Samsung Beach Photography: Settings and Phone Safety

Don’t take your phone in the pool or the sea. That’s what Samsung’s own Galaxy S26 user guide recommends.

But many people buy IP68-rated phones partly so they can take them with them on holiday. So we take a look at five things you think you know about taking your phone with you to the beach and what Samsung’s recommendations actually are, from heat and water resistance to zoom and camera settings.

Does IP68 make a Galaxy safe in the sea

IP68 is a lab rating, and for the S26 Samsung’s guide says it means 30 minutes, motionless, submerged in 1.5 metres of fresh water at a temperature between 15 and 35 °C. So the beach breaks several of the conditions listed on that same page as those required for maintaining water resistance.

• Samsung’s support website for Malaysia specifically mentions waves as an example of forceful moving water that you should avoid exposing your phone to.
• If your phone does get wet, rinse it off with fresh (non-moving) water to remove any sunscreen or other liquids from Samsung’s list, and make sure to thoroughly dry your phone with a clean, soft cloth before using it.
• Rinse it gently with clean water if it got sea water on it, as the sand and salt can clog up the speakers and microphone according to Samsung Singapore, and dry it off thoroughly.
• Once your phone is all cleaned off, let it dry completely before plugging it in to charge. According to Samsung’s support website for the UK, the charging port should be dry within about 1 to 2 hours. If you’re in a hurry, you can try using wireless charging instead.

The degree of protection also changes from one model to the next. According to GSMArena, the Galaxy S26 phones are IP68-rated, as are the Galaxy A57 and Galaxy A37. The Galaxy A56 is IP67-rated, the Galaxy A27 is IP64-rated and the Galaxy A17 is IP54-rated (only protected against splashes of water). The Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold are both IP48-rated (4 means protected against solid foreign objects larger than 1mm, but not fine sand, for example).

If you’re planning on using your phone near the water, put it in a waterproof pouch to be on the safe side.

Bright sand needs more exposure, glare needs less

Bright areas in a scene tend to fool camera light meters into underexposing in an effort to bring the average exposure of the whole scene down to mid-grey. Nikon’s winter shooting tips point out that this is why snow often ends up looking blue-grey in photos if you take the camera’s word for exposure, and pale sand does the same.

Tap to measure from the area you most want to expose properly (e.g. foam in breaking surf) and the exposure will be set accordingly when shooting in Photo mode. You’ll need to decrease exposure if you’re shooting a scene with the sun in it, or a bright reflection on the sea from the sun, but increase exposure if you’re shooting, say, sand dunes and want to preserve their paleness.

If you’re using Pro mode on a Samsung, note that you can’t set a manual shutter speed without also setting a manual ISO speed, and exposure will be determined by the combination of these two settings. The shutter speed guide shows at which speed you can freeze water and at which speed it will look blurred.

Silky surf needs low light as well as a slow shutter

ND filters are great for this, reducing the amount of light entering the lens by several stops according to Nikon’s guide to filters, which is handy in daylight because current Galaxy main cameras have a fixed aperture and a 1/4 second exposure at noon, even at base ISO, will result in nothing but a white image.

Failing that, you’ll need to wait for the light to diminish. In the half hour after sunset, use Pro mode with the lowest ISO and a 1/4 second shutter speed. This creates lovely streaks of receding foam, but still shows what the foam looked like. Prop the Galaxy up on a tripod pushed hard into damp sand just above the waterline, and use the 2-second timer to avoid the image blurring as your finger lifts off the screen to take the shot.

Heat changes how the camera behaves

Samsung recommends using its Galaxy phones within a temperature range of 0 to 35 °C, warning that continual use in direct sunlight could increase the phone’s temperature.

If you notice your Galaxy phone getting particularly warm while taking pics, Samsung notes the Camera app may automatically exit with an “Exit Camera. Battery temperature too high” notification. Even before that happens, Digit reported Samsung explained Galaxy Z Fold8 devices may automatically reduce the resolution of some 24MP photos to 12MP when the outer temperature of the phone reaches around 45 °C.

To keep your pics intact, avoid leaving your phone in direct sunlight between shots. We recommend tossing it in a bag and finding some shade until you’re ready to snap away again.

Only part of the Ultra zoom is optical

Zoom on the S24 Ultra, S25 Ultra and S26 Ultra will be truly optical at 3x and 5x, with an additional optical quality zoom (Samsung’s term) at 10x, cropped from the 5x. Beyond 10x everything is digital zoom, so surfers zoomed in at 30x will look smeared and digitally painted, especially if there’s any heat haze shimmering off the sand.

• For shots of people on the beach, use 3x. For boats and surfers, you may find 5x more useful. Move closer to your subject instead of using higher magnifications, when possible.
• Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 and the S25 FE and S26 FE all have a 3x telephoto camera, which should be your go-to for most portrait shots on the beach.
• If you have a Galaxy A phone or a Z Flip, there’s no telephoto camera, so 2x will be a crop of the main camera. Try to get closer to people or use them as a smaller element within a larger shot of the beach.
• Focus enhancer will use the ultra-wide camera to take macro shots of things like sand textures and seashells on Galaxy Ultras. Some A-series models also have a dedicated macro camera.

Our telephoto lens guide goes through each of the zoom levels on the Ultras.

What goes wrong on the beach, and the fixes

• If your photos look washed out, there may be salt spray or a smudge on your camera lens, which is particularly common when you’ve been slathering on sunscreen! Give it a clean and take another photo (Samsung’s user guide suggests cleaning your lens if images appear blurry).
• Samsung’s Scene Optimizer automatically detects certain scenes (beach is one of them) and tweaks your photos accordingly. If you don’t like the heavier tones this gives beach photos, switch it off. On One UI 9 this is known as Scene detection (it can be found in your Camera settings under Photo enhancer). The Scene Optimizer guide covers One UI versions before that.
• The sea is a big open space, so even the tiniest camera tilt will be obvious in your beach photos. Turn on your phone’s grid/composition guide to make sure your horizons are nice and level.
• If the sea/sky is bright but the face of whoever you’re photographing isn’t, try moving them so the sun’s to the side of them instead of behind them, or tap on the person’s face in your camera app to prioritise exposure for them rather than the sky (they’ll end up lighter, but so will the background).
• Want to get a handle on the true colours of shallower water? Reflections can disguise them. Nikon’s tips on camera filters note that circular polarisers can help minimise reflections from water, and they’ll do the same trick if you hold one over your phone camera lens.

Editing beach photos

Straighten the picture first using the pencil icon in Samsung’s Gallery editor. If details in the sky or sand look flat, use the same app to drop the brightness slightly and increase the contrast a notch.

Free app Snapseed can do everything else. Use Healing to remove footprints or a littered bottle, Dehaze to tone down glare on the water, and Color HSL to tone down turquoise so it’s not screaming (without affecting skin tones). Editing RAW files? Our Lightroom vs Snapseed comparison describes what Lightroom adds.

The sunset guide can be used for shooting a bright sky at the beach, while the silhouette guide teaches you how to make use of the sun behind your subject to create a striking silhouette.