Videos

Karl Taylor revisits a Moulin Rouge-styled lingerie shot he felt lacked atmosphere and adds dappled sunlight in Photoshop: Gaussian-blurred blobs on layer masks, curves layers warming highlight reds and yellows, a low-opacity burn layer darkening one side to mimic falloff, and corner vignetting, before explaining the original studio lighting.

Michael Sasser explains why he shoots boudoir sessions at ISO 400, not 100: it leaves shutter headroom between 1/200 and 1/8000 second under passing clouds, so he adjusts one setting and concentrates on the client. Noise, he argues, resembles film grain, yields to Lightroom's masked sharpening, and clients never notice.

Michael Sasser compares his three boudoir lenses on a Sony A9: 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.8. The 35mm suits small hotel rooms but distorts up close, the 85mm compresses backgrounds and suits headshots, while the 50mm, used for almost all his work, keeps attention on the person.

Michael Sasser demonstrates with a model six ways to add variety to a boudoir session without new poses: switching front light and backlight, framing from wide to tight details, serious and laughing expressions, shooting from the floor or a chair, subtle pose tweaks and movement like a hair toss.

Michael Sasser shares three tips for lighting boudoir portraits with natural light, arguing that photographers who focus on posing often neglect the light that makes images look professional. Working with a model beside a window, he covers softening it with sheer curtains and lighting from the front or behind.

Andrew Boey shoots a one-light boudoir session, placing a flash at five or seven o'clock pointing down, at full or half power, f/11 to f/16, 1/100 to 1/200 second, ISO 100 to 200 and 5560K white balance. He lets the model change poses freely, adds boots and crops closer.

Jen Rozenbaum demonstrates her rotisserie chicken flow-posing method on a model, starting her face down and diagonal on the bed, then rotating her onto each side and her back for a run of flattering shots. She covers honest wardrobe choices, giving the hands a robe, and asking before touching.

Mark Cleghorn shows a bed-posing flow for the first fifteen minutes of a boudoir session, shooting Kelsey on an inflatable bed with window backlight, a 50mm and a fixed camera tethered to Capture One. He rotates her from seated to a belly-down profile, including a faceless shot, wrists crossed.

Mark Cleghorn works through four boudoir chair poses with model Kelsey, lit by a gridded Elinchrom softbox and a Lastolite light faking a window, at f/4 in mono. He starts soft, on the chair edge on tiptoe, then opens the legs and leans forward for a raunchier sixties feel.

Mark Cleghorn runs model Kelsey through twelve boudoir poses on a sofa, ignoring lighting to focus on flow: a cross-legged lean into the corner, rolling onto the hip, toes pointed, a flat lay, the pushed-up classic, a Cleopatra bottom shot and belly-down with legs raised, adapted for body shape.