Beach photography: bright sand, turquoise water and protecting your gear
Beaches are bright, windy and hard on equipment. Learn how to expose for sand and sea, use a polarizer and keep sand and salt out of your camera.
From Progreso to the Riviera Maya, the Yucatán Peninsula’s beaches are stunning, but they challenge both exposure and equipment.
Exposure
Bright sand and water fool the camera into underexposing. Add +0.7 to +1 stop of exposure compensation and check the histogram. For people, expose for skin and accept a bright background.
Bring out the color
A circular polarizer deepens the blue sky and reveals the turquoise of shallow water by cutting surface reflections. Rotate it while looking through the viewfinder.
Best light
Early morning gives soft light, calm water and empty beaches. Late afternoon gives warm side light. Midday is harsh but shows the water’s turquoise color best from above.
Protect your gear
- Change lenses inside a bag or the car, never in the wind.
- Keep the camera in a sealed bag when not shooting.
- Wipe salt spray off with a slightly damp cloth afterward.
- Never set the camera on sand.
- Heat can overheat cameras during video; a cooling fan like the Ulanzi CU01 helps.
Composition
Use palms, piers, boats and footprints as foreground elements, and keep the horizon level.
Next: How to photograph sunsets that look as good as they felt
