Family Beach Vacation Pictures...

Make them POP like never before

Most people who go on a family beach vacation, take plenty of photographs. Once you're home and you view or print them out, are you ecstatic, bored, or disappointed? Be honest, now!

Does this sound familiar... You arrive at your destination, check the place out, and quickly change to go to the beach.

Happily, you've remembered to take your sun block, nose plugs, and bathing suit (this is a family site, after all). Maybe you remembered your camera, maybe you didn't.

Going on a family beach vacation often brings up contradicting desires. On the one hand, you want everyone to have a wonderful, fun, relaxing, memorable vacation. On the other hand, most people don't want to do what's required to preserve the memories.

We will show you how to have the best of both worlds. By providing photography tips, you can capture outstanding beach vacation pictures, enjoy taking the photos, and ensure that when you look at the photos at home, you won't be thinking: "Was this OUR vacation!?!"

Before You Leave Home...

• Camera, batteries, memory cards, camera case, battery chargers, external flash (if available), tripod, and a portable digital storage device.
  
  
• Consider purchasing a circular polarizer filter for your lens. Strongly consider it!
  
  It will be one of the least expensive accessories you can purchase and you will love the results. What can it do, you ask?
  • Make the blue in the sky appear deeper and bluer

  • Allow you to clearly see objects under the water

  • Makes colors under certain conditions "pop" off the page with vividness

• If you're open to spending a little more on filters, it's a good "insurance policy" to place a UV filter over your lens for protection. That way, if your lens becomes damaged, your camera can still survive.

  Last on the "Filters-to-buy" list is the Neutral Density family of filters. As explained previously, the only way to create "cotton candy" effects with water is to slow down the shutter speed.

  And the only way to do that on a sunny day, is by making the camera think it is darker outside than it is. And, that's what neutral density filters do.

  Note that you may want to buy a series with different strengths, i.e., a 2X, 4X, 8X filter. These can be used alone or in series with each other to produce the desired effect.

If there are colorful bluffs, harbors, or other landscape picture opportunities on your beach vacation, you want to capture them, of course.

Not only that, but wouldn't it also be impressive to add some family member(s) to the shot and have the people AND the background in focus?

To achieve the results of the photo above...

• Position the human subject(s) in the foreground, just at the "break" between foreground and background.

• Begin by setting your F-stop for a high number (at least F-11, or at the "infinity" or "landscape" setting of your camera). Use the evaluative or matrix metering mode and focus on your human subject.

• Position yourself no closer than 10 feet from your human subject.

• Adjust the circular polarizer filter to obtain the desired shade of blue in the sky.

• Gently squeeze the shutter button.

Ideally, you would want to check the overall contrast for the shot; however, that is not practical through your LCD screen on the back of your camera.

If you have a histogram display, verify that it is not significantly shifted to either the extreme right or left. And, just to be safe (highly recommended for any potential "postcard" shots) take another picture; in this case, using the center-weighted average metering mode.


Distant Shots

Imagine how different this beach picture would look without the people in it. Even though the human subjects are extremely small, they make a major impact to the overall composition.

For this type of photograph, use matrix metering and the darker sections of the picture will be nicely underexposed.

If you want the darker section a little brighter, meter against the darker area, lock your focus, recompose the shot to include the brighter water/sky section, and take the shot.

Most people never take silhouette photographs, and yet, they are just as easy as photographs taken during the day light.

Use evaluative or matrix metering (which is probably your default metering mode anyway), and focus on the human subjects. Then compose the shot, as desired.

In this case, I would crop (or compose) the final shot so the couple is a little more to the right (remember the Rule of Thirds tip on the bottom of this link).

The silhouette effect results from the camera thinking the overall scene is brighter than it is, and therefore under-exposes the dark areas.

Everyone takes group beach pictures. Sometimes they are laying on towels, sometimes sitting on chairs. Occasionally, you will see a cute beach vacation photo of a child playing in the sand as a wave comes in.

By thinking outside the box just a little bit (after all, you don't want to injure your brain by doing it too much), you can create some truly memorable shots.

This particular beach vacation photograph evokes a peaceful and enjoyable mood, without one person being in the photograph.

Just arranging some simple objects, or capturing "how things are," will often turn out to be one of your favorites. After you have a few favorites, you may find yourself wondering:

• How can I really show these off? Suggestions include many unique software packages that can take your images to the next level
  
  
• One of the most popular choices involves creating a photo collage like this...
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
• What is the best way to protect the images? For information on this topic, look here.

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