Photo Idea: Sunset Portraits on the Beach

Aug 28

The beach is more than just for tanning and swimming… Get the most out of your portrait sessions by visiting your local beach at sunset!

Being a Hamilton, Ontario native, I love visiting Burlington Beach for a quick swim or… a sunset photo shoot. ;)

Sunsets are probably my most favourite thing in this entire world. Mix that with doing my favourite thing in the entire world? That’s a recipe for success.

Woman tousling hair in the water at Burlington Beach, Ontario.

How to prepare for your sunset beach photo session:

This section is for the client (and for the photographer to remind their subject about!).

Bring a towel (and other beachy things).

You WILL get wet and sandy at the beach… that is a guarantee. So make sure to bring a towel to wipe down in between outfits or at the end of your session! Other notable things to bring are a water bottle (because it’s not socially acceptable, let alone safe, to drink Ontario beach water), sandals, and hair tie.

Decide what look you want to go for.

This one’s more directed to the makeup-wearing, hair-doing friends. Whether it’s going for a natural look, beachy, or more glam, you’ll look fantastic - but choose whatever is the truest to you and your personality!

Hot tip: bring your makeup bag and hairbrush with you. Also, if you’re wearing lashes, make sure to bring lash glue! We don’t want any fly-away lashes. Leave the flying to the seagulls.

Hot tip #2: please make sure your nails are maintained. Chipped nail polish will take away from your portraits. The devil is in the details!

Have some inspo poses in mind.

Your photographer should prompt and guide you during your session, and capture the in-between natural moments as they come! BUT if you’re DYING to get a certain shot, please share the inspo photos with your photographer! Pinterest is an AMAZING place to get started.

How to capture more interesting beach photos:

This section is for the photographers.

Moodboard and write down a list of poses/prompts you’d like to capture.

Like I suggested earlier for the client, it’s good to create a moodboard as the photographer, and necessary, even, to ensure your photos maintain variety and you’re not getting stuck (which I have done countless times before and now I try to moodboard everything).

Once you’ve created your moodboard, write down a list of the prompts and poses required to achieve what you’re going for. A few examples of cool prompts for the beach may include: spinning in a circle on the shoreline, running through the water, or tousling hair while standing in the water.

Make sure you’re capturing motion, stills, details, and wide shots.

This point is also very related to the last. Walking away from a shoot, you should have a healthy variety of images captured. I struggle with this sometimes too! I’ve noticed recently that when I shoot couples, I capture a LOT of embracing photos and when I put those photos up on my website it all looks pretty much the same. I’m now challenging myself to try harder to diversify my prompts and poses.

BUT, back to making this relevant to beach shooting. Whether it’s a close-up of feet kicking the water, an image of your subject running down the shoreline cropped at the waist, or a wide shot of the horizon with your subject off to the side, aiming for variety makes things so much more interesting and pleasing and helps to avoid stagnant images (duh, but you get what I mean).