How To - Get The Best From Your Boudoir Shoot

Boudoir photo shoots have lately become the new buzz word.  More and more photographers are learning the techniques and offering boudoir shoots alongside wedding packages and women are seeing the appeal in having personal photos taken for themselves as much as a gift for the other half.  If you've not yet experienced a boudoir shoot, you may be missing out on something.

My first boudoir shoot 2009
Steve Holcroft Photography

The term boudoir isn't such a new idea, after all, it comes from the french term meaning 'a lady's private room'; a personal place where a woman dresses (and undresses), grooms herself and spends time on her own.  What is new is the concept of capturing intimate moments on camera taken in true surroundings.  A bedroom or bathroom becomes the setting for a staged photo shoot made to look unstaged and of the moment where the woman comes into her own and centre stage.

 Boudoir Shoot
Howard Michael Photography

You're probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about.  Well, it's pretty simple.  A woman is her most beautiful when she is herself, caught in a moment of time, maybe vulnerable, sensual, but always womanly.  Fashions may find us wearing strange shapes and androgynous outfits but stripped down you can't beat the timeless style of feminine lingerie.  Beautiful bras, basques and corsets, stockings and suspenders embrace the female form, daring to suggest attraction yet maintaining innocence.

Bridal boudoir shoot
Madame Boudoir Photography

The problem with the popularisation of boudoir shoots is that they're easily taken away from the context they were intended and easily cheapened into nothing less than a glamour shoot.  Glamour and boudoir are polar opposites but often confused.  The difference is between suggestion and availability; the gentle touch of the skin and the squeezing of cleavage, the cheeky glint in the eye and the sexual pout of the lips.  Boudoir shoots properly done are shot within the walls of a house, be it a hotel or true home, and performed using skilled lighting.  The use of a studio is acceptable if a set is staged and genuinely looks real; a badly hung curtain and one highly set light is a poor excuse of a boudoir set.  The smallest detail adds interest and an angle to work from - applying perfume or styling hair sat at a dressing table or fastening up stockings create story.  Scratched and worn out heels instantly delete any glamorous air as does peeled away nail polish.  Boudoir is all in the detail, mood and whole picture.  Without it, at best you have a lingerie shoot, not boudoir.

Pin Up Boudoir
Flobelob Photography

What's great about having a boudoir shoot is that there aren't hard and fast rules.  Poses and facial expressions kept natural and soft are the most effective and using the curves you have are loved by the camera.  Cleavage doesn't need to be squashed and squished to look beautiful, a voluptuous bum doesn't want to be hidden, curvy hips show artful shape and stockinged legs only know 50s screen siren.  Working whatever you do or don't have is what exudes confidence, and when you remember to have fun too, it's the perfect boudoir recipe.  Just don't lose all the feathers out of the pillow.  ;-)

Remember 

1. It's up to you which are your 'best bits'.  If you or your other half love the shape of your bum, make this centre stage.  If you don't like your thighs, try angles that are more flattering or wear briefs and stockings which will make you feel better about these parts.


2. You don't have to make 'a face' for the camera, and you definitely don't need to pout or even look at the camera.  A effortless glance away looks attractive without arrogance.


3. You can wear your usual lingerie if it makes you feel confident but buying special sets can make the experience more exciting and pleasurable.


4. A little body pampering the day before can work wonders with your esteem and make you your best - light reflecting body lotion is the best product for gorgeous glowing skin on camera!


5. And lastly, take back up pairs of stockings, you're guaranteed a ladder if you forget them!

Becky x

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Lingerie & Stockings Shoot

Occasionally photographers ask if I can shoot from home.  It's a fairly common practice for stock photography shoots or portfolio work.  It also saves on costs for studio rental and some times a real home can look more 3D compared to a fake set.  I quite like modelling in my own home too because I have everything I need where I know where it is and it's much easier in that respect.

I recently worked with a photographer called Kevin who wanted some images of a boudoir setting incorporating feminine dresses and stockings.  I'm quite a fan of stockings and hold ups and always relish the chance to 'do boudoir' so it was a brilliant chance to work on some more unique poses and angles.

So the order of the day involved a gorgeous frilly pink Lipsy dress (which I only wore once before for a wedding) and added a dazzling purple Gossard bra and knicker set paired with a suspender belt and cream lace top stockings.  Usually I'm either in fashion/bridal clothing or lingerie so it was quite a cheeky bit of fun working the saucy boudoir woman look.

Would you believe the sun was actually shining that day.  (To say I'm fed up with this dismal and wet weather is an understatement).  It was such a laugh too since there were tractors to-ing and fro-ing between nearby fields and a big country Hall that's just yards from our house.  I was more aware of farmhands getting a look and risking crashing the tractor so I had to be quick between shots!

For another look I changed into another full Gossard set, this time in vibrant red, and I wore a pair of natural stockings and a cute little floral dress.  I wanted to be slightly pin up but not overly so, so a little hip, tip toes and sneaky look, I went for a more sultry provocative pose.

A bit of a girly shabby chic look for this with one of my favourite bedspreads, with me wearing the purple set I had underneath the pink dress.

I do like these pictures but I think personally I prefer me smiling in photos!  A cheeky look is also fun to do, and something I've mastered since I was a naughty little girl, the one who pulled Little Miss Sunshine off my slippers, a piece of my boisterous history my Mum likes to remind me of :-D

Talking of me as a little 'un, I think this must have been a sign of what was to come, or rather, my first foray into bearing my flesh.  LOL!

Becky x

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Shoot - New Lingerie Images In

I'm going to share with you some beautiful images I received today from a recent lingerie shoot I had with Howard Michael Photography of Selby, North Yorkshire.

Mike wanted some intimate and sensual shots along with some more glamorous looks and it was decided that we'd shoot from my own home to maintain a cosy atmosphere in the photographs.

I often work home shoots and because we seem to move house fairly frequently there's always a good variation in the styles and parts of the house used.  It's always interesting too to see the house from a camera's perspective and although I love the view from the bedroom window - which is a church and graveyard -  I'd never considered it to be so photogenic.  The trees in full blossom lent the images a really serene look, and it looks so lovely.

For half of the shoot I wore a black corset with cream hold ups.  I love wearing corsets!  I adore the way corsets nip your waist in and demonstrate a good cleavage line, they're so flattering, the way they emphasise your natural figure.

For second part of the shoot I swapped the corset for a gorgeous bra, suspender belt and cute knickers to match the hold ups.  The bra is one I bought a while ago from La Senza before they started shutting down a lot of their stores (sadly paid full price) and I'd not had the opportunity to wear it until this day.  It's beautiful with cream lace trimmings and a pretty floral rose pattern: so fitting for a feminine country feel.

I love doing pretty lingerie shoots as much as sexy corset wearing pin up or boudoir shoots.  I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on these pictures, and which you think I suit more.

Becky x

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