Lighting set up for indoor boudoir photography

Hi there,

Any advice on lighting set ups for boudoir photography? I don't have a studio so most of my boudoir shoots take place in hotel rooms

or people's houses. Both places are light and I have been using constant lighting before (cheap lighting set I got for under $150).

Recently I decided to bite the bullet and get strobes. So now I have 2 Norman strobes, couple of silver umbrellas, a white umbrella

and I'm thinking about getting a soft box. Before I do that wanted to see if Im on the right track. Usually with this type of photography

the model doesn't just stand/sit still there is a lot of moving around and I tend to change my position often and quickly. With that said

what is the best lighting for this? Advice is always appreciated :) thank you!!

<p>The lighting that gives the effect you have envisioned in your mind is the best lighting.</p>

<p>Why do you have the subject moving around? If the model is all over the place, about the best you can do is set up the umbrellas for flat, even light kind of like TV sitcom lighting and hope for the best. If you're going to use the lighting to make them look their best, you need to be able to adjust the lighting very precisely and that is much easier if they're sitting still. Take a look at some of the videos of how men's magazine centerfolds are shot. There can be a dozen lights, with the model sitting their for hours while the lights are tweaked, test shots are examined, etc., to get just the right look. Models jumping around like dancers on a stage are more an image from movies like "Blowup" that a productive way to shoot pictures.</p>

<p>Lana,</p>

<p>Watch all this guys <a href="

on youtube</a>, his lighting set ups are awesome.</p>

<p> boudoir needs soft lighting so don't use the silver umbrellas. The white is good but the softbox will be better. Get at least a medium size. larger the softer. the other thing you can do is bounce your strobes to the ceiling for a large soft light but it wont be directional.</p>

<p>I'm not sure I agree with Michael M - sometimes you can use sharper, edgier light when shooting boudoir, especially if the character of the person "demands" it. But I digress...</p>

<p>There is only one light! The light which will create what you want. Do you want something indirectly sexy? Then you may easily be looking at a bare strobe coming from a bathroom 20ft away. Do you want something very dreamy and fairytale looking? Then I doubt 2 umbrellas will be soft enough! And, of course, there are about 1 billion combinations between. The choice is yours - it always was.</p>

<p>The mistake I've seen most beginners do with boudoir photography is to work with extremely high speeds thereby subtracting all the light from the surrounding environment and then wonder how they will bring it back in with strobes - that's far from the solution. This is BOUDOIR photography - you can have your subject stay still for 1 sec if you need to, so use it! At 1 sec you can shoot literally without any additional light and still get amazing images. A small, tiny led light in a far corner can provide all the additional illumination you need...</p>

<p>you need (in my mind at least) to come up with specific concepts and then work towards recreating them using your lights AND whatever ambient you have. When a woman is lying with her underwear on a bed, you an shoot at 1/10th to allow tons of ambient light in AND then add a couple of lighter touches here and there with your strobes. OR, shoot at 1/500, strip away ALL external light and then throw a single strip box slightly above and over her and recreate that ole Hollywood look...</p>