Glam­our & Boudoir Pho­tog­ra­phy Backgrounds

glam­our pho­tog­ra­phy focuses the pho­to­graph on the model and not a spe­cific prod­uct. These types of pho­tos, usu­ally involv­ing female pho­tog­ra­phy, are sen­sual and sexy. There are a num­ber of ele­ments that go into cre­at­ing the best glam­our pho­to­graph. For instance com­po­si­tion, light­ing and back­ground are essen­tial. Here I will focus on the impor­tance of background.

Choos­ing the right back­ground can basi­cally make or break your photo. In glam­our pho­tog­ra­phy, as with all pho­tog­ra­phy, you should always be con­scious of the background’s impor­tance to your photo. You must remem­ber that you want your eye to be drawn to the model and not the back­ground. The pri­mary goal is to keep the model as the cen­ter of inter­est in the pic­ture. You don’t want the model to be washed out by the back­ground or be lost into it.

Often pho­tog­ra­phers, espe­cially in the field of female pho­tog­ra­phy, will use the back­ground to con­trast and bring the best color to the model. This is often achieved by using var­i­ous solid col­ors as a back­drop. These col­ors will vary depend­ing on the light­ing that is used and the clothes (or pos­si­bly the lack of clothes) the model is wear­ing. Using the solid col­ors has the effect of remov­ing any­thing dis­tract­ing so the sole focus is on the model.

Glam­our pho­tog­ra­phy doesn’t have to mean a solid back­ground. A back­ground with a lit­tle more per­son­al­ity can improve the photo and add to the over­all effect. For instance, a pin-up model pos­ing next to a nice car gives a dif­fer­ent impres­sion than one pos­ing in front of a solid back­ground. Both can be inter­est­ing and well taken pho­tographs. But chang­ing the back­ground can help to bring out the per­son­al­ity of your sub­ject. Fun back­grounds can bring out their humour, or sober ones their calm­ness and tran­quil­ity. It is up to the pho­tog­ra­pher to bring out these impor­tant traits in your subject.

Pho­tog­ra­phy Backgrounds

When peo­ple think of inti­mate or boudoir pho­tog­ra­phy they con­jure up images of pho­tographs with scant­ily clad women pos­ing in bed­rooms. While this is com­mon and can make for a qual­ity shot, boudoir pho­tog­ra­phy by no means has to take place in the bed­room. This typ­i­cal set­ting is rapidly mov­ing to other loca­tions such as out­doors, off-site loca­tions or in an obvi­ous stu­dio set­ting. Boudoir mod­els are mov­ing out of the bed­room and shoot­ing in loca­tions with nat­ural sur­round­ings like your back or front yard, the beach, or even inside your home like the bath­tub. The best way to find the per­fect loca­tion and back­ground is to exper­i­ment until you find the right com­bi­na­tion of ele­ments that will fit your photograph.

These other set­tings help to enhance the mod­els per­son­al­ity and cre­ate a fun, sexy pic­ture. It is impor­tant to choose the right back­ground for the intended pic­ture though. If you choose a back­ground with a lot hap­pen­ing, it can over­power your photo. A too busy back­ground or the wrong type of back­ground can be dis­tract­ing and you will lose your audience’s inter­est. It may also have the effect of con­fus­ing your audi­ence. For exam­ple, you wouldn’t want a fit­ness model pos­ing in front of a cor­po­rate office; it would be con­fus­ing and leave your audi­ence won­der­ing why you took this picture.

The back­ground you choose should depend greatly on the type of pho­to­graph you are tak­ing. Inti­mate pho­tog­ra­phy needs a back­ground that will enhance the mod­els and show off their best fea­tures, whether it is solid or on loca­tion some­where. You need to be aware of the back­ground and should be able to fore­see how it will look or appear in the final photograph.