A Boudoir Shoot is a time for you to show off your best assets in a sexy, intimate way. Theses photos are a perfect gift for a significant other in your life and leave little to the imagination. The word “boudoir” is French for a private dressing area for a lady. A professional photographer usually captures these sexy photos in a bedroom setting, hotel room, or in a studio.

Boudoir Photography doesn’t mean nude, but you are showing skin. Wear what you feel sexiest in and if the photos are a gift, what does your significant other like to see you in? You can wear lingerie, swimsuits, bra and panties, or maybe just a men’s shirt. A little teasing goes a long way.

Being Prepared for a Boudoir Shoot

Assuming this is you first Boudoir Shoot, you are going to have mixed emotions and a ton of questions. Don’t be afraid to ask. Of course you are wondering what a Boudoir Shoot will cost, but ask more questions. Find out how you can look like the models on the site but preparing for the boudoir shoot. You will be even more pleased with the outcome of the photos.

With our experience of shooting several boudoir shoots, we will be honest with our opinions and if you have second thoughts, we understand and we can toss around ideas to see what you are most comfortable with. On the day of the boudoir shoot we just want to you look and feel your best!

The closer it gets to the boudoir shoot day, the more nervous you may become. We understand completely. You are going to be close to nude in front of complete strangers, but that’s why we want to get to know you as a client so that you feel comfortable with us.

Booking Your Boudoir Shoot

When we book you, we give our clients a list of what to do prior to the shoot, so you don’t get worked up thinking about the day of the shoot itself.

Remember this boudoir shoot is for YOU, regardless of the recipient. You are sexy and this is a very fulfilling opportunity to show it off!

To get some ideas and inspiration for your boudoir shoot check out some boudoir portfolios online or magazines like Maxim. You get the point. The women looks sexy, but they’re not showing it all off. Keep in mind you want to show these photos off, so don’t take a photo that you wouldn’t show the photo to your best friend.

We have a make up artist that you can hire and we have a professional eye to help you choose the best looks and outfits for what you are trying to get out of your boudoir shoot. You are more then welcome to bring someone a long with you if you want a second eye or another opinion.

If you are interested in specific settings or props, let us know prior to the shoot date and we can arrange to have them. You can also bring your own. If you see photos that you would like to recreate, e-mail them to us and we will recreate that imagine with you during the session. If we believe the image would not highlight your best assets, we will inform you of our professional opinion and we will make it work for YOU!

When you walk in on the day of the boudoir shoot have confidence and feel beautiful. Prior to choosing outfits and poses, we will discuss what you are looking to get out of the session and give you our feedback. We want you to be completely comfortable throughout the entire session. We want to know what body feature makes you feel good about or what the recipient of the photos likes. We also want to know what parts you don’t like, but keep in mind everything we can make changes in post edited.

Not every photo needs to be seductive, have fun with this! We will take photos of you laughing, smiling, and being silly as well! Most importantly, remember to breathe! Nerves can get the best of you, but we want you to look sexy and holding your breath doesn’t come across very attractive. Practice posing and breathing in front of your mirror and just relax so we can capture your natural sparkle!

We want the photographs to capture your sexiness. After all that is why you are interested in doing a Boudoir Shoot. So please don’t diet or starve yourself for days before the shoot. You may want to limit you salt intake and carbs on the day of or the day before, but that’s all we suggest. You want to make sure you have enough energy to get through the session. Taking photographs can get exhausting! If you have “problem areas” we will talk about what poses would be flattering and which ones would not work for you. Makeup, hair, wardrobe, and a little Photoshop can fix these issues!

After several conversations on what you like and don’t like and looking at magazine inspirations, we will make sure you have one of the sexiest days of your life! On the day of your boudoir shoot, you will have nothing to worry about, except looking and feeling your best!

Get Ready for your Boudoir Shoot is a post from: MandarichModels.com that specialize in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Photography, and Fitness Photography

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Sensual Boudoir Photography

A sensual Boudoir Photography session could translate into different looks and styles.  It could work for a modeling picture, a Maxim style shoot or a private intimate image for your significant other.  There are many different avenues to follow when embarking on a sensual boudoir photography session.  Let us take a closer look at the world of sensual boudoir photography.

Sensual Boudoir Photography is the Perfect Gift to Share with a Significant Other

When trying to capture a specific moment or trigger a certain memory, most people tend to look back at old photographs.  It stirs up emotions buried away until you see an image frozen in time reminding us of a person, moment, experience shared with a significant other.  Sensual boudoir photography can stir up those same emotions when given as a gift to someone special.

You could give it as an anniversary present, birthday, or Valentine’s gift.  It just depends on how your spouse perceives a certain holiday and what significance it has to the both of you.  Moreover, if you want to incorporate something symbolic in the image as part of the background, clothing, and jewelry then go for it!  For instance, if you both share a love for football, then dress up in a sexy football jersey and nothing else.  Your spouse will treasure the sensual boudoir photography images forever.

The possibilities are endless with sensual boudoir photography.  You can be as creative as you like. The key is communicating that to your boudoir photographer so he/she may produce the perfect sensual boudoir photography image you visualize but have no idea how to bring to life.  The boudoir photographer will be able to do this for you.

Defining Sensual Boudoir Photography in Modeling

Another way to incorporate sensual boudoir photography is if you are modeling for an adult-like magazine.  You may wish to come across sensual rather than vulgar.  There is a huge difference.  In sensual boudoir photography, the image is implied rather than in your face.  It is relayed through soft lighting, makeup, tousled hairstyle, camera techniques and background.  In addition, be careful of your posing.  How you pose, stand, and position your body in front of the camera could make the difference between being vulgar or sensual. One of our experienced, professional photographers will be able to show you the difference.

How Sensual Boudoir Photography Differs in Commercial Shoots

Sensual boudoir photography can be used in high fashion editorials or in commercial mainstream advertising.  The sensual aspect of a photo shoot in this category focuses on not revealing every part of the body.  In high fashion or commercial, either the legs or chest is accentuated, not both.  Choose one.  This way the message is classy, yet, sexual.  And people tend to focus on the eyes.  The eyes have to provide the image with lots of emotion, desire, and appeal.  It has to draw people in.  This is why having the topnotch make-up artist, stylist, lighting, wardrobe consultant and photographer are essential factors to generating such an amazing, incredible, flirtatious, sexy look.

Call us today to find out how to attain a sensual boudoir photography session for yourself or a loved one.  Call now! 1–480-277‑7888

Sensual Boudoir Photography Defined is a post from: MandarichModels.com that specialize in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Photography, and Fitness Photography

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I had the honor & privilege of being interviewed by “The Image Doctors” for their podcast.  We talked in great detail about how to prepare to shoot boudoir photography from start to finish.  From the initial phone call from the client to the final output of images, and everything in between.  Jason and Rick are true pros and know the business of photography.  I hope you enjoy the podcast.  As you know if any of you have any questions please email us and we will try to answer them as best we can.  Click the link below to listen!

Boudoir Interview with “The Image Doctors”

Image Doctors:  Hey everyone & welcome to the Image Doctors.  This is episode 110 for Feb 4^th, 2010.  I am Jason Odell and I am Rick Walker & today’s podcast we are going to devote the entire time to really fun interview with really fun guy.  We thoroughly enjoyed this interview.   It’s with Tony Mandarich & probably there will be some of you that instantly recognize that name and some of you are saying I’ve heard that name but I don’t know why.  So why don’t we, without further ado, go ahead & jump in to the interview.  But, one of the things we are going to be talking about in the interview, in addition to the interesting career that Tony  had prior to becoming a professional photographer, we will talk a little bit about Boudoir photography, working with models, and things like that which is something we really have never done on this podcast. And it‘s perfect for coming up on Valentines .. there’s a bunch of things coming up, so without any further hesitation, let’s get Tony on the phone.  Welcome, Tony to the show, thanks for joining us on the Image Doctors

Tony:  Thanks for having me guys,

Image Doctors:    We really appreciate it.  Any time that we can get an interview with a photographer, take time out of your day, it’s always a pleasure for us to meet new people, and expose our listening audience to new subjects in photography.        We wanted to start off a little today with the way you got into photography, because unlike most of us you probably didn’t start off thinking I’m going to be a photographer, your position is a little different.

Tony: no. no, yah, when I was 11 I was like, you know what, I want to play in the NFL, I want to be a professional football player and it wasn’t a photographer but as time and I grew up and you  find out and you have life experiences, do things  that shape you, things that you lean toward, but  photography was always one of those things but the question for me was like how did they do that shot, whether it was a landscape  or whether it was a picture of a person, and I always thought what  was curious for me was how did they make that shot look like that … so you have to kind of reverse engineer it right?  either find the person or ask the professionals and then they reverse engineer it there and they say so this is where the light is coming from, and probably it was shot at this time of day and there is so much too it with  composition, angle, where you are coming from, you know, and I mean as you guys know you can shoot something at high noon and make it look like it’s night.  You know!

Image Doctors:  yah, so for our listeners who are not aware Tony wanted to be an NFL football player because he’s probably the one guy I know who is big enough to be an NFL football player..(laughter) so what  are you 6’7’, huh, Tony?

Tony:  oh 6’5’, oh and you know, a skinny 305

Image Doctors:  exactly, and mean.   As we were talking before hand, I saw your name on FaceBook and it immediately rang a bell with me because that name seems really familiar because in the 1980’s when I was in high school, at the time, and in the late 80’s I had a subscription to Sports Illustrated… and there is a very famous photo of you on the cover of Sports Illustrated because you were actually playing in the NFL for a few years, is that correct?

Tony:  Yah, I ended up being drafted in 1989 by Green Bay and spent four years there was there until ‘92, was out of the league for three years and then came back to play in ‘96 at Indianapolis and played there until the last season I played was ‘98 and I retired in ‘99. So I was lucky enough to play my last year in Green Bay with Bret Favre and then my last two seasons at Indianapolis with Peyton Manning and a bunch of those other guys Marvin Harrison and  Edgerton James   some of those guys will be hall of famers; it was great really a dream come true for me.  Because, you know, like I said at age 11 I had made a decision, you know what?  I want to play in the NFL, that was what I wanted to do, and obviously with a lot of work and a lot of preparation and a lot of  luck and not being hurt and just taking the right avenue, I was lucky enough to get drafted and really live that dream out.  It had its ups and downs , if anybody  knows the history of my career, it  had some pretty low lows but it had some pretty high highs, and it ended on a really high note and so now I can’t believe I’ve been retired for 11 years, it just makes me feel old.

Image Doctors:  (laughter)  We know that feeling , by the way.  And you put out a book last year, correct?

Tony: Yah, it came out last March, March of 09 and it‘s called “My Dirty Little Secrets   Steroids, Alcohol and God”  and it’s really, just  a really pretty candid, honest  recollection of what happened behind the scenes , a lot of this stuff the fans did not know about, really taking ownership of my faults and the things that I did wrong and really a cautionary tale for any athlete, high school football player, really any athlete, any kid that is contemplating  on using steroids or drugs in general, because a big part of my problem was painkillers,  prescription pain killers which you kind of feel like, well it’s not a street drug, it’s not cocaine, it’s not an illegal drug and you kind of rationalize it and you have to be really careful that you don’t get hooked to start using it.

Image Doctors: Yah, I recall Brett Favre had a similar issue

Tony:  Yah, he did and I think he had that issue three years after I was already with Indianapolis so you know I could totally relate to what he was going through.

Image Doctors: Yah, and it’s not unique to professional athletes either, it’s a much broader thing.   I’m curious, you know going from a career like you had in football into photography, that’s a very big change.  Now you mentioned  interests at an early point, so that was probably something that was always out there, but  what made you decide to move into photography as a profession?

Tony:  Well, you know it’s probably one of my biggest passions, and you  know I had a 35 MM DSLR  but having one and knowing how to use one are two different things.   In Green Bay I had one, you know I took shots and would be like, I don’t get it, why is this too dark or why is this too light or why is this not looking the way I want it to look?  In the olden days like then when you had to use film it was a whole different process.  I did not have a darkroom, I took it to a place to be developed.  And at that time I was so busy with football that it kind of took a second seat and when I got to Indy in 1995 or 6 and Sony came out with a camera called the Sony Mavericka .  It was a digital camera and it recorded on a 3 ½” floppy disc.

Image Doctors:  Yah I had a friend that had one.

Tony: You put the floppy disc in the camera, you talk about simple, you take the shot, you take the floppy, just put it in your computer and it’s there.  It sounds like this is pretty cool, and so I started getting much more serious about it at that point when the digital was in the infancy of digital, and it fascinated me, and then some of the post production stuff that you could do, at that point, I was like it was kind of cool!  Except if I were to look back at that stuff now it’s like I thought, you know over –saturated something by plus 50 …

Image Doctors:  I think we all went through that stage

Tony:  Thank God that there was not like online portfolios that you put your stuff on, and say “hey, look what I can do!”   (chuckles)  But you know you go through that and it is part of the learning process  I think because it lets you know  hey this over does it, or this under does it with this desaturates   or your contrast or your curves or whatever you are dealing with the levels in Photoshop or whatever editing you’re using for post production.  And you know I started, at that time I dated a girl in Indianapolis that did local modeling, and I would go with her to some of these photo shoots by these photographers.  These photographers were shooting for their own portfolios and they would have lights and everything  and cameras, nice cameras, and in between shots or when they were done with a set  I would just have my girlfriend hold up for 5 minutes and I would just take some shots with my  point & shoot or my Mavericka, just to take some shots for fun so we would have the shots.  Well, when she would get her shots back from the photographer, and I would compare them against my shots, the photographers shots were definitely better than mine, but they were not that much better!  So we kind of looked at it and you know, I was not that far off; well I watched him do it because I was there, and I watched the way he moved the lights, and where he put things and his composition and what he was using and about the only thing I didn’t know because I didn’t want to bother the photographer was what aperture he was shooting at and all that other stuff, so that is really how it started to evolve and then as years went by the digital got better and better and now out of this world significantly better and things you can do obviously things you can do with digital that you never could do with film you know adjusting your color temperature, there are purists that will say you could adjust how you wanted the color temperature to look by doing certain things or by buying certain film, but you know you couldn’t just go to color temperature and  take it to 6700 kelvin (?) or to 4000 kelvin depending on what’s going on and just shoot it.  I mean the flexibility is just absolutely unbelievable.  So that piqued my interest and got me going, and then I got tired of shooting that girl, so I got rid of her, (laughter) and then, whether you guys want to cut that out it’s up to you two!

Image Doctors:  I think we’ll leave it in for a bit of color.  I like it.  I had a friend who once told me that when I said where is your girlfriend … he said oh, I fired her!

Tony:  So, then what happened, was, you know you are so in that phase of , hey look, I would love to shoot Victoria secret models, and I would love to shoot Playboy style,  or I would love to shoot that beautiful Boudoir style,.  And you know there is a HUGE difference between shooting that raunchy and sleazy or shooting that classy and beautiful making the woman look absolutely stunning.  But, there was so little knowledge in how to do it that I was really overwhelmed on it, so you don’t even do it, because how are you going to do this because are you going to look like a fool.  I always had that concern that am I going to look stupid in front of this girl, you know I don’t know how to direct her to pose, or how to light, so I knew that I had a huge learning curve to do this before I got  started really getting serious about it.  So then what I kind of veered towards was landscape photography, because the trees can’t talk back to you.

Image Doctors:  Right, they are not going to say you are an idiot.

Tony:  The mountains and rivers and lakes aint going to talk back.  But you learn a lot with that too, and it was very important and I love landscape photography and you know, my wife and I now, she is a special photographer and she’s been shooting for close to 20 years now, and just to give you a brief history on her, she shot mostly weddings and seniors until I came into the picture and I said “You know shooting weddings and seniors is great, but I’m not shooting weddings and seniors, I’ll shoot models, or advertising photography, or commercial photography or  lifestyle photography.  So that kind of steered her away from that because I think she saw that it was more interesting.  I think there is a certain bit of insanity with wedding photography, because you have to deal with the bride, the bride’s mom, and it’s a pretty important day so, there’s pros and cons to everything , and I tip my hat off to wedding photographers because the stuff they have to deal with is unbelievable..  you know not only do they have to shoot , but you have to shoot it the way they want it and sometimes your vision of what they say is different than their vision of what they say.  So we’ve done a few weddings, but they’ve been actually pretty interesting because  they’ve been weddings of clients how have already been our clients say for commercial photography and then  they say, “Hey can you shoot our wedding…”  and one wedding was, I don’t want to say it was a biker wedding, but it was a custom bike builder who got married, so even his wedding was fairly unique because the people there were just awesome, the characters and a bunch of short mini skirts, it was just perfect!  And I was like if there was ever a wedding I want to shoot, this is it.

Image Doctors:  By the way, we’ll just mention that we’ve looked at a lot of the images in your galleries and Jason has one of them up right now so if we happen to drift off and we aren’t talking you will know that we are looking closely.

Tony:   Are we doing an interview?

Image Doctors:  I’ve got to say that you’ve learned it, the lighting, the poses, everything is just fantastic.

Tony:  Thank you, I appreciate that, and you know it did not happen over night.  It took a lot of work and you know a lot of collaboration, and my wife and I, we pretty much work as a team.  There are definitely strengths that she has in photography that are way stronger than mine, one of them being how to pose a girl, and I think that when she was younger she modeled, and then her being on both sides of the camera has helped, and I’ve learned from talking with her  about that,  the basic lighting, I learned from her, that lighting was for good exposure and that was it because that was all she needed to know for wedding and portraits.  What happened when we moved to Phoenix 6 years ago, I assisted a photographer for a whole year, a guy named Paul Marco, he’s one of the nationally known commercial, and advertising  photographer, he’s fantastic guy.  And do you know what?  He had no secrets to hide.  It was like he saw how passionate I was about it, and he said this is how I do it and this is how this works…  he wasn’t threatened by “oh my gosh, this guy is going to take clients away from me or anything like that.”  He said, you know what, you can have the best camera, and have the best lighting equipment and you can have the best looking model, but the bottom line is you still have to shoot it, you still have to direct it and you still have to eye it, and your eye is different than my eye, and what comes out of your head is going to be so different than what comes out of my head.  The definition of beautiful to you is probably different than the definition of beautiful to me.  The same with my wife, my wife shoots  the same girl that I shoot in the same lighting, and her definition of beautiful and sexy is way different than my definition of beautiful and sexy, and my definition has a lot more edge to it,  where hers has a lot more softness and beauty to it.  So it’s great for the client because they get the best of both worlds.  And it is interesting when the client at the end of the day or the following week when they pick the certain images that need to get edited  interesting because they usually lean toward one of the styles, it could either be hers or sometimes it’s mine.  Let’s say they pick 10 pictures they want done and 10 are hers and 2 are mine or vice versa because they just like a certain style, and they have no idea which one of us shot what.  And that is kind of the trend that we’ve noticed, and it’s good for the client because it gives them the best of both worlds in that aspect.

Image Doctors:  I have to believe that with the number of shoots you’ve done by this point you probably have kind of a generalized process that you use mentally just to guide yourselves both in terms of how you start working with the model, how you talk with them, interact with them, get them comfortable, and then how you get the shot set up and how you decide on your lighting.  Could you give us some insight into that whole process?

Tony:  Yes, absolutely, and you know, I’ll just give you the process from this last week.  A girl calls us, and says she wants photographs for her husband for Valentine’s Day.  She’s seen our website and she’s gone through it and yah da yah da so okay, take pictures off of our website, right click them and save them in a folder.  Surf the internet, I don’t know where you surf, whether you surf Victoria Secret or whatever kind of style or image you like.  Surf the Internet, grab the pictures that you like, that you want to emulate.  And we told them, you don’t need to know why you like them, just let us know that you like them and that’s what you want, because what it does for us is, again, we’ll start reverse engineering, look at the composition and how the pose is, where the light is coming from, what style they like, and that really helps us a ton, when you get back to that point of the girl wants sexy shots for her husband.  Well my definition of sexy is probably different from her definition of sexy.  So that’s why we say “show me” what you think is sexy, and that helps us plan for the shoot.  One of the biggest things a girl, I’d say maybe 30% of our girls that we shoot will go, kind of be, not really be argumentative about it, but will say “I don’t need a makeup artist and I don’t need a hairstylist.”   Then we say “If you want this to look awesome, hire the artist, we’ve got the makeup artist and the hairstylist, we’ve got several of them that we use, and there are one or two that are our favorites.”  And we tell them “it makes a difference” and out of those 20 or 30% that opt not to pay that extra $250 or $400 depending on how long we shoot them for the makeup artists, at the end almost 100% of them regret it, because they say well why doesn’t it look as good.  Well it’s because there wasn’t a makeup artist there and we do our best, because there’s two of us shooting .  We do our best to make sure, you know, that if a collar is flipped out and it shouldn’t be flipped out, that we correct that during the shoot.  But when we are concentrating on the photography part, the makeup artist almost doubles as a wardrobe person so she will go, look at something and say but that doesn’t look just right, let me fix her hair, let me do this.  Something is sticking out of the back of her shirt and doesn’t look just right or whatever, so the makeup artist is crucial, a hairstylist, luckily we have a couple of girls that do both.  So we always tell the girl that it is crucial that you get this if you want the best possible image.  And then we get the images from them that they like, I’d say half the time we will meet with the girl before the shoot, it might be a week or two or three before the shoot, again just to go over the things, to go over our existing website, and she’ll be yes I like this, no I don’t like this, this kind of style really does it for me.  And then we tell them, bring way more wardrobe than you think you’ll need, because we can sit there, then we have options to pick and choose.  Then we tell them, there is actually a post we did a few days ago on our blog, on the Mandarich Models Blog that kind of like a check list of do’s and don’ts in preparing for one of our photo shoots.  The day of the shoot, shower in the morning, don’t wear any makeup, don’t put anything in your hair, don’t wear anything tight, don’t wear a bra,  wear a loose sweatshirt, loose sweats  so there are no lines embedded in your skin.  If you could do a pedicure and manicure the day before, it helps, at the end of the day, those little details help.  You start talking details like hair and makeup, getting your nails done correctly, all these things accumulative add up into getting as good a shot as you can get.  One of the things we discourage is the self tanner stuff, because it is blotchy.  Regular tanning is fine, whether the tanning booth or outside, but don’t do the rub-on or the spray tan a couple days or the day of the shoot because it looks blotchy.  You know little tricks like that we always encourage our girls to bring an escort with them, to feel more comfortable, a friend that they can feel comfortable with.  We encourage them NOT to bring their boyfriends or husbands, because all of a sudden you have a second photographer telling them (laughter.  Image Doctor:   Back seat photography. .) and that was me, that was me years ago, but  I went for the security reason, for my old girlfriend, obviously I didn’t hype in to say hey you should shoot it this way or this way because I didn’t know anything, and it wasn’t my place.   But sometimes you’ll get, we will shoot a girl for her portfolio and her boyfriend will come with her, and he starts directing on this is what I think you should do, so I just stop and I give him a camera, and say “go ahead and shoot it” (lots of laughter) and it kind of shuts them up pretty quick because they don’t even know where the shutter is, right?   And there is a whole checklist of things we continue to go over, but that’s really the methodology.  And then the day of the shoot  we just tell them to make sure they get enough sleep the night before, if you are really stressed it is going to show in the pictures, try to be relaxed, try to be yourself,  try to be at comfort, and we tell the girls if there is a shot , or if you are planning on doing any kind of classy moods or anything like that, if you are uncomfortable with a guy being there, let us know, because Char  can shoot it, my wife, she can shoot the main part of the female,  because I can set up all the lights, I do as much work as I can, so Char has the least amount of work to do after, then I just, you know, go check my email , or something, and let them shoot it  girls that we shoot that are lingerie that feel uncomfortable with a guy being there shooting, because they are  shooting it for their husband, and that their husband might be uncomfortable knowing that there was another guy there, so we get all that out in the open weeks before so we know and so she feels less threatened.  In our case, there is nothing to be threatened about but there are photographers out there in an amateur status that have raised that as a cause of concern with some of these models, when you hear  some horror stories and things like that where the guy started hitting on the model , you know but that is poor.  If you want to do that go to match.com, right?  Use a dating website, don’t use photography.  So, we try to make the girl feel as comfortable as possible, and I would say that 5 to 7% of the girls will feel that way and will say that they are more comfortable with just the girls being in the room and shooting.  95% of them are totally fine, and you know if somebody would ask me that question I would say it would maybe be a 60–40 but 95% of them are fine and I think in our case, one of the reasons they are fine with it is that this is a process about photography and they start to see how much work goes into it with preparation and setting up the lights, setting up the meetings before, giving them lists of do’s and don’ts, do this don’t  do that to prepare for the shoot, and they start to see that we really are interested in giving them the best possible images so the threat of this guy seeing me in lingerie isn’t there, where it might be in other cases where the guy is meeting her in a hotel room and whatever, you know?

Image Doctors:  Yah, how long does a normal shoot take, start to finish, from when they arrive to when they depart?

Tony:  Depending on the package, we have a lunch hour package which is basically one look, one back ground, no makeup artist, if you aren’t hiring one, which is half to one-third of your time, (girl being prepped—these are the four basic shots we will be doing; what makes the most sense for these shots?  Then the make-up artist has to do the work.) She has to do the most time effective work; let’s say we do a portrait, and she decides it makes sense to do that first, before she has to start going crazy with the more elaborate stuff, lots of beauty work on her face, makeup and hair.  You don’t want to do the big makeup first and then the casual stuff where she has to scrape off all the makeup.  The lunch hour session will take about two hours because of setup; hour or hour and a half for the girl; one outfit, she lays out the outfit; we make suggestions and ask her what she would like; we talk.  We shoot it and that usually gets about 200–300 pics that she can choose from.  Then if you go to our full day package, which is an 8 hour shoot, 99% of them get a makeup artist who is here all day, shoot four or five series; if she’s fast, we’ll shoot  6–7-8 series if there isn’t any time constraint.

Image Doctors:  You were talking a little bit about them feeling comfortable, and I have to believe there is a big psychological aspect to all this, and how to make things come across well.  Is there anything you have found that work particularly well with your models, that you do to get their comfort level up?

Tony:  Yeah, the comfort level and details and variables matter.  If you have a website or portfolio on a modeling site, what you put in that portfolio, not just images that carry the most weight, make the profile non threatening.  Make it real; mention there is always another female there.  Encourage her to bring another female or escort with her (boyfriend, husband, dad or best friend); that lets her know that she can be less threatened.  She is encouraged to bring security.  So how you write your copy on your site matters.  Meeting with her before the shoot, starting to build relationship, letting her know that you want the best images, our main motive.  You want her to say, “Man!  I can’t believe this is me.  It looks so great!”  I look for vibes of feeling threatened.  As soon as you meet with her, 15 minutes or an hour, they realize this is business; what we are trying to do is get the best possible product for what they want.  We work to eliminate the threat.  I think our approach puts them at ease.  For us it’s being real and saying, hey look, let’s try this and this and once they see this is about preparation and business, not me getting half-naked in front of this guy; they start to see that was my perception that I was concerned about, but now they see there’s a lot more to this work.

Image Doctors:  Absolutely.  Theme I’m picking up here, and it’s just excellent, and it applies all the way around, is that level of detail and preparedness that you bring to the table here, whether it’s a wedding or something else, they are a little bit hesitant to ..  they see the price for the package, and think ..  my husband has a camera or my best friend has a camera.. how hard can that be?  And they’ll give me a CD for free.  There’s no prep or work in that; even if you have the lights, there’s no work in that.  You guys have a studio environment, right?

Tony:  It depends on what the style of shoot is.  60% of the shoots are done in our house, because of environment..  furniture, walls, stuff on the walls, piano..  day to day things .. neat looking doors…  in a studio, if a girl wants that Playboy style or that lingerie style,  there’s a lot of setup.  Have to set up the atmosphere.  We do a lot of that; most are either done at our house or their house.  They may have a beautiful home perfect for shooting.  Warm Colors and tones, depending on the style of product they want.  If she is looking for a clean look, solid background and colors, then we’re definitely in the studio.  Send us the pics you like off the Internet, make a folder of 15–20 images…  if 17 of those pics have a solid color background, then we need to be in the studio.  If they have environmental stuff (staircase, bed w/satin sheets, windows) then we’re at our house or hers.  A lot of that depends on what they want.  We tell her pick the images that do it for you.  Pick the pics off the Internet that make you say, OMYGOSH I love this image.  You don’t have to analyze it; we’ll do that; we just have to know what you like, not why you like it.

Image Doctors:  Jason keeps bringing up pages on your website and it keeps distracting us..  (laughter)..  Your lighting is very nice.  Are there certain types of lighting you gravitate to?  Lighting modifiers?

Tony:  The first thing we look at is what images she likes  –broken record here. It’s not what I like; it’s what she likes; I like warm tones, sexy, ..  we usually have one main light..  my favorite shooting is with one light.. getting that beautiful dramatic look. But it depends on how you want the pic to feel; there are variables involved; key light to get that catch in her eye to get most or half of her lit up, then we’ll do a rim light or hair light—45 degree angle of the opposite end of where the main light is; so if you have the subject in front of you, then 45 degrees to left is main light shooting at her; behind her is the other light shooting at her back or side of her body, you can do a soft box to get more of the body or you can do a scoop to get more of the rim like on her hair, different color gels to get different themes and outfits..  one of the girls is a 37 year old fitness model, mother of four, body is incredible; flew in from Baltimore; we did photo shoot with her; she was absolutely outstanding; her second photo shoot ever; very confident; she knew she had a good body and was grounded which makes it so much easier to work with her.  We got that main light, got the soft box with a hot pink gel ..  we do a series of 50–60 pics, takes the gel off and do more pics without the gel.. gives it a totally different feel but you’ve made an adjustment in 2 seconds; make the light more specific on top or back or her hair..  add scoop of the grid or beauty dish with the grid to make a more specific spot; sometimes we add warming gel to make hair more gold; depends on outfit, background, add other elements..  smoke machine/fog machine..  little big of fog in the background,  blurry, adds to pic and mood of pic; a lot of girls love it; some don’t; love the feel of how dreamy it looks; shoot video in Internet marketing business; shoot behind the scenes stuff; have lights then for video;  it’s a $1000 set for lighting for videos; we’ll use strobes; we’ll use continuous lights that we use for video; if we take a shot and look at it in viewfinder, to see if it looks good; look for dead spots that don’t look good; sometimes it’s too dark in background, will take a continuous light behind her, up or down or side, you can control all that stuff with how broad it is, how tight it is; shape the light and fill voids so pic looks better; it’s all subjective; ‘what do you like’… wife and I will look at an image and she will say it looks great, and I will see something that needs to be changed, or vice versa.  I’ll be, like, No, it’s completely off..  some head-butting there, but this is art.. subjective so there’d better be different views.  There’s a core of it that is the same.  But what I think looks great might look horrible to you.

Image Doctors:  Right!  Most of our listeners use Nikon stuff, but we have a core that shoots with Canons.  You’re a Canon shooter right?

Tony:  Right.  And as Canon shooters, we pray for you Nikon people.  (laughter).  No, I’m kidding.  Listen, it’s like Nikon and Canon are like saying Mercedes and BMW.  Both are pretty dang good.  My two cents?  Four-five years ago Nikon was WAY behind high end/SRL stuff. Canon laid an egg with the Mark 3 and Nikon really started kicking butt.  And that was good.  The competition it creates between the two makes it better for us as photographers.

Image Doctors:  Absolutely.  It is the photographer that matters.  What are you using these days in terms of bodies and for the shots you are using, what lens are you using?

Tony:  We have the Canon 1DS Mark 2, four years old.  That camera will have to be replaced here soon, maybe by the Mark 4, but we’ll have to see the reviews on the Mark 4; again, the Mark 3 didn’t do that good; the one I use the most is the 5DMark2; I absolutely love that camera; it’s very affordable.  That Mark 2 five years ago was $8000 bucks.  When we’re talking about spending for photography, and that’s just the body, they say the Mark4 (premier camera) will be selling for $5k.  The price of technology has come down; so the 5D was $2500; it puts out images that are outstanding; prices are coming down; the sensor is great; I have friends shooting with a Nikon and images coming out of those cameras are absolutely awesome.

Image Doctors:  I’ve had a chance to use the 5DMark2, awesome camera.. nice package.

Tony:   Yah.  I love it.. it’s easy to handle. I got the extra battery pack with grip.  So you have the vertical shutter.  For lenses 70–200 2.8 lens which I really like for shooting boudoir stuff; you can be backed off the model 25–30 feet and shoot at that shallow aperture and get awesome images; we also use a 35–350 Canon lens.  We have an 85mm fixed 1.2 which we use a lot for portraits.  It’s the sharpest lens I’ve ever used; can shoot an upclose portrait 1.8 or 1.4 aperture and have one eyeball in focus and one out.  Range is absolute incredible.  24–105 one of my favorite lens.  We used it in a hair salon I call it ‘Salon Girl’; almost a pinup pic; go to our glamour photo gallery, a pic from that series is there..  second row, second photo; it’s like a pin-up, girl holding a book, checkered floor; we’d just purchased that lens and shot with it that day.  One of the best shots I’ve ever taken was that day in this series; checkered floor, angle was right, lighting was right; screwed up.. in background on floor, could see power pack and cables; but my wife is so good with Photoshop, you’d never know it!  She got rid of it all! (laughter)

Image Doctors:  Going back to preparedness, people still don’t understand what happens on the back end.  Retouching can be really important.

Tony:  Yes, it’s just as important.  The less you have to retouch the better.  Ultimate compliment with post production, nobody ever says that was retouched.  You want to make it look as good as possible without retouching and making it obvious you did Photoshop.  The biggest no-no is to make the skin too smooth or whites of eyes too white or teeth too white.  Ridiclourly white.  Fine line between that stuff.  But it’s a big part of game; go to our boudoir gallery…  three rows down, second pic over; same girl twice in same pic; that’s two different pics w/same background, and one, she is looking down and one she’s looking ; up; taken seconds apart; hold everything the same and bring her eyes to me; look at her hands—identical; hair—identical; mirrored image; eyes are up in second pic; I flipped the pic and layered it in in Photoshop and blended it in.  Someone may see that and hate it.  I love it.  I think it looks cool.  I don’t do that all that time, but i love this one. It’s a matter of learning what you like and how much experience you have in Photoshop and know what options you have.

Image Doctors:  We’ll put links to your multiple web sites..  facebook.com/imagedoctors.  Briefly mention what your sites are.

Tony:  www.mandarichmodels.com is our female photography site with page for male models.

Image Doctors:  Somehow Jason and I forgot to look at the males.  (laughter)

Tony:  95 % of our models are female ; we shoot male models fitness and male models also if they want to hire us.  Mandarich Models site is more boudoir, lingerie, building model portfolios, pointing out what we do so models can read it.  Our other site is www.boxscorebabes.com an iphone application website; we have an iphone app called BoxScoreBabes.  It’s an app of 3 categories, lingeries, fitness, swimsuit or bikini; has girls on there and scrolling NFL scores and an RSSfeed.

Image Doctors:  Yeah, good place to get NFL scores!

Tony:  Yeah, we do surveys al l the time and that’s the only reason the guys buy it!  (laughter)  Especially in May!

Image Doctors:  You mentioned this iphone app… is it free?

Tony:  We’ve had it out since Sept, with 99cent cost thru itunes or our site; today, we’re making that app free.  If you have an iphone or itouch you can download it.  All the photographs are ours, no one elses.  The other thing we are launching this week is the next face of Box ScoreBabes; on that, you ‘ll see on the site, image of iphone, image of girl there; that’s the face of BoxScoreBabes; that’s the first image you will see when the app starts; we are looking for new girl to replace that one; just for variety; nothing wrong with the first one; she’s been great.  Females need to call us via the website to apply for that position; others can nominate a girl, obviously with her permission first; ask her first to be sure she wants to do it—don’t nominate her if she doesn’t (laughter).  We’re pretty excited about that; it’s football related; close to Superbowl launching now.

Image Doctors: We can’t let you off the hook without getting your thoughts on the Superbowl?  This weekend.  Should be a national holiday, we should get Monday off to recover from the parties.  What do you think Tony?  I have a hunch which was you’re going.

Tony:  I’m going out on a limb.  I would not be surprised if it ends up being the #1 watched Superbowl ever.  You have Indianapolis, you have the greatest quarterback, you have a great team.   And then you have them going up against the Saints, so much history there.    They’ve never been to Superbowl; so much history; the recent history of adversity for the team and then the adversity with Katrina.  And then team possibly moving four years ago.  And here they are four years later going to the Superbowl.  And Drew Brees and the team having unbelievable year; two hugely explosive offenses.  So many cool side stories… Peyton Manning’s dad was a Saints QB; so much interest in it; it won’t surprise me that  Nielsen ratings will show most watched Superbowl ever; should be exciting; high scoring; nothing to hide anymore like don’t do this play because everybody will know;  everything is laid out on the line. It should be pretty exciting.   My pick is Indy; I think it’s going to be one of those 42–35 or 42–38 Superbowls.

Image Doctors:  Should be fun to watch.  Looking forward to it.  Thanks so much, Tony, for giving us your time.

Tony:  My pleasure!  As I said in the beginning, one of my biggest passions is photography.  When people hire us to do this, it is a lot of work and set up.  But I end up giggling to myself; I LOVE doing this; and getting paid for it!

Image Doctors:  Seeing your photos, I can see why!  Thanks tony.  Again, we found Tony through FaceBook. You can go there and leave comments about the show.

The Image Doctors Podcast is a post from: MandarichModels.com that specialize in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Photography, and Fitness Photography

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Here is a quick down & dirty list of dos and don’ts when you prepare for your Boudoir Session

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Boudoir style photography is sensual and sexy. It is a type of glamour photography, most commonly female photography, which focuses on making the model look attractive. It’s not about being in perfect shape or being thin. Instead a photographer will highlight your best features to create a beautiful shot. That being said, why wouldn’t someone want to look and feel attractive and sexy in a photo. Whether they admit it or not, most women do. Now, more than ever, women are becoming confident enough to have this type of photo taken.

Boudoir Glamour

When you hear Boudoir Photography or boudoir models, don’t assume bimbos and cheap pictures. This type of glamour photography is making a stylish comeback. And it isn’t just for models anymore either. ‘Normal’ people are seeking out these types of photographers more and more. Most often, women who seek out boudoir photographers do so for specific reasons. Usually they have received a confidence boost of some kind, are giving a gift, or have had a milestone in their lives.

Boudoir photography makes a great sexy gift for someone you are romantically involved with. Many women, perhaps trying to rekindle the romance, get boudoir photos as a gift for their lovers. Others just want to give a fun and sexy present, either for birthday or anniversary.

As a wedding gift, bridal boudoir is growing in popularity. Some brides are now choosing to give their grooms this special photographic gift. Besides being a unique present, a bridal boudoir session can be a wonderful way for a bride to relax before her big day. Other couples are opting to pose together. This intimate photography can convey alluring, sexy moments between two people about to share their lives.

Post-surgery clients probably represent the largest group who choose to get boudoir photographs. They have added confidence and want to show off their new cleavage, new waistline or new nose. Whatever the surgery, these women are excited about their new bodies and want to capture themselves on film.

Boudoir Photography

Weight loss excitement can also prompt some into wanting to take a few racy boudoir photos. Finally reaching that goal weight is an incredible achievement and can be an even more incredible confidence boost. They may not be fitness models, but they are happy with the way they look and this can allow for some great glamour photography. Just like in the case of post-surgery models, those that have lost weight want to show off their new bodies to document their change.

One very special way to celebrate a milestone birthday, maybe 30, 40 or even 50, is to reward oneself with a boudoir photography session. Many have come to the realization that this really is the best they are going to look and that they want to capture that. The desire to preserve that beauty is natural. Being able to have a photograph that will always remind you of how young and sexy you can be is wonderful.

Another milestone many like to capture and have a record of is becoming mothers. Maternity boudoir is a growing trend with numerous celebrity followers. Even during pregnancy, or perhaps especially during pregnancy, women want to look sexy and feel beautiful. This is a way for them to document the pregnancy in a unique way that they will treasure.

For these reasons and many others, women of all ages are turning to boudoir photography for a fun, sexy and unique gift for themselves or someone they love.

Boudoir Photography is a post from: MandarichModels.com that specialize in Boudoir Photography, Glamour Photography, and Fitness Photography

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