Photo by Sue Bryce

A Thou­sand Words

A pic­ture may be worth a thou­sand words, but that shouldn’t stop you from leav­ing him speech­less this Valentine’s Day with a gift that will aston­ish him—steamy boudoir pic­tures of your­self, shot by a pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­pher. It’s not too late to give him a present he’ll never forget.

Photo by Jen­nifer Skog

“A boudoir shoot is an incred­i­ble experience—an oppor­tu­nity to unleash your inner temptress,” said Jen­nifer Skog, a San Fran­cisco Bay Area pho­tog­ra­pher who spe­cial­izes in the boudoir genre. “We prep, style and shoot with a fash­ion spread in mind. The end result is a day of glam­our and pas­sion with magazine-ready images to show for it,” she stated.

Photo by Allo­ria Win­ter Studios

“For women who are con­sid­er­ing a boudoir shoot, I would tell them not to wait a moment longer,” said Lily Yip, San Fran­cisco Bay Area boudoir pho­tog­ra­pher. “We, as women, tend to be very crit­i­cal of our­selves, and more often than not I hear women say stuff like ‘Let me lose ten pounds first.’”

“My boudoir pho­tog­ra­phy is about nat­ural beauty in a com­fort­able and sweet envi­ron­ment,” Lily con­tin­ued. If you are self-conscious about a cer­tain part of your body there are lots of way to dis­guise it with the appro­pri­ate attire. “Choos­ing the right cloth­ing and find­ing a pho­tog­ra­pher who knows how to pose var­i­ous body shapes in flat­ter­ing light­ing will help achieve beau­ti­ful results.”

Photo by Lily Yip

“I always ask my clients which part of their body is their favorite and which part is their sig­nif­i­cant other’s favorite so men­tally we can focus on the pos­i­tive aspects of her body,” Lily added.

If you still feel ner­vous doing a boudoir shoot, remem­ber that you can always opt for roman­tic face shots instead.

Photo by Sue Bryce

Sue Bryce, who cre­ated these head shots, is a por­trait pho­tog­ra­pher who also shoots boudoir. Sue was awarded Australia’s Por­trait Pho­tog­ra­pher of the Year in 2011 and 2012. Remem­ber that you do not nec­es­sar­ily need to seek out boudoir pho­tog­ra­phers specif­i­cally. A skilled por­trait pho­tog­ra­pher, like Sue, might be a bet­ter bet. Do not elim­i­nate the pos­si­bil­ity of fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phers either. Just make sure you do your research first, and make sure above all that you love their port­fo­lio pieces.

Photo by Sue Bryce

Shots Fired: Find­ing a Good Photographer

Choos­ing the right pho­tog­ra­pher is the num­ber one pri­or­ity for any­one inter­ested in a boudoir shoot. The best way to find one is by start­ing with Yelp reviews and look­ing online. The artist’s port­fo­lio will be the best indi­ca­tion of whether they are a good fit, but don’t just blindly go with the first per­son you inter­view. Chem­istry is of utmost importance.

Photo by Sue Bryce

“Usu­ally it takes at least 30–60 min­utes for some­one to get com­fort­able in front of the camera—with any type of shoot—let alone some­thing seduc­tive and half-dressed. For this par­tic­u­lar rea­son, we do not offer any­thing less than a full day of shoot­ing.  We want to get a lot of suc­cess­ful shots and to do this, we feel we need that time to not only give the com­plete expe­ri­ence but to get those shots that we want for our client,” said Jennifer.

Photo by Jen­nifer Skog

A tal­ented pho­tog­ra­pher will put you at ease and cap­ture your unique beauty in any stage of life, includ­ing times such as preg­nancy. In addi­tion, they can cor­rect and con­ceal flaws with good light­ing and poses.

“The best way to choose a pho­tog­ra­pher is equal parts port­fo­lio and client reviews,” stated Rhi­an­non Panopou­los, owner of Allo­ria Win­ter Stu­dios. “You can have a won­der­ful pho­tog­ra­pher that is unor­ga­nized with poor client ser­vice skills. “The best of both worlds is desir­able and achiev­able,” she added.

Photo by Allo­ria Win­ter Studios

When inter­view­ing pho­tog­ra­phers, make sure to ask them about their expe­ri­ence with Pho­to­Shop. “Even the most per­fect of bod­ies have imper­fec­tions,” said Jen­nifer. “We direct in a way that will hide those imper­fec­tions while enhanc­ing the assets. Addi­tion­ally, I am a mas­ter at Pho­to­Shop. I’m a per­fec­tion­ist and I’m a woman…I know how we look at our­selves in a pho­to­graph and I know how to touch it up.”

Pho­to­Shop skills are an inte­gral way to make a good image an excep­tional image. “This is another way for a pho­tog­ra­pher to place their stamp and style on their work,” said Rhi­an­non. “Many clients have per­sonal inse­cu­ri­ties such as skin issues or body con­cerns. It is an added plus to have a pho­tog­ra­pher that can remove or help these inse­cu­ri­ties,” she added.

Kiss and Makeup

It’s impor­tant that you like the hair and makeup in the photographer’s port­fo­lio images. Ask the pho­tog­ra­pher what makeup artists they like to work with and get names. You may want to do a trial makeup ses­sion before the shoot so you can best com­mu­ni­cate the look you desire.

Photo by Jen­nifer Skog

Take the time to pin­point shots and makeup that you don’t like by bring­ing in mag­a­zine pic­tures, so the pho­tog­ra­pher and makeup artist are even bet­ter informed of your preferences.

Wardrobe

If you can­not afford Agent Provo­ca­teur, or if you have no idea what to wear for the shoot, many boudoir pho­tog­ra­phers offer a selec­tion of gor­geous lin­gerie and jew­elry to choose from.

“Vic­to­rian cour­te­san, femme fatale or ethe­real deity–we have every­thing you need to make you feel the part,” said Rhi­an­non. From shoes by Chris­t­ian Louboutin to jew­elry from Tiffany & Co., you can choose from the best in fash­ion to cre­ate your own sig­na­ture look.

Prepar­ing For the Shoot

“Phys­i­cally, we have a whole list of rec­om­men­da­tions to get your body and skin look­ing its best before the shoot,” said Jen­nifer. “A week before we sug­gest stay­ing away from food items that may make you bloated, as well as cer­tain lotions that may cause the skin to peel and show up under makeup. We rec­om­mend exfo­li­at­ing your skin one week before, drink­ing lots of water, and refresh­ing your hair color and trim if nec­es­sary. The day before we sug­gest cer­tain main­te­nance like tweez­ing the eye­brows, shav­ing hair from every­where, and get­ting a fresh mani-pedi.”

Photo by Allo­ria Win­ter Studios

If you just can’t make the dead­line this Valentine’s Day, book a shoot any­way and give him the pho­tos for no rea­son at all what­so­ever. He’ll adore you.