What’s involved in a Boudoir Photoshoot?

relax on the back of the couch - I got you

What's involved in a boudoir shoot?

So you've heard all about this hot new craze. You're not even entirely sure how it's pronounced, but your best friend has gotten one. Your co worker has gone one. Heck, even your neighbour has been going on about it. It's the hot new topic for women's empowerment; the reclamation of the female body.

But what the heck is it all about?

“Is it true that you get naked in front of a photographer and get photos taken?”

Well, yeah, you don't have to get naked. That's entirely up to you. “Well, what do you wear?” Well, again, that ultimately is up to you, but traditionally, a boudoir photo shoot does involve lingerie. But let’s rewind a little and go back to what this word means.

be as dressed or as undressed as you like in your shoot

Boudoir photography is a style of intimate portraiture that captures a person's beauty, confidence, and sensuality. There’s many different styles of boudoir too, but that’s for a different blog, but for reference, I shoot in “dark and moody”. The word "boudoir" comes from the French word for a woman's private dressing room but is synonymous these days with this reclamation of body through the art-form of photography. And maybe while it was solely once for the male gaze, maybe a thing a couple did together, there's been a movement for reclaiming it - for women, for their bodies, for their worths.

it was important to Tash to wear some of her traditional Indian jewellery to her shoot

But I'm going to tell you about what is involved in having a shoot with me, Katie, at Poledoir Photography.

When you book a photo shoot with me, we schedule a video call so you can see me and see that I'm just a bit of a goofball and have a chat through any of your concerns, and most definitely your excitement about why you're doing this. You don't have to have a why - a lot of the time people are just like “because I want to.” Some people are doing it for an occasion, and some people are doing it for the reclamation.

A few weeks before your shoot day

I like to have a coffee meet with you, where you come to the studio space, and we get to meet face to face, and you get to try on the lingerie that I've got in my client closet, so that way, on the day, you have no stress about what you're going to wear. You already know as we've gone through this process! Of course, you can bring your own lingerie, or your own denim jacket or your own boyfriend's shirt or girlfriend's shirt, or whatever you want to wear. You may decide that one of the outfits you want to wear is nothing, and that is totally cool, (but it is entirely up to you). You might decide to decide on the day if you want to go full birthday-suit, there's no pressure from me.

On the day of the shoot

you come in the morning and I hand you over to our makeup artist, Tracey, who will take good care of you. You’ll have a little yarn with her while I prepare you a hot beverage and maybe an alcoholic one to calm the nerves if you prefer - or maybe you’d like to be double parked!

Tracey will do your hair and makeup, and you can talk life stuff with her.

I'll be flitting around the studio, getting it ready, getting your lingerie ready, and after you've gotten your hair and makeup done, which will be about an hour and a half, you and I will sit down and have a little breathing because I can tell you're going to be nervous. You know why I know? Because after many many years of doing this, everybody's nervous, so we're just going to do a little bit of breathing and a little bit of stretching. Stretching is really important, because you're going to be holding poses and getting into some weird poses for the next hour or two - and so am I, and we need to be limber.

“I don’t know how to pose”. Girl, I gotchu. I'm going to be showing you the poses. That’s why I stretched too! There is no need to worry that you do not know what you're doing. That is why I am here.
With some photographers, that's not part of their package. So if you are looking for a photographer, make sure that that is something that they offer, if that is something that is important for you,

We do around three outfit changes, which is important for in my offerings, to get a variety of different looks for you and we shoot for about 90 minutes. And a lot of the time, we're just having a laugh, to be honest, telling silly jokes, having a dance to the music.

Emily wore docs and her denim jacket … and got nude - cos she wanted to. It’s HER SHOOT.

The reveal

As we wrap up, I ask you if there's anything else you want to do, any last minute requests, after that as you are getting changed - you might go off and grab something to eat for an hour or just stay and scroll, I start to download the photos and doing the initial look through and cull to prepare, to show you your selection. That's right, you get to look at your photos on the day with a edit and everything. They won't be the final edit, of course, but they will be more or less how they'll look. My editing style is not to make you look completely airbrushed, because if you think that is my style, you need to have another look at my website and see what I'm all about.

But I will be editing the lighting. And you know that pesky pimple that happened to show up the night before the shoot, because, of course it did. Together, we will choose your photos that you most love based on the package that you chose, and if you choose to upgrade your package, then you absolutely can do that.

Once you have chosen your favourites, you can go home with your little polaroid-style print out that you get, and maybe even your A3 or A4 print, if that's included with your package. And within a few weeks, you'll get all your digital prints.

And that's everything that's included with a shoot with me!

I like to think that I have a really warm and inclusive shooting, not only style, but practice and studio space.

It might not be the space for you, and that's okay. I encourage you if you're looking for a photographer, that if guided posing is important to you because you don't know what you're doing, that you make sure that's included in what the photographer is offering. If the amount of digital prints is important to you, make sure that's included. If hair and makeup is important to you, make sure that's included. If having access to a client wardrobe is important to you, make sure that's included. And make sure you ask these questions of your photographer as well.

I hope to see you soon x

Katie

Lisa wore her boyfriends teeshirt