St Louis Boudoir Photography tips
Congrats on your upcoming session! Please take a few minutes to fill out the form linked below and read through our best tips and tricks for your session!
Tips and Tricks for your boudoir session1. Do some research and know what you want! Pick up a book or browse the internet and search for poses and photos you like! Whether it is old school pinup like Vargas, or Modern day girlie magazine style like Maxim, practice the looks you see and want to emulate. I know it sounds silly, but getting in front of a mirror and practicing those silly or sultry faces will really improve your results! If you have a photo that you want to replicate, please email it to me vintageimagery@yahoo.com so that I can prepare for it and know what it looks like. Please DO NOT try to explain it to me the day of your shoot, because it will not turn out the same!
2. Hair and Makeup. Leave it to the professionals! If you’re spending the time, money and effort to get your photos done, it’s a wise investment to splurge a little more and have an actual hair and makeup artist take care of you the day of the shoot! Lucky for you, Vintage Imagery has already thought ahead! Our house Hair and makeup maven, Shear Sherrie &, is at the studio waiting to get her hands on you! Her hair and makeup services are included in your session price, and covers full heated hair style and MAC products as well as lashes! You can even do an upgrade to her airbrush makeup system! 3. Relax! It’s hard I know! Take a bubble bath the night before your shoot and shave, wax or primp in general! Use lotion right after your bath (or baby oil) for silky smooth skin! Take this time to check your nails, give yourself a mani/pedi and clean up your eyebrows. Remember that nails look best when they either are a light neutral color or match your outfit or theme. Stay away from bright trendy color, that may be “in” now, but won’t be in six months. Please PLEASE do NOT come in with chipped nails! They will RUIN a photo! 4. Roots. Touch em up! Hair color looks most natural about 2 weeks after you dye it. Try to schedule your hair appointment around 2 weeks before your shoot. This will also give you time to fix any “mistakes” that may happen! 5. Shoes. Bring what you like, but wear flip flops to your shoot. This will keep the dreaded “sock marks” at bay! Remember that anything tall and strappy is sexy! Stay away from “clunky” heals as they tend to visually shorten legs. VI does have a lot of shoes available for your use, ranging in size 7 -11. If the shoe is normally to large for your foot, I can “shrink” them afterwards when I edit the photo, so you’ll have plenty of shoes to choose from. 6. Jewelry is up to you. Just keep in mind that it should not be in all photos (except rings). Necklaces do not look good on all poses, so I may ask you to remove a necklace for certain photos. As a rule, the shinier and larger it is the more dramatic your photo will be. If you want the sole focus on you, stick to smaller trinkets. Make sure jewelry is in good shape, not tarnished or missing pieces. 7. Contacts and glasses. Contact are fine to wear for shoots, however, please DO NOT wear colored contacts. If you want your eyes changed to another color, I can do that post editing, but colored contacts tend to slip off of the iris or just look fake in photos, so leave em at home. Glasses are fine to wear, just make sure you try some pics without them (or as props, instead of on your face) too. Sunglasses make fun props as well. 8. Tattoos. I love em! What I don’t love is dried out tattoos. Before your shoot, please lotion your tattoos (unless you’re having me edit them out) a few times. Also, bring lotion with you to apply between photos. 9. Point your damn toes! Nothing makes you look longer and lean then pointing your toes! You will hear me say this to you a lot during your shoot. Usually you will hear “point your toes, back straight, shoulders back, and stick out your chest”. Yep, mom was right, posture makes us all look hot! Ps. Wait til you learn the "turtle" that little trick is a lot of fun too! 10. Posing. I will guide you through poses, but you have to be proactive too! Don’t be afraid to slowly move around and change your pose. You know when you look sexy so don’t try to hide it! Just make sure you move SLOOOOOOW so that I can catch that perfect shot! 11. Bring your Ipod. Make a playlist to listen to during your shoot. It will calm you down, make you feel more comfortable and you will see that in your finished photos! 12. Smile. If you cannot come up with any other look, remember a smile is always good! Be goofy with it, the sillier you feel about your expression, the more cute it will look. This goes back to tip one of practicing in the mirror! Another easy one? Tilt your chin down, look up through your lashes and part your lips just a bit. Go do it now! Yeah, it looked hot didn’t it? 13. While your at it….. Try to press your tongue up against the roof of your mouth. This will make your face appear more slender and will help with any double chin stuff. 14. Stop hating. No. Really. Please don’t walk in and tell me about how gross your stretch marks are, or how saggy your butt is! Fun fact, most women have these issues, and they are WAY worse in your mind than anyone else’s! I want you to be comfortable and LOVE your body (yea, I really mean that, don’t giggle). How can you love yourself if you are saying mean things about it? This is why I do the “appointment form”. That way you are able to tell me what you want changed or don’t like about your body, WEEKS before you appointment, not ruin YOUR day by putting yourself down. Just get in here and think about all the sexy things you love about yourself, you’ll be surprised how many there are! 15. Nudity. If you want naked photos, I’m gonna have to see you naked. Sorry, it’s just the facts. You don’t have anything I haven’t already seen, and I’m not interested in what you look like naked. I’m not picking apart your “flaws” or judging you. I’m simply getting a great photo of you that you and anyone you show it to will love, and that’s all I care about! Also, rest assure that there will only ever be female staff, and you will be behind lock doors in the safety of our studio. 16. Your photos. I will NEVER post photos without your permission. Most women are so thrilled with how hot they look, that they want them posted! It’s completely up to you, and you'll sign a release if you want them displayed so there is no confusion. 17. Lingerie for body types info (Keep in mind that I can pretty much pose, light and edit anything that you don’t like about your body, from saddle bags, saggy boobs to making you taller or lighter! But nothing is more flattering then a good well-fitting garment for your photos! Bonus- Present your photos to your lover WHILE wearing the lingerie you had on in the photo. See if he can keep his hands off you! 18. Hair removal. Be sure to remove all unwanted hair a few days before your shoot (usually 48 hours) no one wants stubble in their photos!! 19. Nails. Make sure both finger and toes are non-chipped and ready to go! |
Things to Bring to your boudoir session 1. A Flesh-tone g-string.
Not too tight, and the thinner the strings, the better. This serves two purposes: it keeps a barrier between you and whatever you're wearing over it, (great if you're sharing clothes with friends, necessary if you are borrowing clothes from VI.) and it also lets you wear sheer bottoms without having to go Brazilian! 2. Lipgloss! Great to gloss it up between shots! 3. A valid photo I.D. stating that you are over the age of 18. You must be of legal age to be photographed by Vi Photography. Alcoholic beverages can be brought along but you must have a valid photo I.D. stating that you are over the age of 21 to consume alcohol. No exceptions. Same goes for Firearms. Dont giggle!! If you want a pic with your BF's sexy gun, thats cool with me, but you better have your FOID card with you! (IL residents) 4. Any wardrobe you’d like. Remember, its better to bring too much, then not enough! Please make sure you have at least one set of matching bra and panties! Lingerie is amazing as are costumes! Even if it doesn’t fit you, we can probably make it work, and worse case you can leave it in your bag or on the hanger! 5. Touch up items such as brushes and combs. These Items are Recommended but not Required 1. A robe or dressing gown. We'll need to put you in something loose-fitting as soon as you get here so that the indentations in your skin will have time to go away before the shoot. Also, it will be good to have something to cover up in when we are changing up the background or adjusting things. 2. Lotion for those tats! 3. Pasties. Great so that you don't show through sheer bras, plus it cuts down on headlights. 4. Fishnets or stockings. These are a classic addition to pin-up photos and they always look sexy! Thigh highs are sassy, and nude sheer-to-waist panty hose are great for camouflaging cellulite. A few words of wisdom: a run is practically inevitable, so bring 2 pairs. Also, if you go for thigh-highs, it's easier to tuck a bit of extra fabricout of sight than it is to Photoshop a thigh bulging at the top of the stockings, so if you're unsure of what size to buy, bigger is better! 5. Your own sexy outfit! We've got clothes and shoes for you to choose from, but if you have something special that you want to wear, bring it along! Also a strapless bra is great to wear under your sexy outfit for more cleavage, so bring one if you want the girls out in full force! 6. A special prop. Still have the stuffed animal he won you on your first date? How about a special piece of jewelry or a family heirloom? Pictures with sentimental value are a great keepsake. 7. Extra refreshments |