Taking your summer photography to the next level

The sun is out, your shorts are on and the weather has inspired you to make a start on your first summer photography shoot of the year.

There’s something special about getting out with your camera when the sun is shining – despite some of the technical challenges it can present such as light, shadows and heat exhaustion! So if you’re itching for some summer photography inspo, here are some cool ideas you might want to try, with some tips to help you achieve great results.

Splash photography

If you want to create the perfect summer snap, you can try out splash photography; your goal here is to capture a splash of water in the photo – the results are exciting and dynamic.

Here’s how to make a splash:

●    Puddle jumps
●    Throwing a drink
●    Dropping a pretty item into a clear bowl of water
●    Go one step further and try the mento-in-coke trick for a gushing geyser!

Set your shutter speed high and take your photo on a bright day and you’ll capture a clearly defined water splash – gorgeous!

Blue hour

Blue hour occurs when the sun is a few degrees below the horizon. The warm tones of golden hour give way to the inky blues which take over the skies for this 20 - 40 minute window, depending on the location and time of year. Blue hour makes for some stunning photos but is more challenging than golden hour, so research some technical tips before you start so you make the most out of your shoot.

Bubbles

What better way to define summer than with a fun bubble photo... a regular feature of long summer holidays, playing in the sun with friends.

You can buy giant bubble wands, bubble machines, or even make your own bubble mix from washing up liquid and use your hand or even kitchen items such as cookie cutters to try blowing bubbles through! Whichever way you do it, you’ll need some ideas for how to snap the bubbles to make them look great:

●    Dawn has good lighting for bubbles so get up early
●    Dusk brings out the colour of bubbles – you could even do a dusk-and-dawn projects
●    Bubbles show up best against a dark background if you want to do take things indoors
●    A common fix for blurry bubble photos is to open your aperture more

Golden hour

Golden hour happens twice a day and is the best time for taking photos with the most beautiful light. The hour after sunrise is when the sun is just popping over the horizon and the hour before sunset is when it’s traveled over to the other side, just slipping away at the end of the day. Golden hour is great for summer photography for a bunch of reasons:

●    The light has a golden, warmer quality which makes for awesome, ambient images
●    The sun is directional and casts long interesting shadows
●    Golden hour light has a soft, nostalgic feel

We bet you can’t wait to get planning your next shoot – and remember you can ask us to print your favourite summer photography images on canvas or a range of other mediums for you if you want to display them.