Portrait Photography Mistake

by Mel
(NYC)

I was approached to do a family portrait on the beach. The family was celebrating a wedding anniversary and was having dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon.

The best time to shoot portraits on the beach is around sunset. The light is more pleasing when it starts to fade in intensity and it can give you that nice warm glow.

Your subjects will not squint from the brightness of the mid-day sun and the accompanying bright reflection of light off of the sand.

The family did not want to do the portraits after their formal dinner, which was understandable. The kids would be tired and everyone would have to change into more casual, color coordinated clothing just for the beach photography.

I told them that I am picky about my lighting and that they would be disappointed in the photos. Early on in my portrait photography career, I made that photography mistake of taking a family portrait under the midday sun.

The family decided to have another photographer create their beach portraits for them and had the photos taken in the early afternoon.

Photo mistake!

I saw the son-in-law a month or two after our initial conversation. The family was disappointed in the photo session and agreed that it was a mistake to do the shoot in the middle of the day.

It would have been my mistake to have accepted that portrait job.