How to Take Amazing Beach Portraits of Couples

Engagement photos + the beach = swooning heart eyes over here!! 😍😍

Last Updated: February 14th, 2020

Beaches are almost always a gorgeous place to take couples portraits.

Whether you shoot frequently at the Jersey Shore (like we do), or are getting to photograph on more stellar beaches like those found in Iceland, New Zealand, or some Caribbean Island – one thing is for sure: you have the chance to create the most incredible portraits that’ll instantly become your portfolio centerpieces.

In this guide, we’re going to teach you how to take great portraits of couples on the beach. We’ll cover the things we think about before planning a session, and what we do in the moment to capture beautiful photos again-and-again.

By the end, you will hopefully feel better equipped to take to the beach!

The 8 Most Important Things That Make Beautiful Beach Portraits

1). Schedule the shoot around Golden Hour

Golden Hour is a portrait photographers best friend. This is especially true for couple’s portrait photography. This is because the light is soft, romantic, and often colorful – which gives an amazing vibe to any couple’s portrait shoot.

If this is the first time you’re hearing the term “Golden Hour”, this is the time around sunset and sunrise when the sun is low on the horizon. Like we said, the lighting is consistently “soft”, which makes for great photos vs. the harsh sunlight that often comes out in the middle of the day.

2). Light on faces = ideal

One of the biggest struggles we have at the beach (depending on the time of day) is getting good natural light on our couple. Being on the East Coast of the USA, we get lucky because the sun sets in the West, meaning photographs during sunset will illuminate our couple’s faces when they have their backs facing towards the ocean. This makes for some incredible beach portraits by just using natural light and minimal effort.

In other areas of the world, such as the West Coast of the USA, you can get this same effect by scheduling your portrait shoots around sunrise.

If you need some help visualizing how all of this works, use an app like Sun Position to help.

3). Avoid harsh light

Bright sunny days at the beach are perfect, right? Yes – perfect for relaxing and getting a tan. But, unless you are taking portraits with a flash, harsh sunlight at the beach will make for tough portraits.

• Is it doable? Yes.
  
• Do some portrait photographers live for harsh light? Yes.
  
• Is it preferable for most photographers? No.
  

There are many difficulties that harsh mid-day sunlight can pose in any location – but these are made worse at the beach.

Beach environments are normally wide open (so have very little shaded areas).

The light can be blinding (causing squinty eyes).

And, if you are trying to take a picture of a person who has their back to the ocean, a properly exposed image will end up with blown out skies (and even the ocean itself can be blown out thanks to bright sky reflections).

Read through our 101 Digital Photography Tips to get some help photographing in difficult light like this!

4). Dress to impress.

Beach and boho vibes are great for couple’s portrait photography!

A big part of this is how the couple is dressed.

While there are always exceptions and even people who want to intentionally do something different, beach portraits often work best with natural and vivid pops of colors, dresses, jewelry, and similar.

Keep in mind, authentic portrait photography means the goal should be “stylish but comfortable.” If people are really not comfy in what they are wearing, that uncertainty and anxiety is going to show in their pictures. You can help your clients to find clothing that will photograph really well without making them feel like they are getting too dressed up for their own good!

5). Incorporate other areas around the beach.

We always think of our couples photography as being a collection of images, not a single shot.

While our absolute favorites from a “beach session” will most likely come when the couple is actually on the beach, in front of (or in) the ocean – there are many other great photos to be had in the area.

As a photographer, it’s important to research the area you will be photographing for interesting extra locations. We normally try to keep these within walking distance as much as possible.

A lot of beaches come connected to beach towns which may have cool little shopping districts, neat architecture, even parks and other areas worth noting.

Seen below are a couple examples of places we photographed a couple right next to the beach – which add to their online gallery collections and give a little more diversity:

6). Use natural leading lines

What do footprints in the sand and the ocean tide have in common? They are some of the most common leading lines you will find on any beach – no matter where you are in the world.

One of the most important photography tips and tricks we ever learned about was the power of leading lines. Leading lines are lines in the environment that draw your eye into a picture.

Look at the sample beach couples photography images below we took. Can you spot the leading lines that we used to make the shots more interesting and dynamic?

7). Use the beach energy to guide your posing

The phrase “beach energy” may make us sound like some old hippies, but it’s an important aspect that goes into capturing authentic portraits at the beach.

Many of our favorite beach photo shoots were around sunset on days with warm and good weather. This is really the optimal time to be at the beach, and it’s easy to imagine why it would make anyone feel happy. Conveying this feeling of happiness in your photos will be especially valuable to making pictures that feel right for the day they were taken.

On the other end of the spectrum, beaches can sometimes come with rough weather in the off season or in certain parts of the world. Looking at a couple shots from the chilly black sand beaches of Iceland can already tell you that “happy” maybe isn’t the right word. Instead, the word moody might be more fitting.

With this simple thing in mind, you can approach posing in different ways. In the first situation, we would likely use a lot more fun and lighthearted prompts to keep our couple engaging with each other in ways that elicit a lot of natural laughter and smiles. In the second situation, we might keep them closer together for a lot of shots, and use prompts that keep them a little more serious and connected.

Your approach to posing will be entirely subjective. It’s not to say we don’t want some more serious and moody shots when the weather is nice, and that we don’t want any of people smiling when it’s darker and more moody out – but these things do make an impact.

To get the most natural reactions from your couples, use candid posing prompts by Signature Edits. As we wrote in our review, these prompts have really helped us to up our game when it comes to taking couple’s portrait photography.

8). Use different lenses for different perspectives

Lastly, your camera gear can help you to take more interesting photos while at the beach.

One of the difficult parts about photographing on the beach is that there just isn’t that much to take pictures of after 15-30 minutes. By swapping your lenses for a new perspective, you can take a lot more pictures that feel distinctly different.

If you are normally taking portraits with a 50mm lens, try putting on a wide angle 16mm or a tighter 85mm and see how it impacts your photography!

Conclusion

The beach is an amazing backdrop for couples portraits. Whether you’re photographing an engagement session, wedding portraits, an anniversary, or a couple “just because” – we hope our portrait tips help you to take better shots next time you’re shooting at the beach.