Beach Photo shoot

[goroush]

I have doing a shoot coming up in a couple weeks and I need help and advise, It will be my first I will be using a Mark 5D II and will be using either my 50 mm 1.4 or my 2.8 70-200, also i do have a 24-105 4.0,and a 100 2.8. It will be a family of 2 kids and there parents.I do have a reflector and a hot shoe flash if needed. I just am not sure about the settings i should use, I am looking for as much help as needed. The equipment i have i usually use for sports. so please HELP.bw!:p:)

[scorpio_e]

If you can,shoot at the golden hour. Use the sun to back light them and use the reflector to bounce some light back in. Get an assistant to hep with the reflector if you can.

[tonylong]

The settings will depend on what you are "after" and what the conditions are.

For "posed" portrait-like shots, you could get creative like scorpio talks about -- playing with back-lighting, you can use your flash to provide fill-lighting as well, but you will need to decide how to handle the ambient/backlighting. Some people just let the backlighting blow out, while others may use a Neutral Density filter and dial in settings that will actually underexpose that backlight by a bit. Then they may widen their aperture to get a nice soft background.

And then there is the less-tricky approach of having a lower sun (afternoon/morning) to light your subjects, taking care to avoid harsh shadows, again using an aperture that can soften your background, but how much of that effect is up to you -- you can use your 50mm to really soften things, but if you want more of an "environmental" look I'd be happy with say f/4, in which case the 24-105 can give you that and with a lot of range for framing either wide or tele.

Tough conditions are when it's mid-day, because the sun will mess with faces and such, harsh shadows and then bright spots, and unpleasant "look". I'd say for the beach it's best just not to do this at mid-day unless you can find some areas out of the sun. You can try things with reflectors, but you'd actually get a better more even look if you had them in a shaded area and then used the reflector and/or the flash to light them up a bit.

'Course, if you will be shooting them "on the move", like kids playing in the waves and such, then that is a way different dynamic, requiring a faster shutter speed and such.

[goroush]

The settings will depend on what you are "after" and what the conditions are.

For "posed" portrait-like shots, you could get creative like scorpio talks about -- playing with back-lighting, you can use your flash to provide fill-lighting as well, but you will need to decide how to handle the ambient/backlighting. Some people just let the backlighting blow out, while others may use a Neutral Density filter and dial in settings that will actually underexpose that backlight by a bit. Then they may widen their aperture to get a nice soft background.

And then there is the less-tricky approach of having a lower sun (afternoon/morning) to light your subjects, taking care to avoid harsh shadows, again using an aperture that can soften your background, but how much of that effect is up to you -- you can use your 50mm to really soften things, but if you want more of an "environmental" look I'd be happy with say f/4, in which case the 24-105 can give you that and with a lot of range for framing either wide or tele.

Tough conditions are when it's mid-day, because the sun will mess with faces and such, harsh shadows and then bright spots, and unpleasant "look". I'd say for the beach it's best just not to do this at mid-day unless you can find some areas out of the sun. You can try things with reflectors, but you'd actually get a better more even look if you had them in a shaded area and then used the reflector and/or the flash to light them up a bit.

'Course, if you will be shooting them "on the move", like kids playing in the waves and such, then that is a way different dynamic, requiring a faster shutter speed and such.

I will be do mainly portrait type. Also mi-morning time.what ISO do you suggest,and what
mode i usual use AV, referance to settings you so f/4 what would you say at 160 ???

[tonylong]

I will be do mainly portrait type. Also mi-morning time.what ISO do you suggest,and what
mode i usual use AV, referance to settings you so f/4 what would you say at 160 ???

You know, it will all depend on the lighting. If you have great light, then go with a low ISO, ISO 100, whatever works.

If you want the soft background, then f/4 or f/5.6 can work well. Then you just want to set your shutter speed to get a good exposure.

Of course if you want some backlit portraits you may need to resort to flash for fill, in which case you will want a faster shutter speed...but to get more specific you really want to do some testing before trying for the "money shots"...

[BeerWolf]

The reflector will be key. I've seen a lot of bad beach shots where the subjects have to squint into the sun or backlit and the faces are underexposed.