Quick note about lighting photos at the beach: it’s tricky taking photos with the ocean behind you on a sunny day, because at least on my iPhone (11 Pro Max), the brightness of the light tends to leave the subject much too dark. Kavi asked me to take photos around lunchtime, and I won’t even bother showing you those, because she’s entirely dark, almost impossible to make out features.
I told her we’d come back at the golden hour (hour before sunset, or hour after sunrise) and try again, when the lighting should be less sharply bright and dark. (I love a good chiaroscuro effect, myself, but it wasn’t what she was going for.)
When we came back an hour before sunset, we found that close-ups (first photo) worked fine, but when I tried to step back for full body photos, there was still too much light on the ocean, and she came out dark (photos 2 and 3, cropped). So we played in the water for a while, and then, about ten minutes before sunset, tried again (photos 4 and 5).
The light was so perfect then that Kavi asked me if I was using a filter. Nope! That’s just the last bits of golden hour light, working its magic.
