Boudoir Photography in the Studio
Boudoir Photography is one of the most requested genres of photography I participate in. It is also one of the styles I have practiced most. I don’t know of a beautiful woman or handsome gentleman who wouldn’t like sensual, desirable and sometimes overtly sexual images for themselves and/or someone special with which they share their closest sensual moments.
Every now and then I work with models to create images that I use in my portfolio and in blog posts such as this one. The reason for this is twofold; first, not everyone wants their boudoir images posted on a public website. I am very sensitive to privacy issues. I would not want to cause anyone stress, especially when it comes to a professional working situation. Second, when I want to create new images (eg. new lighting style or testing of new equipment) to use as samples of what I can accomplish with my camera and lighting skills, I will often use a model.
Today’s Model
The model featured in this blog post is Jessica. Jess is an Amherstburg resident who wanted to have some boudoir photos done. After seeing my portfolio of boudoir images, she wanted to have her boudoir images done by me.
Preparing the Studio
I quickly learned, after practicing, failing and trying again, that the best boudoir images are created using at least some amount of natural light from the sun. Where possible, I will bounce or diffuse the light to solve whatever problem I want to overcome. Nothing beats natural daylight.
Therefore, I went into this shoot with the desire to shoot the entire session with only natural light from my studio windows. However, mother nature and daylight savings time affected my decision. Jessica had a specific time available and the sun sets sooner in mid-November. I knew that before the session was over, I would need to augment the existing light by adding light to the front of Jessica.
My studio is a modest one compared to my previous studio, but that is not a problem. I have worked in much tighter and restrained spaces. I placed a single day bed up against the studio windows with a sheer set of curtains covering them for an additional touch of class. The studio set was now complete and ready to roll!
The Shoot
We began with only natural light from the window using reflectors to light the front of Jessica. This created a beautiful set of images with a romantic feel. This lighting worked well until the sky became quite overcast and cloudy. It got so dark that very little light was reflected to light up the front of Jessica. It became clear that I had to power up my new Strobepro X600II TTL, which was fitted with a 4 foot octabox. I used the daylight balanced strobe as fill light with some negative exposure compensation (TTL -3eV), just to give Jessica some frontal light for the remainder of the session without over-lighting her.
The Results
Below is a set of beautiful, sensual images from Jessica’s session. If you would like a styled boudoir shoot of your own, contact me to consult and/or book a boudoir photography session.
