How to shoot great Seacape Photos

One major reason when out shooting seascape photography is finding the right composition. We've heard it time and time again to vary your shooting height, but also think about constantly looking through your view finder. What may look great with your eyes may look flat and boring once captured in a flat image.

Leading lines will give the viewers eyes to transition through the image providing the overall viewing pleasure and not allowing the viewers eyes to get stuck on one particular subject.

Focus is very important and often over-looked, your focus should be on the foreground and give enough detail up close to the most interest. I personally use hyperfocal distance to optimize important details throughout my seascape photography. I have found autofocus spotty and has led to much disappointment once viewed on a larger screen.

The contrast of light should be a consideration for your foreground, shadows and light can also help provide effective leading lines especially when working with sunrise and sunset seascape images.

Motion and knowing what shutter speed will provide the effect you are looking for is very important, this will take practice varying your ISO to increase or decrease your shutter speed. Your shutter speed will also depend on the current and motion of water, water without much drama is best captured with a longer exposure flattening out reflections caused by small waves or ripples.

Cloud cover is something we look for when shooting seascape photography and if conditions permit can offer leading lines from top of the image.
Although there are so many useful tools in post processing, I find that using on camera filters such as neutral density, graduated neutral density and reverse neutral density filters very important in obtaining the best possible in-camera effect for seascape photography. There is no replacing neutral density filter used for motion in post processing other than to provide a complete blur in Photoshop.

Shoot a wide lens to gather a large foreground area, I find most of my compositions are captured between 12mm to 18mm. I also find the most widely used aperture is f/8 combined with a variety of neutral density filters to optimize my proper intended shutter speed based on the conditions I'm shooting.

Do your research and scout your locations before hand, making notes of potential compositions for future seascape photography adventures. When shooting seascape photography I find that low tide provides a better opportunity for interesting rock formations and tidal pools, there are a variety of internet sites that can provide you tide information as well as sunrise and sunset times. These two factors will optimize your chances for a more effective and productive seascape photography.

Ed King is a Rhode Island based seascape photographer spending much of his time capturing the Rhode Island and New England coastline offering fine art prints of the dramatic New England coast.