I LOVE learning! When I learn new things, it improves my outlook, improves my photography, grows my business, and makes my clients happier. And you know what else happens when I learn new things? I usually discover how relatively LITTLE I know! It's humbling and sometimes intimidating but it's okay because learning really gets my creative juices flowing!
In an effort to expand my creative horizons, I recently decided to start learning
Lingerie/Boudoir Photography. It's a genre I'd never attempted before, but so far it's been very enlightening!
Even though I've only done a few shoots so far, I wanted to share what I've learned in case any of you are interested in venturing into this type of photography/modeling. It's a pretty interesting genre, if you ask me. There's much more to it than just standard portraiture. (And, contrary to a lot of what's out there, there's much, MUCH more to it than just snapping a picture of a sexy model in her underwear!) Proper lighting and posing are imperative if you want an effective and
tasteful lingerie photo. (Please note the bolded word since we're not doing any trashy stuff on this blog!) In addition to all the usual elements you need to consider when photographing a model (of which lighting and posing are two), there are three other major "ingredients" for producing an effective lingerie/boudoir image.
Context,
Story, and
Ownership. I made a little chart to illustrate!
The first ingredient,
Context, is your reason for shooting the set. Are you shooting commercially? Are you shooting for art? Are you shooting for a bride who wants to surprise her husband with some saucy photos? Decide on an exact goal you would like to accomplish with your images.
The second ingredient is your
Story. A successful photograph is one that tells a story (this is true for most everything, not just lingerie/boudoir.) If you're shooting commercially, do some research about what the target market wants from their intimate apparel and then come up with a story that will communicate the desirability of the product. (If you're shooting for a designer, make sure you talk to him/her about what he/she wants to communicate with the photos!) Make sure your lighting is even and bright to showcase the garment. (And make sure you use a high f-stop so that parts of the garment don't fall out of focus!)
If you're shooting for non-commercial purposes, your lighting can be as dramatic or moody as you want. Try to come up with a story to communicate your vision for how the finished image will look. Explain the story to the rest of your team so that everyone is on the same page. You could even make a storyboard if you want! The photography, the styling, and the model's poses/expressions should all work together to tell your story. For the below image, the model and I came up with a story about a young woman who was waiting to meet her boyfriend for a romantic night in. She got herself all ready but her man is running extremely late (she's doubtful if he'll even show). Her excitement dissolves into a mixture of worry, insecurity and anger as she waits for him. We didn't worry too much about showing off the garment because we wanted to focus on conveying the emotion and intimacy of the scene.
The third and arguably most important ingredient is
Ownership. The model needs to
own her sexiness!
Confidence is key when you're doing this kind of photography. Do what you can to make your model feel comfortable during the session. Sprinkle in some complimentary words of encouragement while you're shooting. A simple "That looks great!" can go a long way towards building up her confidence.
I'm still learning lingerie/boudoir so I am by no means an expert, but I hope these tips will be as helpful for others as they have been for me. Big thanks to designer Marc Wayne of
Marc Wayne Intimates for being my inspiration for this post and for teaching me about these important building blocks!
