Do I Need to Lose Weight Before a Boudoir Photoshoot?
One of the most common reasons people postpone a boudoir photoshoot has nothing to do with photography. They tell themselves they will book when they have lost a little weight, become fitter or finally feel comfortable enough in their body.
But what exactly is the body we are trying to reach?
The Body You Think You Need
The short answer is no. You do not need to lose weight before a boudoir photoshoot.
I hear this surprisingly often. Someone wants to book a shoot, but first they want to lose a few kilograms, become fitter or reach a version of themselves they believe will photograph better.
This photograph of my friend and muse, Claudia, came from an idea she had for her social media. She wanted to make a point about the increasingly unrealistic bodies we are surrounded by, so we photographed her beside a mannequin and then deliberately altered her proportions in post production to mimic its exaggerated shape.
The edited image looked more like the body society so often tells us to pursue. Smaller waist. Different proportions. Less of the individual woman standing in front of my camera.
And that was precisely the point.
A boudoir photograph should not be about changing your body to fit the photograph. The photography should be shaped around you.
What If I Don’t Feel Comfortable With My Body?
Most people are not used to being photographed this way, and that is completely normal. There is usually a moment at the beginning of a boudoir photoshoot when you wonder what on earth you are supposed to do.
You are not expected to know.
I will guide you throughout the shoot, making small adjustments to the way you stand, move and turn, while watching what the light is doing and how your body looks from the camera’s position.
Very often it is the smallest things that make the difference. Shifting your weight, turning slightly towards the light, changing the position of a shoulder or moving a hand can completely alter the photograph.
You do not prepare your body for my camera. I prepare the photography for your body.
What Retouching Can, and Cannot, Do
Yes, the photographs you select are individually retouched, but there is an important difference between finishing a photograph and changing the person in it.
I remove temporary distractions such as blemishes, bruises and marks from clothing, and refine the colour, contrast, light and overall finish of the image.
I am also quite happy to make small adjustments where they are wanted. The way someone turns or bends can create a fold they dislike. Tight lingerie can leave a mark or create a small bulge around a strap. If something like that bothers you, I can soften or refine it.
What I am not trying to do is manufacture a completely different body.
Claudia’s photograph deliberately took that idea to the extreme. Her waist was made considerably smaller and her proportions changed to resemble the mannequin beside her.
When she posted the finished image, somebody complimented her on her “perfect body”.
They had completely missed the point.
Different Bodies Need Different Photographs
There is no single pose, lighting setup or camera angle that works for everybody. Nor should there be.
When someone walks into my Johannesburg studio, I am looking at how they move, their proportions and what they want from their photographs. I am not working through a fixed list of boudoir poses and trying to make every person fit them.
Sometimes moving a light by a surprisingly small amount changes the photograph completely. Turning the body a few degrees can alter the line through the waist and hips. Where you place your weight, what you do with your shoulders and even the position of your hands can make an enormous difference.
This is also why comparing your body with somebody else’s photographs rarely helps. What worked beautifully for her may not be what I would choose for you.
The aim is not to make every body look the same. It is to understand the body in front of my camera and photograph it beautifully.
Dress for the Body You Have
What you wear can change how you feel about your body before I have taken a single photograph.
Don’t buy lingerie in a smaller size because you hope to fit into it by the time of your shoot. Bring pieces that fit you properly now. Something simple that fits you properly will usually photograph far better than expensive lingerie that pinches, pulls or has you worrying about your waist every time I pick up the camera.
And it certainly doesn’t have to be lingerie. A bodysuit, oversized shirt, stockings, a sheer robe or even a simple piece of fabric can give us completely different possibilities.
Bring choices. We will work out what photographs beautifully when you get here.
The Problem With Waiting for “One Day”
If you personally want to lose weight, become fitter or make changes to your body, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I would not make a boudoir photoshoot the reward you are only allowed to have once you reach a particular number on a scale.
The problem is that the number has a habit of moving.
Five kilograms becomes ten. Then there is another reason to wait. Work gets busy, life gets in the way and suddenly the photographs you wanted to do “one day” have been postponed for another year.
I have photographed women of very different ages, sizes and body shapes. I don’t need everybody who walks into my studio to look the same, because I don’t photograph everybody in the same way.
If you want to change something about yourself first, do it because you want to. Not because you think you need to become an acceptable shape for my camera.
There is no dress size you need to reach before you can be photographed beautifully.
The Body in Front of the Camera
Claudia and the mannequin were photographed to make an exaggerated point, but the idea behind the photograph has stayed with me.
There will always be another body we can compare ourselves with. Another photograph, another dress size, another number on a scale. If that becomes the standard we have to reach before allowing ourselves to be photographed, some of us could spend years waiting.
When I photograph someone, I am not comparing the person in front of me with the woman I photographed last week. I am looking at her. How she moves. How the light falls across her. Which angles work. What she likes about herself and, just as importantly, what she may be uncomfortable with.
That is the photograph I am interested in making.
You do not need to look like the mannequin. You do not need to look like the woman on my website. You only need to arrive as yourself.
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