Boudoir

Alica is an amazing model. I had worked with her a few years ago, and as she was after some new images for her portfolio, we decided on a shoot in a hotel during the day. The theme would be boudoir.

I’ve worked in quite a few hotels, but I usually find it a bit of a difficult. The rooms are often small, and notices and other fitments can get in the way. The light can be poor as well so it’s almost essential to take some small lights.

However, I like to treat every shoot a challenge and always start with an optimistic approach!

Arrive Early

The first thing I always do for a hotel shoot is arrive at least half an hour before the model. This gives me time to set up, and to look for potential shots.

Check the room

Have a good look around the room. Rooms are usually small so it won’t take long!
Get some ideas for where to shoot, use the wndow(s), the bed, mirrors etc.

Make a mental note of any safety notices or fittings that you want to keep out of the photos. This will save a lot of editing time later in photoshop.

If your room has white walls or ceiling then you can use that to bounce flash. Coloured walls will add a tint to the images, although this can be corrected in Lightroom or Photoshop

The room for this shoot had a white wall and ceiling which was a bonus.

Equipment

Two Godox Ad200 speedlights set on stands, one small 14” softbox, and a white shoot-through umbrella.

A Godox trigger was attached to my Nikon Z6, and I was using a 24-70mm f4 lens for most of the shoot.

For portraits I changed the lens for the Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro lens. My favorite portrait lens.

Post Processing

I use Adobe Lightroom for most of the editing, and use Photoshop if there is anything in the background that I need to remove

For example, in the first image below, I had to remove part of a mirror that was distracting to create a clean background.

Filters : The Final Touch

Once I’ve edited the image to the point where I feel it’s finished, I’ll sometimes try a few filters in LIghtroom to see if I think it will add to the image even further.

An example is the 4th image below where I’ve added one of my favourite warm filters.

Boudoir

Edited Images

LATEST POSTS