Tourism News
Capturing the perfect Myrtle Beach photo: Tips from the pros
Cute babies happily playing on the Grand Strand sand with pails and shovels, a child trying skimboarding for the first time, a couple capturing their Myrtle Beach romance: They’re all special occasions that deserve to be documented in photos.
Achieving quality photos that will be enjoyed for generations is a skill that can be accomplished easily with a little practice using guidelines gathered from Myrtle Beach photographers and professionals. These tips are offered with both point-and-shoot cameras and more elaborate equipment in mind.
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Landscape/nature photos
Bobby Altman is a well-known local photographer who specializes in commercial work designed to make images pop off a page. His tips include:
- Use points of focus such as a lifeguard stand, people, umbrellas, a pier or fishermen.
- Look for repetitions and lines. You want converging lines to lead the eye through the photo. For example, you can use a pier this way, or a row of beach umbrellas. Repetition is all about patterns; look for a consistent pattern.
- If you want to shoot something like birds in flight you can see if your camera has a focus tracking mode, but it is a difficult shot for point-and-shoots.
- Put the horizon anywhere but the middle of the frame. Depending what you are emphasizing, put the horizon in the top 1/3 or bottom 1/3 of the shot.
- Make sure the horizon is straight.
- Use the camera’s timer and a tripod for the clearest photos. Point-and-shoot cameras have holes in the bottoms where you can screw in a tripod.
- The wind is typically blowing at the beach, so a tripod will help compensate. You can use your free hand to help steady the shot, such as holding a flower still.
- If you use a small aperture when the sun is out and in your frame, you get a starburst effect. A small aperture also allows you to use a slower shutter speed to get a misty look on the water.
- Turn around from the ocean and see what’s in the other direction. Could that be an even better photo, such as sea oats, sand dunes or wildflowers?
- When shooting in the morning sun, underexpose and your colors will be more dramatic.
- Come to the beach when others would avoid it, such as when a storm is brewing or has just passed. Waves are more hectic, the skies are more dramatic and there are fewer people.
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Family and kid pictures
Weddings and babies are two of Lynn Daly‘s specialties, and of course in the Myrtle Beach area, a lot of those photos take place on the sand. She has tips for getting the most out of your pictures of family and friends.
- One of the most important tips is the time of day you shoot. If you want to take good family portraits on the beach, time of day is key. The best is very early in the morning right after the sun rises or late evening, an hour and a half to two hours before the sun sets. If the sun is too high in the sky, you get bad shadows on faces, and the people are squinting.
- Daly prefers evenings. Don’t use the flash on your camera, because you have the beautiful sun. Have the sun at your back and shoot toward the water. You always know the sun will be behind you as it sets in the west.
- If photographing children, you want to fill your frame with as much of the child’s face as possible. It’s obvious you’re at the beach; you don’t need a picture of a tiny little child in the middle of a huge beach.
- People always forget it’s windy at the beach. Girls should have a hair tie so it isn’t whipping all over the place.
- Don’t try to do too much. Keep it simple and avoid too many colors and patterns. The simplicity of the ocean and the colors in the sky are the highlights of the image. People in them should blend in naturally with the environment.
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Getting creative with your photos
Matt Silfer of Silfer Studios in Myrtle Beach has much experience in many photo genres. He is also a skilled graphic designer, so his perspective and advice are unique. He offers these tips:
- Find interesting angles, or find a low or high point to shoot down on.
- Capture the emotions as opposed to the people or the scene. For example, if you are shooting a portrait, try to show the people splashing in the waves or playing in the sand, not just standing there.
- Use a wide angle and get close to your subject. Fill the frame up with them as much as you can.
- The evening sun is best. It warms up the light and keeps the subject pop out more against the blue water and sky.
- Avoid distracting things in the backgrounds such as people walking dogs.
- A slightly overcast day is better than a sunny day because when the sun is really harsh there’s a lot of squinting and really high contrast shadows.
- If you are trying to shoot in the harsh sun, use beach umbrellas or car windshield sunshades or even a beach towel to block the sun.
- Don’t let the horizon cut your shot in half.
- Stay away from windy days to avoid crazy hair and sand in your camera.
- If you are going to take shots of people in the water kicking up surf, do that last so they don’t have wet pants in the other shots.
- Try to not get too sunburned on your vacation so you don’t have a lot of lobster shots.
- Get interesting action photos such as kids running or holding hands, kicking up water, jumping.
- Find something to use to reflect the light such as a white towel or a reflective car window shade. Even something as simple as putting a white towel on a beach chair and angling it toward the subjects’ faces can make a big difference.
- Go to the beach store and find props such as starfish, straw hats or plastic buckets in bright colors, so you can create a scene without people in them. They make nice accent pictures when you get home and put it all in a frame or scrapbook.
- If you don’t have polarizing filters, try putting your sunglasses lens over the camera’s lens. That can create a cool effect.
- If the white sand is coming out underexposed in your pictures, make sure your flash is on and try again.
