Sunset Lifestyle Beach Portraits in Santa Monica
This summer, I worked with model Payton Sauve for a lifestyle beach portrait session at Santa Monica. For this photoshoot, I wanted to achieve a fitness look and a more casual dress look for the beach. During the summer, the beach in Santa Monica can get busy with tourists and people vacationing. The Santa Monica Pier being one of the more popular tourist destinations in the Greater Los Angeles area, we spent some time walking to a more isolated location for the photoshoot that would have less distractions.
Although I have visited Santa Monica a lot for beach photography, I was happy to get the opportunity to work with a model in the location to test how the lighting would look for portraits.
All photos in this beach portrait session were taken with the Sony a7R III and edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
Preparing For The Photoshoot
When I reached out to Payton, I had planned for a pretty simple beach photoshoot in Los Angeles and I only asked him to bring a watch and duffle bag if he had one. Rather than going for a swim photoshoot, I asked Payton to bring more casual clothing. I sent over a mood board so that he would be able to see the overall look I was going for.
For this photoshoot, I planned to bring and use a combination of the Sigma 35mm and 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART lenses to get some varying compositions.
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/640 sec. | f/5.0 | ISO 100
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/640 sec. | f/2.8 | ISO 100
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/640 sec. | f/2.8 | ISO 100
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/500 sec. | f/4.5 | ISO 100
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/500 sec. | f/4.5 | ISO 100
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/320 sec. | f/3.5 | ISO 100
Natural Lighting At FOR BEACH PORTRAITS
As a photographer who shoots in natural light without any additional lighting equipment, one of the most challenging things about photographing portraits at a beach like Santa Monica that is mostly barren is that there are not any objects like trees or rock bluffs that can cast a shade on the model. The only two things on the beachfront where the photoshoot took place that could be used were the Santa Monica Pier and the lifeguard towers.
We started a little while before sunset so the lighting was still fairly harsh. I positioned Payton both in front of the ocean where he would be side-lit by the sun, and then facing the ocean so that there would be direct sunlight on his face.
While the beaches can sometimes get cloudier compared to most of the Greater Los Angeles area, the day of the photoshoot was clear.
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/320 sec. | f/2.8 | ISO 125
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/500 sec. | f/2.5 | ISO 125
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/500 sec. | f/1.8 | ISO 120
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/4.5 | ISO 125
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/2.8 | ISO 125
Creative Direction for Lifestyle Portraits
For this photoshoot, I had Payton do simple poses and simple movements like walking on the beach and basic poses around the lifeguard tower. When it comes to lifestyle photography, I want the photos to look as authentic as possible so I usually try to stay away from dramatic posing.
Payton did a great job taking direction and working in this environment. I was able to get a few different compositions and really test out this location to learn how to take portraits in the Santa Monica beach.
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/3.2 | ISO 125
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/2.8 | ISO 125
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/4.5 | ISO 125