Picking up where we left off: The two main influences on beach portrait photography are lighting and posing. In part one, we covered lighting.
In this part will discuss posing.
This can also be broken down into two main areas: Posed and candid.
TLDR? Do little bit of both.
But let’s start with posed.
The word “pose” is sometimes cringeworthy. “It looks so posed.” “What a poser.” “That pose makes me look fat.” You get the idea.
Portraits are cool. And its important to organize your subjects in certain ways. We’re just gonna refer to that as posing.
You can easily google portrait pose ideas and get great examples as well as methods. “Organize the faces in triangles.” “Make sure everyone is touching somebody else.” Lots of classic posing techniques are out there and we won’t bother covering them here.
This is more about style as well as what we have learned over the years that people seem to like about beach photography.
In general, keep couples together put the youngest kids near mom and the oldest kids near dad. For an alternative, alternate gender… “boy, girl, boy, girl…”
Put young kids, front and center with parents (or grandparents behind them)
Use slopes or steps to make Dad a little taller.
Now change things up. It goes like this: Stand. Sit. Walk.
Take the “stiffness” out of a standing pose with some small adjustments:
- Hands in pockets, fold the arms or have one arm across so that one hand is holding the other arm or wrist.
- Bend a knee
- Lean on something (tree or wall) or lean on someone
Take even more stiffness out by not standing.
Have your subject sit on the grass or sand. Keep couples close. If there are kids, make sure they are in front with the parents in back or off to the side. Parent like to be modest and emphasize their kids.
Place feet and legs to the side so that they do not dominate the photo.
Now get moving.
Line up your group side by side. Remember to make Dad the tallest or at least keep him far away from anyone taller than him.
Tell them to stay together and start walking. If you are going to be in this photo, of course you will need your tripod and set the timer.
Pro tip: You could also use a remote RF trigger. You’ll have a transmitter in your hand and can keep snapping photos of you with your group. Easy and cheap to find on Amazon. Not an affiliate link… Jus’ sayin’
Here’s what’s cool. Once a group is walking, everything gets a little more natural. We’re just thinking about walking so now smiles are genuine, posture is good and upright. Things just look better.
Use a long lens if possible, get far away and zoom in. This will give you that blurred background effect known as “bokeh.”
There’s a lot going here, so you’ll want to burst-snap a bunch of photos in order to be able to pick one that has everyone looking at the camera and has a good stride.
Now tell everyone to look away while they are walking. That will make the photo look even more natural. Candid, even.
See what we did there?
We made it to the candid part and nobody saw it coming.
Pro tip: When the group (or couple) looks awa, make sure they are all looking at the same place. Plan it ahead of time.
Then you can get a little crazier and have every look at each other. Doesn’t matter who, just pick someone and look while still walking. Very Candid.
When there are kids, there’s another cool canid photo option. At some point, have them run toward the camera. The parent should still walk, but watch the kids. Focus the camera on the kids so that the parent blur in the distance. Kids are guaranteed to smile big when running like that.
We love candids. However, it is important to realize that the people in the pictures don’t always know what to do for a candid to work out. You can’t just say “Ok everybody just get together and act like you’re having fun.” “Splash around in the water.”
You’ll be back to awkward looks and lots of pictures where you do see faces: either because they are turned around or someone is inadvertently blocking them.
The best thing it do what we call “Organized candid”. Just put a little organization and intent into the shot. Make sure everyone knows and let the fun begin.
That’s a great way to get a Candid family portrait on the beach.
