Kerry’s Boudoir Shoot

Boudoir shoots are tasteful images with a hint of sexiness. I believe everyone’s idea of sexy varies and the degree at which they are comfortable with. These sessions are flirtatious, cute and fun and the goal is to portray the sensuality of the women in a comfortable, fun and relaxed state. This should portray her in her natural comfortable state as if she was walking around her home feeling free and beautiful.

Kerry is a sensual, beautiful woman and was a bit nervous to do this shoot due to her insecurities with her body; our aim was to show her how beautiful she really is. Most women don’t have the ideal body type portrayed in magazines with beautiful top model types, myself included and I feel that every woman should have the opportunity to have gorgeous sexy photos as well. A good photographer will know just how to highlight your best assets and hide those that you feel insecure about. I believe that this session with Kerry and Theo, her husband really built up her confidence. She was a natural in front of the camera, and we really had fun with her, and I really enjoyed the connection she and Theo had, it brought a sense of true love and that yes it still does exist and should be honored and respected. Always remember that your significant other will always love you and appreciate you the way you are.

A lot of women are very good when it comes to do their own hair and makeup, But personally I think that it is recommended that a professional makeup artist get involved, as they know the variety and intensity of makeup needed to be applied in order to make the images look flawless and bring in a new depth of natural yet sensuality to the model. In these images we again contacted my good friend Mariette who did an outstanding job on Kerry. She really looked stunning and these are evident in the images. Kerry has gorgeous thick, long beautiful hair, and I felt that just leaving her hair loose and natural would be best for this shoot. We also used the fan in a few of the images to give dimension and depth to the photo, it really worked well, and we are really pleased with the results.

Props are generally also a good idea, something soft and sensual like a flower, or a rose like in our case. Just creates a nice romantic atmosphere, together with the dramatic light to highlight all that is perfect.

Considering this was my first attempt at a boudoir shoot, I am pleased to say that the experience far exceeded my expectations and I am so ampt to do more of these shoots. It not only made Kerry feel good about herself, but it did a huge confidence boost in me as a photographer.

I am more of an outdoor photographer, where I prefer to take my projects to a location and shoot my models there, I lack the experience of working with light in the studio. I just want to thank Lionel for assisting me here. I knew exactly what I wanted and how I wanted the light to be, and because of our good understanding with each other, he knew and he helped me achieve those effects.

Lionel will now give his input for photographers like me who would like to know how we achieved the results that you see on Kerry’s images.

Cinz

Studio Setup

For a shoot like this we wanted the light to be soft and flattering, so to do that we used a medium soft box placed in close and just out of frame to increase the apparent light size, this gave us a nice wrap of light with not to many shadows to fill.

Most of this shoot was done with one light and we just added a reflector on the opposite side if we wanted some more fill. The rest was controlled with the camera settings by changing the shutter speeds and aperture settings up or down we were able to control the size and intensity of the shadows, see the lighting diagram for the general setup.

Lionel

A word from Kerry

Going into the Shoot I was very nervous and even tried to get out of it a few times... after much nagging and basically being told by Theo I had no option I was doing it I gave in. I am very glad I did, the experience on a whole was amazing, Cindy had gone through my wardrobe and suggested a few outfits needless to say I think I took half my wardrobe as I had forgotten with the stress of the event what was actually wanted.

After Makeup was done and I was looking at this strange beautiful person in the mirror (Thanks Mariette) the fun began....

there was a few concepts of Ideas for poses laid out and we eventually varied from these and had an absolute ball. 6 hours later and much confidence boosting with some port it was done and was a totally exhilarating experience, Cindy & Lionel were totally amazing at making me comfortable with being in front of the camera & I had Theo for Moral support the whole way.

THANK you guys for everything. I have a whole new outlook on myself and a much higher sense of confidence....

The outcome was super and I get compliments daily even from People I didn’t think even noticed me.

I look forward to my next shoot now once I have reached My goal weight and recommend this to anyone who lacks confidence in themselves.

Thank you my wonderful friends

Kerry van der Merwe

Makeup done by Mariette Van Niekerk

Cellular: 0731514602