Beach Wedding Photography Devon and Cornwall
Here at Christian Michael our Cornwall studio is based within a few miles of many glorious beaches. Not just the 3 miles of golden sands at Hayle, but the Carbis Bay Beach and three blue flag beaches in St Ives; Porthgwidden, Porthminster and Porthmeor Beach just opposite the Tate Gallery. Being based so close to these beaches means that we are highly experienced in photographing on them.
Because of the varied nature of a wedding photographers subjects, you have to be an accomplished architectural photographer for the church and reception, a skilled still life photographer for the details such as the flowers and rings, as well as being able to control large groups of people and produce wonderful portrait images of the Bride, Groom and guests. Beach Wedding Photography is another one of the skills required.
Beaches are wonderful places for photography due to the fact that they act like a large reflector. Countless artists have moved to areas such as St Ives because of the quality of the light being reflected from the beaches and from the shallow seabed’s near the coast. We take full advantage of the soft light provided from the reflection off the sand. A Bride and Groom in a white dress and a dark suit are notoriously difficult to expose correctly for, and any help we can get from the elements is gratefully received! With the sun high in the sky, its light rays fall onto the sand and reflect up under the bride and grooms chin’s to give a shadow less feel to the image, which is the most flattering. Of course summer time at the beach can be difficult for a number of reasons. The increased number of people sun bathing, and playing in the water adds distractions and also the light is harsher than in the autumnal/winter months. Being experienced wedding photographers and experts in beach wedding photography, we are able to counteract these problems. We often take the Bride and Groom as close to the waters edge as possible, though without risking getting your feet and the dress wet, unless you ask us too! Being this close to the waters edge gives you a beautiful golden band of sand, which is less likely to be disturbed by foot prints, then a band of cyan/blue/green water and an intense blue sky, that we optimise in post production. Of course its impossible to guarantee to have a scene free from people when your in a public place, such as a beach, so we photograph one of two ways, Either including these people and their reactions to the Bride and Groom as they walk down to the sea shore, or we are able to remove these people (or boats) in post production on a computer. We are always careful about how much we would change an image, as we will never present images to you that aren’t a true reflection of your wedding day, but we firmly believe that a shot of you and your partner stood on a beach near the sea would look less appealing if there was a wet dog swimming through the water behind you, so would be happy to ‘remove’ in post production.
The second difficulty with beach wedding photography, particularly in summer as we said above was the harsh nature of the light from the sun. This can cause strong shadows across your subject. Lots of amateur or inexperienced photographers believe the best way to counteract this is to turn your subject to face the light. WRONG! This will lead to your subjects, in our case the Bride and Groom to squint because of the light shinning directly into their eyes, which as you can imagine does not make for the most flattering photos!
Being as experienced as we are at Beach Wedding Photography we have developed many ways to counteract these problems. The first is simple; position your subjects so that there are no shadows falling across them, or if possible in an area of shade, maybe from a cliff or sand dune. Occasionally this is the best option, but can lead to there being a big exposure difference between the Bride and Groom and the seascape behind, which would result in a washed out photo, which if done properly looks amazing, if done badly just looks pale and over exposed.
A second option is to use flash. We like to use natural light wherever possible, but occasionally a blip of flash can work wonders to remove shadows under the eyes or chin, and provides a wonderful catch light in the subject’s eyes. We use a variety of ‘light modifiers’. These soften or shape the light as we see fit. Softness of light is what we usually like to achieve, as it is the most flattering. We use diffusers or small softboxes on our flashguns, which we either mount on our camera, or slightly away from the camera on a lead, or in some circumstances, a large distance away, which we trigger via radio releases.
The third option is to use a reflector to bounce light back onto the Bride and Groom. As well as our usual kit bags full of cameras and lenses we keep a third kit bag in the car, containing less used items, such as tripods, reflectors etc. We use Lastolite reflectors because of their quality and choice. You can have different coloured reflectors, which change the light in different ways. We primarily use a white side, as this is the softest and doesn’t change the colour of the light. We occasionally use a gold-sided reflector, but this must be done with caution as will provide a warm coloured reflected light which can make the Brides dress look a little yellow/orange. This usually only works when the sun is low in the sky and naturally warm. For some of our portrait work we use a silver sided reflector as this bounces back the most light, but can be harsh.
The forth option we use is a diffuser or scrim. This is a large translucent gauze fasten around a frame that would be positioned above the Bride and Groom. This is our least favored way of changing the light as they are big and bulky and can take a while to set up, which would mean we keep you away from your guests for quite a while. Whilst shooting for Bridal Magazines where we have more time, we use this technique to great effect.
Some of our favorite Beach Wedding Photography locations in West Cornwall are the Carbis Bay Hotel, who’s steps lead directly onto the beach, Tregenna Castle in St Ives, which is only a few minute drive from the numerous St Ives Beaches, and the Porthminster Hotel, whose steps lead through their garden onto the Porthminster Beach. The South Coast beaches of Cornwall are usually more pebbly or rocky, such as Gunwalloe Cove, which is just a few minute drive from the beautiful Nansloe Restaurant and Wedding Venue. Further around this coast you come to Falmouth near our favorite wedding venues such as The St Michaels Hotel and Spa, the Falmouth Beach Resort, The Royal Duchy, and the Falmouth Hotel as well as the magnificent Pendennis Castle, high above the beaches, but only a few minutes drive away. Newquay on the North Coast of Cornwall is not only a Mecca for Surfers, but great for Beach Wedding Photography. Hotels near to the beach that we love to photograph at include The Atlantic, Glendorgal, The Headland, and Fistral Blu Bar and Restaurant.
We also get booked for Wedding Photography in Devon where again there are a huge number of beautiful beaches on both the North and South Coast. Wedding Photography in Dorest is another popular venue for us, photographing around Weymouth, Poole and Bournemouth.
To summaries we would give three top tips for Beach Wedding Photography.
1: Watch Your Background.
2: Check For Shadows and use any of the above techniques for removing them,
3: Be careful of sand in your cameras and lenses!!!