Forget winter, spring, and fall. We believe that the perfect time to take photos is none other than the summer season. In this article, we’ll share 10 of our favorite summer photography ideas with you, along with tips on how to take good summer photos and more.
The fun images, vibrant colors, and quirky underwater shots? Indeed, nothing beats the pleasure of taking stunning photos by the beach.
The question is, what type of photos to shoot with all the endless possibilities? Don’t worry.
We’ve got you covered.
How Do You Take Good Summer Pictures?
The first step toward taking better photos of your glorious summer days is to gain a better understanding of your camera’s manual mode. You’ll have more control over the look of your images this way.
While each situation will warrant specific camera setting adjustments, here’s a quick reference to help you get started:
Aperture
Adjustment:
- Keeping your aperture (also referred to as f-stop) at f/4 is excellent for summer portraits.
- F/11 is ideal for landscapes and group shots. Lastly, when in doubt, F/16 is our go-to setting.
Shutter Speed
Adjustment:
- Really fast shutter speeds ranging from 1/500 to 1/1000 will keep your summer photos from getting overexposed.
- You should only use a slow shutter speed for your summer photos when you’re indoors.
ISO
Adjustment:
- Keep your ISO low to prevent grainy summer photos. ISO 100 is the perfect setting for an f/16 aperture.
Aside from the settings we’ve shared with you above, here are three more tips to keep in mind as you’re documenting your summer days:
1. Show Feelings Instead of Faces
Indeed, summer is the season when memorable things happen. In fact, we’re not going to be too surprised if that’s why you’re here一to learn how to capture those special moments better.
Unfortunately, unlike the camera settings we’ve shared above, there is no formula to taking photos that evoke emotions. Doing so will take practice, experience, and sometimes even a little bit of luck.
A tip we’ve found helpful is to take pictures of those candid moments that show feelings.
Don’t treat summer as a context or a backdrop.
Instead, treat it as an abstract theme.
For instance, if you can describe what summer means to you in a single word, what would that be?
Keep this magic word in mind as you’re shooting.
2. Use Colors to Your Advantage
One of the best things we love about summer is its vibrant colors. It’s easier to take fun images when you can fit an entire rainbow in a single shot.
You don’t even have to limit yourself to the myriad of bright swimwear, umbrellas, and beach balls.
We highly recommend capturing natural hues, such as the:
- warm gradients of the afternoon sky
- stunning tapestry of flower fields
- cool, cerulean sea
Try also to consider the possible meanings that these colors may denote. The field of color psychology reveals that each hue can impact human behavior in specific ways.
3. Pay Closer Attention to Lighting
It’s easier to overlook lighting conditions and the ideal manual settings when it’s bright and sunny out. That’s why the last tip we’ll share with you is to pay closer attention.
Avoid the harsh light of the sunniest days. Taking photos under these conditions can produce too much glare and harsh shadows.
While you can always use diffusers to soften your shots, the best thing to do is to simply schedule your shoots during the golden hour of photography.
As per Nicelocal, lighting is the most precious point that decides whether your photo will be great or worst. The same view can look beautiful in perfect light conditions.
It’s an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. These lighting conditions produce a gentle glow and softer shadows.
10 Photography Ideas That’ll Bring Zest to Your Summer
1. Colorful Carnivals
The summer season is also the perfect time for carnivals. Coincidentally, they’re also bustling with color and activity.
It doesn’t even matter what time of the day it is. There’s always something fun and interesting to shoot at a carnival.
You can take photos of the people enjoying the thrill of the rides, the delectable selection of carnival treats, and even its bright lights at night.
2. Blazing Bonfires
There’s always something dramatic in photos captured by the soft blaze of the bonfire. You can take a photo of the people gathered around the fire.
It can be a group shot or an expressive portrait. It can even be a photo of the fire itself.
Try to take your photos from another angle for added visual interest.
3. Flavorful Food
Any budding food photographer would surely enjoy the summer months.
After all, there are many Instagram-worthy treats this season: from a myriad of ripe and colorful fruits to sweet pastel shakes, from the heat of backyard cookouts to the s’mores softly melting over the campfire.
Take note that this is also one of the few subjects that you can actually stage and style. Hence, take your time when you’re doing food photography.
Also, the more color you have on these summer plates, the more visually striking they would be.
4. Nostalgic Nature
Your summer album will never be complete without taking nature photographs.
The best thing we love about nature shots is that you don’t have to be a professional landscape photographer to capture a breathtaking image. Mother Nature has already done all the work for you.
Case in point: One of our favorite summer images is a picture of hot air balloons dotting a clear sky. It was captured by a beginner from a group of photography enthusiasts.
5. Magical Bubbles
Here’s something a little bit more creative.
Don’t underestimate the simplicity of taking bubble photos. It’s one of the most deceptively challenging summer photography ideas we will share.
Soap bubbles have that unique ability to capture the fleeting beauty of summer perfectly. One moment they’re precious, perfect, and beautiful.
The next second, they’re gone一just as fast as summer comes and goes.
Another thing we enjoy about working with bubbles is how versatile they are. Your imagination is your only limit.
You can shoot a portrait of someone blowing bubbles or surrounded by them.
Under the right light conditions, bubbles can look magical and sparkly. They can look like orbs of bright lights.
You don’t even need human subjects, depending on the image you’re going for. For instance, some of the most amazing summer photos we’ve taken are those of slightly skewed landscapes as seen inside these translucent balls of color.
6. Silhouettes and Shadows
Where there’s light, there are shadows. And when you have the sun as your light source, you’ll never run out of excellent opportunities to take silhouettes and shadow patterns to play with.
You can use leaves, flowers, ornaments, and other objects to create interesting shadow patterns. It can automatically add a silent curtain of beauty over anything that would have been ordinary otherwise.
Remember, the most beautiful summer photos can come from predictable scenes with unexpected details.
In addition, one of our favorite summer photography ideas is to take a group shot against the summer sun. It creates crisp silhouettes with a beautiful summer glow as a backdrop.
It never fails to deliver an awesome summer family photo.
A classic favorite is the silhouette jump shot, but there are definitely other poses you can do to create a more interesting image.
7. Scenic Summer Sports
Some people don’t consider their summer vacation complete without a game of beach volleyball or heat of surfing. Hence, your album of stunning summer images should have them too.
It opens up many photo opportunities to practice your golden hour shot. The striking contrasts of the action, its shadows, and the vivid colors can add more focus to the sporty models of your images.
Speaking of action, this is also a great way to add an action shot to your camera roll.
Here’s a pro tip for taking summer sports photos: Don’t just focus on what’s happening on the beach. There are probably millions of beach photos taken already.
Instead, try to explore other locations. Why not take underwater portraits of swimmers and divers? Or how about edgy street photos of skaters?
8. Shimmering Sun
Shooting summer photographs without a single sun photo is similar to underwater photography without the water. However, you don’t need to limit yourself to taking perfect photos of sunsets.
There are certainly other fun summer photography ideas that involve sunlight if you’re feeling a little creative.
It could be streams of sunlight under a canopy of trees or a striking sunburst making its way through clouds, trees, or even caves. Sunburst photos never fail to deliver that authentic summer vibe.
You can also experiment with creating light leaks in your photos. It can take a while to master the technique, though.
9. Wonderful Water
Another perfect summer photography idea is taking water photos in different forms.
Spice up your beach photos with interesting splashes. Just be sure to increase your shutter speed for that frozen-in-time look.
Water reflections also make beautiful summer photos. However, the most interesting thing to shoot for us is the summer rain.
You only need to stay on track of the current weather conditions to plan your next photography session.
10. Delightful Details
Finally, don’t be afraid to try out your own creative summer photography ideas. Look closer.
You can sometimes achieve the beauty of summer by bringing attention to the small details. You don’t always have to take planned and perfect photos.
Another way to photograph the summer is by simply going for a walk and taking pictures of the people, objects, and scenes that remind you of summer.
It could be a photo of a surfboard just casually leaning on a sunlit wall. Maybe a portrait of a child blowing dandelions in the air.
It can even be a broken shell sticking out of the sand. Again, as mentioned above, the trick lies in capturing meaning and emotions.
How Do You Choose a Theme for Your Photography?
We understand how difficult it can be to look for the right subject to photograph. It is where photography themes can come in handy.
A theme can serve as a guide and even offer prompts (or visual triggers) to capture photos. Summer is a good theme, but you may also opt for other ideas.
Photography themes may involve certain locations, objects, events, and even abstract concepts like love or truth.
There are plenty of inspiring theme ideas online, but we always recommend photographers to start by shooting the things that they are most passionate about.
For instance, do you enjoy vintage cars? How about cosplay? Or hiking?
A photography theme can be anything under the sun.
What’s more important is to achieve that perfect balance between consistency and variety.
You can do this by seeking the various visual representations of your theme instead of sticking to just one subject.
Take the theme “Summer”, for instance. You might have noticed that we didn’t limit ourselves to just beach photos.
Instead, we did our best to explore the different subjects that we can relate to the theme, such as water, bonfires, bubbles, and sports.
Our summer album would look monotonous and boring if we chose just to go with classic beach photos. On the other hand, because of the different creative ideas we had, we will be able to enjoy an album of interesting photos that won’t look cluttered at all.
After all, they are tied together by this invisible string that is “summer”.
Lastly, themes are not only applied to planned photo sessions. You can even treat it as a reference for your Instagram account.
Having a central theme is an excellent idea if you wish to learn how to boost Instagram followers. Who knows? You can even start your own photography blog around your favorite theme. After all, the biggest hurdle when you’re only just learning how to start your own blog is deciding on the niche.
Capturing the Spirit of Summer Through Images
Summer is a great time to shoot photos. You’ll seldom run out of decent lighting. There’s always an abundance of different subjects.
More importantly, it allows us to enjoy our passions while having fun outdoors.
There are different factors that you should keep in mind to take wonderful summer photos. These are your manual settings, the lighting conditions, and the vivid colors. It also pays to try to tell a story with each image you capture.
Are you falling short of summer photo ideas? Then we are confident that you’ll be able to find creative prompts from the list of photography ideas we’ve listed above.
Have fun shooting!
About Guest Author: Uday Tank
Uday is a serial entrepreneur and content marketing leader who serves the international community at Rankwisely. He enjoys writing, including marketing, productivity, business, health, diversity, and management.
