Everything You Really Want to Know

About a Boudoir Shoot

Will I know how to pose? What if I hate photographs of myself? Do I have to get naked? What happens if I want to? What exactly is the difference between boudoir, nude and erotic photography? Can couples do this together? Can I have a maternity shoot that feels sensual rather than looking like every other maternity photograph on the internet? And perhaps most importantly, who gets to see the photographs afterwards?

Will I know how to pose? What if I hate photographs of myself? Do I have to get naked? What happens if I want to? What exactly is the difference between boudoir, nude and erotic photography? Can couples do this together? Can I have a maternity shoot that feels sensual rather than looking like every other maternity photograph on the internet? And perhaps most importantly, who gets to see the photographs afterwards?

All perfectly sensible questions. None of them require an embarrassed cough beforehand.

I have photographed women and couples with very different bodies, personalities, reasons for being here and ideas about what they wanted to create. Some arrive excited. Some arrive nervous. Quite a few manage both simultaneously, which is an impressive piece of emotional multitasking.

What they usually discover is that a boudoir shoot is far less about being photogenic, knowing how to pose or possessing some mysterious reserve of confidence than they imagined.

My job is to take care of the photography. Your job is simply to arrive as yourself.

So this isn’t a collection of three sentence answers designed to satisfy a search engine. These are proper answers to the questions surrounding boudoir, sensual portraiture, couples photography, maternity, fine art nude and erotic photography. The practical questions, the personal ones and the occasional question people type into Google at midnight and then hastily delete from their search history.

Some answers are straightforward. Others deserve a little more thought.

And if there’s something you’ve wondered about that isn’t here, you are almost certainly not the only one.

You would be in remarkably good company. A considerable number of the women I photograph begin our first conversation by telling me precisely that.

I probably brush this off more casually than I should, because I know what usually happens next. Within the first ten or fifteen minutes the nerves begin to disappear. Then, once we have settled into the shoot, I show them a photograph on the back of the camera and very often get the same slightly suspicious response: “Is that me?”

Yes. It is. I haven’t secretly replaced you with somebody else while you weren’t looking.

The difference is that I’m photographing you deliberately. I’m controlling the light, choosing the angles, directing you and making small adjustments as we go. You don’t need to know how to pose because that’s my job. You just need to listen to me, occasionally tolerate instructions that may sound rather odd, and trust that there is a reason for them.

So if you hate photographs of yourself, that may actually be one of the reasons you’re here. You already know what an unfortunate phone camera, bad lighting and the wrong angle can do. Let’s find out what happens when all three are no longer in charge.

I’m reasonably confident I can do better than your selfie camera.

Unless you’re a photographer, of course. Then we have an entirely different problem.

You’re not a professional model. And if you are, you probably aren’t reading this particular question.

There are thousands of posing videos on Instagram, and you are welcome to disappear down that rabbit hole if you wish. By the time you emerge you may have memorised seventeen ways to position your hips, developed a complicated relationship with your shoulders and forgotten entirely how you normally stand.

So please don’t practise.

You don’t need to arrive knowing how to pose because I will direct you throughout the shoot. Sometimes I’ll give you a position to start with and make small adjustments from there. Other times I’ll simply watch the way you naturally move. Quite often, somewhere in the middle of that movement, I’ll see something and say, “Stop. Stay exactly there.”

Then I’ll refine it. A slight change of angle, a shift in posture, where you’re looking, perhaps the smallest adjustment that turns something good into something rather lovely.

That is what I mean by micro posing. I’m not trying to force you through a catalogue of predetermined poses. I’m looking at you, the light, your body and what is happening in front of my camera, then directing accordingly.

So there is nothing to learn beforehand and nothing to practise in the mirror.

You bring yourself. I’ll take care of the posing.

The majority of people I photograph are doing this for the first time, so if your heart is already doing something slightly more energetic than usual just thinking about it, you are in very good company.

And yes, it does matter. Not because you need experience, but because this is new to you.

You may have questions you’re not quite sure how to ask. You might want a straightforward boudoir shoot, or you may be thinking about something more intimate and wondering how on earth you begin that conversation without feeling embarrassed. You may not even know exactly what you want yet.

Take a breath.

Have a proper look through my galleries. You’ll quickly discover that I’m comfortable photographing everything from elegant boudoir through to fine art nude and more intimate, erotic work. There isn’t an awkward little line you need to tiptoe towards or a secret vocabulary you’re expected to know. Tell me what you’re thinking, even if you’re not entirely sure how to say it.

My interest is remarkably simple. I want to create gorgeous photographs of you, whatever style of shoot we decide is right for you.

There is a phrase you’ll see repeated throughout my website: don’t stress, I’ll guide you every step of the way. It isn’t there because somebody once told me it sounded reassuring. It’s there because that is genuinely how I work.

You don’t need to know how any of this works before you arrive.

That’s rather the point of coming to someone who does.

Damn right you are.

Taking most, or possibly all, of your clothes off in front of someone you have only recently met isn’t particularly normal behaviour for most people. I would be more surprised if you arrived without at least a few butterflies.

Most of my clients tell me they’re nervous, so we begin slowly. There is no rush, and I’ll be very aware of how you’re feeling. Usually something changes within the first few minutes, particularly once I’ve shown you a couple of photographs on the back of the camera and you realise that this might actually be rather good fun.

If you’ve chosen to include fine art nudes or nude bodyscapes, I do something that surprises people. I often photograph those first.

I’ve heard photographers say nudity should be left until the end of a shoot. My experience has taught me the opposite. If you’ve chosen to include nudity, I often prefer to photograph it earlier. Firstly, there are no lingerie straps or clothing marks on your skin. More importantly, I don’t want you spending the first half of your shoot quietly thinking, at some point I’m going to have to take everything off.

So we remove the elephant from the room. Along with, admittedly, quite a lot of the wardrobe.

With a bodyscape or two, you don’t even have to worry about what your expression is doing while you settle in. And when I’ve asked clients afterwards, they’ve told me that starting this way actually made them feel less nervous, not more.

I’ve even had clients become so comfortable that the gown is subsequently forgotten altogether and they wander around my studio naked as though this was obviously what they had planned all along.

So yes, being nervous is completely normal.

Wait for what? Most people I know who enjoy food, myself very much included, have been saying some version of “I just need to lose a little weight first” for years. For many of us, “first” has a remarkable ability to keep moving further into the future.

But let’s get to the real question. Do you need to lose weight before having a boudoir photoshoot? No. If you’re training for a bodybuilding competition, working towards a particular athletic goal or simply want to change your body for yourself, I completely understand wanting to wait until you reach that point. But for most of us mere mortals, there will probably always be something we would like to change.

Our obsession with very slim bodies is hardly some eternal rule of beauty either. Look at the women painted by Rubens or Renoir. Artists have celebrated softness, shape and curves for centuries. Rubens did it so enthusiastically that we eventually gave the English language the word Rubenesque. Photography is rather good at curves too.

The way I use light, shadow, posing and perspective isn’t about pretending your body is something it isn’t. It’s about photographing the body you have beautifully. Curves can look spectacular in photographs, and waiting until you have reached some theoretically perfect weight may simply mean putting off something you would thoroughly enjoy now.

You can, of course, lose weight first if that is genuinely what you want to do. Your body, your decision. I just wouldn’t postpone being photographed indefinitely while waiting for some future version of yourself to give the present one permission.

I could quite easily disappear into a lengthy diatribe here about bodies, beauty standards and why human beings are so extraordinarily good at finding fault with themselves, but that is probably a discussion for another platform.

You don’t have to change your body before I photograph it.

Nobody I have ever photographed has arrived with a perfect body. Then again, perfect is such a wonderfully subjective word that I’m not entirely sure what one would look like.

We tend to examine our own bodies with a level of forensic enthusiasm normally reserved for crime scenes. The scar you always notice. The stretch marks. Your stomach, arms, thighs or whatever particular bit has somehow found itself promoted to the top of your personal complaints department.

Tell me about it.

Not because we’re going to have a psychology lesson about learning to love every square centimetre of yourself, but because if I know what you’re self conscious about, I can photograph you accordingly. Lighting, posing, perspective, shadow and drapery can completely change how much attention a particular area receives. Sometimes what we don’t show is every bit as important as what we do.

Then there is retouching. Scars and stretch marks can be softened or removed if that is what you want. Temporary blemishes are straightforward, and if you wake up on the morning of your shoot to discover a pimple apparently attempting to recreate Mount Vesuvius on your chin, don’t panic. That definitely doesn’t need to become part of your permanent photographic record.

I’ve even had clients ask me to remove particular tattoos. These are your photographs, so we can discuss how much or how little retouching you want rather than simply assuming that everything you regard as an imperfection should disappear.

There is an important distinction between retouching you and redesigning you. My preference is that you still look like yourself. I want to create a beautiful photograph with lighting, posing and perspective first, then use Photoshop where it genuinely improves the finished image, rather than constructing an entirely different person afterwards.

We all have things about our bodies we would probably change if presented with a sufficiently accommodating magic wand. Fortunately, you don’t need to resolve your entire relationship with your body before having photographs taken.

Tell me what bothers you. Then let me worry about how I photograph it.

The first part of this answer may sound slightly strange. If possible, arrive wearing loose fitting clothing, without underwear or socks underneath. I’ve had clients arrive in a robe and slippers, which may not be the most glamorous entrance to a boudoir studio, but it makes perfect sense. Tight clothing, bras, socks and underwear can leave marks on your skin, and avoiding them gives us a clean canvas from the beginning.

For the more conventional advice about what to bring, have a look through my Experience section where I cover plenty of ideas. My general rule, though, is to bring more rather than less. We can go through everything together and decide what will photograph well and what suits the kind of images you want to create.

If your budget allows, beautiful, well made lace lingerie can be worth investing in and can photograph exceptionally well. If spending the price of a small household appliance on a French bra isn’t particularly appealing, there are plenty of inexpensive options online. SHEIN, for example, can give you several completely different looks for what you might spend on one luxury lingerie set. You certainly don’t need to arrive carrying the annual output of a Parisian lingerie house.

Colour is very personal. I particularly like reds and burgundy because they can look rich and seductive in photographs, but black and white are classics for good reason. Emerald green has looked spectacular on several of my clients, and ultimately a colour you love and feel good wearing will usually be a better choice than something somebody on the internet has declared to be correct.

You also don’t need to buy anything new. Bring pieces you already own and love. An oversized shirt, knitwear, a bodysuit, jewellery or something belonging to your partner can sometimes give us more interesting photographs than an elaborate lingerie set. And sometimes very little clothing produces the strongest photographs of all. A simple white sheet can look every bit as beautiful as lace and suspenders when it is photographed properly.

If you’re planning to include nude photographs, I suppose the packing list becomes considerably shorter. Even then, there are things we can use to change the look. Body lotion applied at the studio can give the skin a beautiful sheen under carefully controlled lighting, for example.

The important thing is not to arrive with what you think a boudoir photographer expects you to wear. Tell me what you want the photographs to feel like, bring plenty of possibilities, and we’ll work out the wardrobe from there.

Absolutely not.

When I started my journey into boudoir photography, only a relatively small percentage of my clients wanted to include nude or implied nude photographs. Interestingly, over the years that has almost completely reversed. Today, the majority choose to include nude or implied nude photographs in their shoot.

But that is their choice. It doesn’t have to be yours.

One of the things I want you to understand before you walk into my studio is that you decide the boundaries. You decide what you wear, what you take off and how far you want the photographs to go. That might mean beautiful lingerie, an oversized shirt, implied nudity where very little is actually revealed, fine art nudes, or something more intimate. There isn’t a point in the shoot where nudity suddenly becomes compulsory because you’ve booked a boudoir photographer.

You can also change your mind. You might arrive absolutely certain that nude photographs aren’t for you and then, once you’re comfortable, decide you’d like to try one. Equally, you might have planned to include nudity and decide on the day that you don’t want to. Either decision is perfectly fine.

The important distinction is that I can guide you creatively, suggest what I think will photograph beautifully and show you possibilities you may not have considered, but I don’t need to persuade you past a boundary you’ve set. A photograph is considerably more successful when the person in it actually wanted to create it.

That is one of the advantages of working with Boudoir Fusion Photography. There isn’t a predetermined formula for how much or how little you should wear. We decide what we’re creating together, but the boundaries are always yours.

And sometimes the most sensual photograph from an entire shoot reveals almost nothing at all.

I mention somewhere else on this website why I called the business Boudoir Fusion Photography. Consider finding it an Easter egg. If you find it and subsequently book a photoshoot, tell me where it is and I’ll give you an extra edited photograph on me.

Part of the reason for the name is that the purists will tell you boudoir photography belongs in a bedroom. Technically, they have a point. Boudoir is, after all, French for a woman’s private dressing room or bedroom. Unfortunately for the purists, I have never been particularly interested in keeping photography inside neat little boxes.

The definitions also become rather blurred once real people and their ideas enter the studio. So these are not commandments carved into stone. They are simply how I tend to think about them.

Boudoir, to me, is sensual photography. It might be lingerie, an oversized jersey, a beautiful dress or very little at all. It can be provocative and a little risqué, but the intention is to create something sensual and beautifully photographed. And despite the name, we certainly don’t have to go anywhere near the bedroom set.

Nude photography is rather easier to define. You take your clothes off. From there it can range from implied nude photography, where intimate areas are concealed through posing, shadow, fabric or composition, through to fine art nude photography where the body itself becomes part of the composition. Nude does not automatically mean erotic. Some of the most beautiful nude photographs are about nothing more sexual than light, shape, form and the human body.

Erotic photography is where definitions become much more personal. What one person considers erotic another may consider fairly tame. For some it might be lingerie, a particular outfit or simply the suggestion of something more. For others it may mean something considerably more adventurous, a fantasy, a particular theme or something very personal to them.

That is why I would rather you tell me what erotic means to you than try to squeeze your ideas into my definition of it. Tell me what you want to create, and we can discuss how we photograph it.

If you want the shortest possible explanation, mine would be:

Boudoir is sensual. Nude is unclothed. Erotic is sexual.

There can be considerable overlap between all three. A nude photograph can be completely non erotic, while an erotic photograph may contain no nudity whatsoever. The amount of clothing tells only part of the story. The intention of the photograph tells you far more.

If you prefer something a little more formal, the definitions are:

Boudoir photography: A style of intimate and sensual portrait photography, usually photographed in lingerie, partially clothed or suggestively posed. The emphasis is generally on beauty, sensuality, intimacy and atmosphere rather than explicit nudity or sexual activity.

Nude photography: Photography in which the subject is fully or substantially unclothed. It can encompass fine art, artistic, fashion, glamour or more sensual styles. The defining element is nudity itself rather than necessarily being sexual or erotic.

Erotic photography: Photography deliberately created to convey sexuality, desire, seduction or sexual expression. It may involve lingerie, partial or full nudity, provocative posing, implied sexual activity or more explicit themes. Unlike nude photography, the defining characteristic is the erotic or sexual intent of the imagery, not simply the amount of clothing being worn.

As far as you like, as long as it doesn’t put me in jail or hospital.

Erotic means very different things to different people, which is rather the point. For one person it might be an outfit, a fantasy or something mildly provocative. For somebody else it might involve a particular kink or something considerably more explicit. I’m not particularly interested in deciding what should be erotic for you.

Come to me with the idea. You don’t need to dress it up in polite language or spend twenty minutes trying to find a less embarrassing way of asking the question. Tell me what you would like to create and we can have a grown up conversation about how we photograph it.

Even if the concept involves sex or something quite explicit, my approach to the photography doesn’t suddenly change. I’m still thinking about lighting, composition, expression, shape, atmosphere and the story within the photograph. Explicit doesn’t have to mean crude. Given the choice, I will always try to make the finished photographs beautifully crafted and artistic.

There are, obviously, some boundaries. If your idea involves something I cannot or will not photograph, I’ll simply tell you. No raised eyebrow. No dramatic intake of breath. We find out what works and take it from there.

So tell me the idea first. We can worry about what to call it afterwards.

Yes. Absolutely.

I will only publish photographs from your shoot if you have given me permission to do so. As part of the pre shoot questionnaire I send you, there is a model release giving you the option to allow me to use your photographs. If you leave that release unsigned, your photographs remain private. I will not use them on my website, social media or for promotional purposes.

It really is that simple.

You may, of course, change your mind later. I have had clients who initially wanted everything kept completely private and then, after seeing their finished photographs, decided they were rather too good not to share. If that happens, send me written permission, usually via WhatsApp, and we can agree exactly which photographs I may use.

If they are going onto social media, you also decide whether you want to be tagged or remain anonymous. Some clients are perfectly happy to be tagged. Others would rather their mother, employer and next door neighbour didn’t suddenly discover quite how adventurous their Tuesday afternoon had been. Both are perfectly reasonable.

There is an important principle behind all of this. You booked me to create photographs for you. Paying for a photoshoot does not automatically give me permission to show those photographs to everybody else. They are intimate photographs and I treat them accordingly.

Your privacy isn’t something you need to negotiate with me, and you certainly don’t need to wonder whether saying no to a model release is going to offend me. It won’t.

Unless you give me permission to share them, what happens in the studio stays in the studio.