you have two lenses available to you without having to change.
Umm, I'll stop now. :) Good luck!