5 tips for beautiful beach photos with your smartphone

Look at the photos of an average holiday and you will probably notice that there are actually very few beach photos. The beach is a challenge in terms of photography, but it’s a shame not to have snapshots of the beach moments as well. These five tips make it a little more attractive to photograph the beach.

1. Watch out for the sun

This tip is actually threefold, because the sun has a major influence on beach photos and in several ways. Especially if you want to take a picture in the afternoon when the sun is high, there will often be sun rays in your picture. That rarely has the effect you like, so make sure that you don’t get those linear spots in your photo by tilting your smartphone just a bit, for example. In addition, taking photos on the beach probably means the weather is nice, so make sure you protect yourself from the sun. Whatever color of skin you have, whatever type of skin you have: use a factor of 30 to 50 regularly to ensure that your skin is protected. But, also make sure that sunscreen stays away from your phone. You would rather not have to brush your lens with all that sand, but if you have sunscreen on your device and that is also included with your lens, you will get very vague photos.

2. Keep an eye on your phone

You might be wondering when the photo tips are coming, well, they’re on their way, but the problem with beach photos isn’t really so much the beach itself, it’s the conditions. You have a phone with you that is probably not very fond of sand or salty sea water. And certainly not on heat. Moreover, you can hardly see your screen in bright sunlight, not even on the brightest setting. So crawl under a parasol and rather put your phone under your beach bed in the shade (unless you lie on it with wet clothes, of course). There are also covers that some people dare to go into the sea with their phone: handy to use on the beach and to keep sand away from the ports and cracks of your smartphone.

Is the photo blurry due to bokeh or sunburn?

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3. Be creative

The reason many people don’t have many pictures of the beach is because it’s actually quite boring. The camera of your smartphone is soon inclined to flatten that beach and the sea too. The funny thing is that of all types of photography during your vacation, taking pictures on the beach is usually the most strenuous form of photography. The chance that you take a good photo from your beach bed is small. Unless there is a cheerful thatched parasol or you have a bottle of drink in your hands. Or want to take the sauce legs photo of course. You have to move your body to take good photos. Think of a photo not from the sea side, but from the beach side, or standing on a dune to try out a different angle. Often you get more creative ideas when you walk around than if you keep baking on that bed like a walrus. And: also experiment with the different lenses, just listen to photographer Linda Smit:

With tattoos, a sausage leg is a little less fun…

4. Think about the horizon

If there’s a photo where a straight horizon is essential, it’s the beach photo. Due to the difference between the sand and the sea, but also the sea and the sky, it is soon clear when you have held your phone too tilted. Now there is certainly something to do in post-processing, but you just want a photo that immediately jumps off the screen. You can do this, among other things, by turning on the grid, which almost every phone has as an option. You will then see 9 squares and the trick is to use the horizontal lines to place them on the horizon. That’s a lot better, isn’t it?

Clearly no grid has been used here to determine the horizon.

5. Be considerate of other visitors

No matter how serene (and somewhat boring) a beach looks with no objects or people on it, it can immediately seem crowded with people. In addition, be discreet when taking a beach photo: people can be half-naked in it and not everyone wants that. So make sure people are either far enough away to not be easily recognizable, or only shoot people from the back. And: also be extra careful when it comes to children.

Make sure people are not recognizable in the photo (and get off your beach bed!)

As you can see, beach photography isn’t really about the pictures themselves, it’s about the conditions: it’s certainly not one of the most comfortable shots to take, which is probably why people don’t usually think about doing full shoots. Unless, of course, there’s a sunset, but we’ll get to that later in this section. Hopefully you can now at least do something more to shoot some nice beach photos.

No more flattened pancakes like this one.

Do you have any good tips for beach photos? Leave them now in the comments.

Tips for taking iris photos, photos of food, plus mountains for winter sports and the northern lights have already appeared in this series. We also discussed how best to take a photo of a concert and of flowers. Also listen to our podcast about smartphone photography: