coastal photography Archives - Infrared Conversions, IR Modifications & Photography Tutorials

With long-exposure photography, you can catch those breathtaking shots of water while in motion and produce almost magical photos. Water breaking over cliffs and rocks, and even running smoothly can look stunning in photos. One of the reasons that this technique is preferred by photographers is that the smoothing of water not only can show movement but it creates a more clean image with fewer distractions. The trick to catching these breathtaking images is a matter of practice, but these tips will help you get well on your way to mastering this technique.

Get a steady tripod

This tip is the first a pro will give you when it comes to any long exposure images, and ocean photography is no different. You need a reliable and incredibly sturdy tripod that won’t shift with the wind, and won’t drop your camera into the water or sand. Investing in an expensive, high-quality tripod will save you a great deal of grief and ensure that your shots look the absolute best they can. It’s also worth knowing that cheaper, poor quality tripods can create vibration in the legs that manifest themselves as movement in your image. In other words, your photo will look soft or even slightly blurred.

Learn how to use filters

The sun can be an enemy to long exposure photography and overexposes any pictures you try to take during daytime hours no matter what you do if you don’t have filters. Investing in a dark Neutral Density (ND) filters is a must if you want your photos to come out looking beautiful and without it being overexposed. Earlier or later in the day when the light is darker and the sun is lower in the sky, Graduated Neutral Density filters can help you balance the light in the scene. The brighter sky and darker foreground can be impossible to even out when taking the photo without a graduated ND filter.

Scout for the perfect location

If you want your ocean photos to look stunning, you need to find amazing locations. You should scout out an area with rocks, cliff sides, docks, piers, anything that causes the water to break over it. Whilst a beach might also work, the big problem with beaches is sometimes a lack of interesting foreground subjects. If there are rocks formations in the water it will give you a much better end result. Breaking water over things like rocks create that foggy, smooth look for which long exposure ocean shots are known.

Look for a high vantage point

Being lower down on a beach can provide wonderful photos, but it won’t be able to show the viewer the scale of what you are looking at. Being high up can help get more of the formation of the coast and give the bigger picture. Try to avoid looking straight out to sea unless you have something of interest in the water such as rock formations, mountains in the background or even boats. A photo of just endless ocean will look pretty uninteresting. Instead, try to find angles that mean you can capture some of the coast along with the ocean. Not only will it make for better photos, but also give you more of a sense of scale.

Practice with the shutter speed

Different shutter speeds create very different effects on the image and give your photo entirely different looks. But it also worth keeping in mind that the conditions can also have an impact on how your shutter speeds affect the photo. For example, on a very windy day, you may not need a shutter speed as long as on a calm day. Here’s a rough guide to different shutter speeds:

There is ultra-long exposure that is anything over 30 seconds. These shutter speeds will smooth out clouds and completely smooth out the motion of the water as well. Though it leaves the colour intact, all of the textures are entirely blurred.
Long exposure is anything over 10 seconds. It will smooth out the water’s motion without totally taking away the sky and water’s textures like the ultra-long will.
Finally, medium-length exposure is of about 2-9 seconds. With this shutter speed, you can still see motion and movement in the water, but it nevertheless gives it a silky quality to it. Unlike the other two, the motion isn’t wholly blended out into the image (by that will depend somewhat on the conditions of the day).

Choosing between these is up to personal preference, but playing around and experimenting in each location is never a bad idea.

Consider the lighting

The best times to take pictures for this type of photography is the golden hour and blue hour. But even on overcast or cloudy days, you can capture great long exposure ocean shots.

Golden hour is after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low down on the horizon. These times of day create a softer light with more gold, yellow and orange highlights. Some places are even more striking at the golden hour like shallow water and even beach pebbles. The golden hour comes and goes pretty quickly, so arrive early so you can set up and be ready to take your shots.
Blue hour is after sunset, and before sunrise when the sun is usually out of sight but is still illuminating the sky in cooler colours. This time will create fascinating colours like soft, bright blues, pinks and oranges.
Overcast and cloudy days create more dramatic and dark compositions while still allowing you to take long exposure photos in the middle of the day. These photos don’t have the hindrance of the sun, and often, people aren’t outside during overcast days. So you have a clean and clear image, free of people. If you use a graduated ND filter to darken the sky, you can often pick up details in the clouds to create stormy and eerie images that are dramatic and striking to look at.

Use a wide-angle lens

Using a wide-angle lens is a simple tip as it allows you to capture more of the beach or cliffs. The wide-angle helps create more depth to the photo by pushing the background objects further away from the foreground. Though this tip is hardly a requirement, taking a wide-angle lens allows you to play with perspective and helps you give the image a different look.

Conclusion

Taking long exposure pictures creates incredibly unique and stunning photos. With these seven tips, you can improve your photography skills and start taking breathtaking ocean landscape shots in no time. The great thing about photography is that it leaves lots of room for creativity, and many of these tips can be mixed and matched to create unique photos in a style wholly your own. Whether you’re a beginner photographer, or just wanting to improve your ocean photography, these tips are just a few ways to capture better ocean photo.

There’s something magical about photographing near the coast. Striking cliffs and silky-smooth water can give you truly stunning results. The great thing about coastal photography is that it isn’t difficult, and you will often find yourself with plenty of time to be able to execute the shot that you want. To get you started here are 6 tips to help you capture stunning coastal shots.

Choose the right time

Even if you are new to photography you have probably heard of the “golden hour”. There is a reason that experienced photographers will always tell you that you should aim to shoot at these times. This is when the light is soft and golden in colour and as a result, provides a pleasing composition. Typically, these times are an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset.

This doesn’t mean that this is the only time that you should take photos. In fact, before sunrise and after sunset and even during the blue hour can give you amazing photos. Because the sun is low in the sky, with the right conditions you may also find you get a beautiful or dramatic sky. If you can take photos in these conditions, you will immediately see an improvement in your photos.

Pre-visualize your shot

One of the key things about capturing a great coastal shot is that you need to have an idea of the type of photo you want to capture. This might sound like an obvious thing to say but so many people take photos without really thinking about what they are photographing.

Knowing what your final photo will look like (known as pre-visualizing) will give you a better chance of being able to execute a great photo. Sure you can look at a coastal scene and think it’s just a beach scene, but if you really think about the small details you can dramatically change the photo you create.

Are you looking to capture smooth water effect or freeze those crashing waves against the rocks? Do you want to include the footprints in the sand or somehow crop them out? If you can work out all of these small details in your head, you will be able to form the photo in your mind before even setting up a camera.

Think about your foreground

Often one of the main problems with photographing coastal scenes is avoiding them looking uninteresting. This usually occurs when you photograph something with little interest as there is a repetitive colour or pattern. Like for example a photograph of a beach looking into the distance.

But by simply composing your shot with a point of interest in the foreground, you will often see a dramatic improvement. That’s why your foreground is so important when it comes to coastal photography. So always be on the lookout for rocks, driftwood or even people that can add a point of interest to your shots.

Look for a different perspective

Photographers always strive to find new ways of showing things that have been photographed lots of times. A coastal scene is no different. Usually, the big limitation for things like beaches is that they are pretty flat and so there’s isn’t the obvious opportunity for different angles or compositions.

But even in these sorts of places if you are willing to put some effort in you will find ways to capture unique angles. For example, on beaches look for a place where you may be able to get an elevated view. Rocks or even high sand dunes might be enough to give you a view that often might not be seen.

Brave the cold and wet

The majority of the time the pictures that grace the front covers of magazines and guidebooks are taken in beautiful sunshine with blue skies. But actually some of the best coastal photos you will ever capture will be taken during the times where people don’t want to be near the coast. Like cold or snowy weather or stormy skies.

These conditions not only show the viewer a vision of coastal areas that they often don’t see themselves, but they can look incredibly dramatic. So, don’t be afraid to get yourself wet in the rain or be cold to be able to capture those stunning photos.

Obviously, the most important thing is that you stay safe so make sure you are aware of any weather warnings and also tide times. Be extra careful of your own well-being and your equipment if you are high up on cliffs when there are high winds. A strong gust of wind can knock over a tripod really easily.

Make sure your settings are right

The good news is that getting your settings correct for coastal photography is not difficult. You can make life even easier for yourself by using a tripod. Which you really should be doing if you want to capture the best possible photos at the best time.

With any sort of landscape photography, you need to keep your image sharp all the way through so naturally this means using a smaller aperture for greater depth of field. Start at around f/8 and raise your f/number for the desired depth of field. Be very careful at extremely small apertures such as f/22 as these can actually have an adverse effect on the sharpness of the photo

If you are using a tripod, then your shutter speed can be determined by your aperture and won’t be an issue at slower speeds. The only other factor that might affect your shutter speed is if you are wanting to freeze the action or capture movement. If you are using a smaller aperture and faster shutter speed, you will probably need to raise your ISO to be able to achieve the shot. But only raise the ISO as much as you need to. Remember that the higher your ISO is the more noise will appear in your photo (which will make the photo lack sharpness).

A word on keeping your equipment safe…

Sand and salt water are two of the biggest threats to modern DSLRs. Just a grain of sand can wreak havoc with your sensor meaning a costly repair. So, keeping your equipment safe shouldn’t be taken lightly. Avoid changing lenses unless absolutely necessary. If you are going to change a lens do it quickly with your back against the wind. It’s a good idea to have a towel with you to wipe your camera dry if you get sea water splashed on it. If there is a lot of water spraying from the waves or it’s raining use a plastic bag with a hole cut at the end to protect your camera.

A well composed coastal scene, taken in beautiful light will look stunning whether it’s a screen saver on your computer or hung on a wall. The great thing about coastal photography is that you’ll have lots of time and space to set your shot up and subsequently take the photo. Follow these tips and you will be on your way to capturing great coastal shots.

7 Tips for Long Exposure Ocean Photography