How do you pose for boudoir if you have no modeling experience?
You let me pose you head to toe. Almost none of my clients have modeled before, so I assume you don't know how — and I direct every detail: where to point a shoulder, how to elongate your neck, how to relax your hands, which joints to bend. It's going to feel weird. We have a saying: feels weird, looks good.
Here's the first thing you need to know, and the thing I wish every nervous woman knew before she walked in: posing is going to feel awkward. It's going to feel weird. To get your figure shaped in a way that's the most flattering, and to build compositions that are genuinely beautiful, your body has to do things it never does in everyday life. That's the part nobody tells a first-timer.
We have a saying in the studio — feels weird, looks good — and it's so true. Some of the best poses, the ones my clients love most when they finally see their pictures, are the exact ones that felt the most awkward while we were shooting. Most of us walk around with terrible posture. So just getting you out of that bad posture is going to feel strange. Then I'm going to point a shoulder toward your chin to give you attitude, elongate your neck and bring your chin toward the camera like a turtle coming out of its shell, relax or shape your hands so they look effortless, and if something on your body bends — elbows, wrists, knees, shoulders — I'm probably going to bend it.
Nine times out of ten, you were never in that position before in your life, so of course it feels weird. It feels awkward, it feels like you're doing something wrong. And nine times out of ten, you look incredible. That's the whole game.
What happens in the first 10 minutes of a boudoir shoot?
Stiff and terrified turns into "okay, I've got this" fast — usually within minutes — because I pose you so precisely that your mind has no room to panic. It's very clinical: "move your nose left, follow my finger, twist that leg out." You're playing Simon Says with me, and you forget you're even in your underwear.
What changes so quickly is that I pose my clients head to toe. I'm very detail-oriented and very hands-on — not hands-on in the sense that I'm grabbing your arm to move it, but hands-on in that I'll tell you to move your arm over an inch to get the perfect angle, and then have you hold it. Some of these poses are intricate, but the way I direct them is almost clinical.
I'm never coaching you with, "pretend you're in a field and your boyfriend just told you he's going to marry you one day, and you're frolicking and waving your hand." It's never that. It's always, "move your nose to the left, follow my finger with your nose, bring the shoulder closest to me forward, really twist that leg out." It's little details — the angles, where things are pointing, where everything sits in the pose. That's what it is.
So when a client goes through that process, it's easy to forget you're in your underwear, because you're thinking about a thousand other things. You're playing Simon Says with me while I tell you where to look and what to do with your hands. It's a little like yoga — a lot of times you might be on one foot, holding a pose, concentrating on everything except the fact that you're in lingerie. Very quickly, your mind goes from "I can't believe I'm in front of strangers in my underwear" to "oh my gosh, am I going to fall over while I'm balanced on one leg with my arms up like a flamingo, my neck elongated, my back arched, and my hip pushed out?" All those little details make you completely forget where you are.
What do I do with my hands and arms during boudoir posing?
Soft hands first — I coach you to keep them looking effortless and unposed, like they're just flowing, never stiff or claw-like. Arms are how I shape your figure: I'll often bring your elbows, or the insides of your elbows, closer together to create flattering triangles that show off your curves and gently conceal the tummy area.
Hands and arms are the thing clients have no clue what to do with, so let me give you the rules in plain language. One thing to know about me: even though I'm very detail-oriented and intricate with posing, a lot of what I do is not extravagant. I like to stick to the basics, because most of my clients have never been in front of a camera before. If a client is more experienced or already comfortable, then we'll experiment more with what we do with arms, hands, and legs. But mostly, we keep it simple.
Hands come first. I coach my clients through soft hands — something that looks effortless, like they're not posed at all. I don't want your hands to look posed; I want them to look like they're just flowing through the frame naturally. Arms, to me, are one of the best tools for shaping your figure. A lot of times I'll bring the elbows, or the insides of the elbows, closer to each other, which gives us triangles on your figure. That shows off more curves, accentuates your shape, and conceals the tummy area.
Every client is different, though. I don't run a system where it's pose A, then pose B, then C, then D. What I do is stick to the basics of getting you into posing that flatters your figure — slims the waist, accentuates curves, helps the bust look supported, and gives more shape to your butt. The fundamentals do most of the work.
How do you pose legs for boudoir — laying down, seated, or standing?
There's no single rulebook, because every body is different. Some clients have naturally long legs I don't need to lengthen; others I'll pose to add that length. The goal of a laying-down, seated, or standing pose is the same — flatter that specific figure. Two clients in the same chair get posed differently because their bodies are different.
Everybody's body is different, so there's no finite formula that separates a great laying-down pose from a great seated one or a great standing one. If I put a client in a chair, client A is going to be posed slightly differently than client B because their bodies are slightly different — and sometimes dramatically differently, because their figures are dramatically different.
Some women have naturally long legs, so I don't have to work to accentuate length the way I might for someone else. The point is that I'm reading your body and adjusting, not running you through a preset. The goal of my job, whether you're lying on the floor, sitting on a chaise, or standing tall, is to help you look flattered in your own way.
That's true across every body type and every woman I photograph here in Michiana — South Bend, Mishawaka, Granger, Elkhart, Goshen, on up to Niles. Nobody gets a copy-paste pose. You get the one built for your figure.
Laying down, seated, or standing — every pose is built for your figure, not a preset
How do you pose a curvy body so she looks her absolute best?
The same careful, head-to-toe way I direct anyone — then I tailor it to what she wants. If a client is self-conscious about her stomach, the backs of her legs, or her arms, I pose, light, and style to flatter exactly those areas. If she isn't concerned with them at all, I pose without that in mind. It's about her, not a system.
I direct a curvy client the same way I'd direct any other client. I show you the pose — if I want your shoulder pointed up toward the ceiling, I show you what that looks like. If I want you to raise your chin, I raise mine while directing with my hand. If I want you to hug your body, I show you the hug. From ten feet away I might point my finger to your elbow, move my hand to guide your elbow, then stop my hand to tell you to stop. So I'm directing three ways at once: visually by showing you, a little bit through guiding your body from a distance, and vocally by telling you.
Here's the truth, though: I've had curvy clients come in who want to be posed the exact same way as someone who's very thin, and others who are more self-conscious about their figure. If a client is self-conscious about her stomach, the backs of her legs, or her arms, I'll pose her, light her, and style her in a way that flatters those areas. If a client isn't concerned about any of that, I'll pose her without it in mind at all. I meet you where you are.
I don't believe in a one-size posing system. I believe in working with and bending each client in a way that flatters her. And the beautiful thing about photography is that you can check your work — if something looks wrong, I take a picture, look at it, and ask, does this look good? If it doesn't, I change the pose, change the angle, change the lighting. We don't move on until it's right.
Where should I look during a boudoir shoot — at the camera or away?
Both, on purpose. I'll have you look at the lens, look away, look down, look up, and close your eyes — because each one does something different. Eye contact is power and intimacy. Looking away into the distance is mystery. Looking down is softness and a little hope. Closed eyes are softness too. I shoot all of them for variety.
I like to create a lot of variety for my clients, because I want you to have many choices when you come back and see your images. When it comes to your eyes, I'll have you look away, look at the camera, look down, look up, and close your eyes — every little detail slightly different, to give you range.
Some clients hate looking at the camera; others only like it when they're looking right at the lens and think looking away feels awkward. But each direction does its own thing. I think there's real power in eye contact. There's mystery in eyes away from the camera, looking out of the frame into the distance. There's a softness when someone looks down toward the floor, and a sense of hope when the eyes look up. And there's intimacy looking straight at the camera, and softness with the eyes closed.
That's why I won't just lock you into one. We collect the whole range, so at your same-day reveal you get to choose the feeling that's most you.
What if I'm convinced I'm not photogenic? (A South Bend client's story)
Almost everyone says it — and almost everyone is wrong. If you think you're not photogenic, it's usually because you've never worked with a photographer who pays specific attention to flattering you. I had a client in her early 60s in South Bend who'd called herself ugly. When she saw her photos, she was speechless.
When a woman tells me she's not photogenic, it's almost always because she's never worked with a photographer who pays specific attention to those things — what she wants, what she doesn't want, and how to flatter her. A lot of photographers work off a posing system, and I don't believe in that. I believe in bending each client in the way that flatters her.
I had a client we traveled up to work with in South Bend. She was in her late 50s or early 60s, a mom of two adult boys, and she'd been wanting to do a shoot for a long time — but she never thought she was photogenic at all. She actually told me she thought she was ugly. She wanted to do the photoshoot anyway, because she wanted to see herself differently. One of her biggest worries was that she didn't know how to pose, which is the same thing almost all of my clients say. She told me, "I just always feel so awkward in front of the camera. I don't know what to do with my hands, I don't know what to do with my legs, or where to look, or how to stand, or anything."
Just like every other client, I walked her through every pose, posed her head to toe, showed her each one, and talked her through it. When she finally saw her pictures, she was absolutely stunned and speechless. She was shocked at how sore she was the next day — some of these poses are like yoga on steroids — but more than that, she was floored to see herself in such a beautiful, effortless way she never thought was possible. Same woman. She just needed someone to guide her there.
What's the one trick that instantly makes anyone look more confident on camera?
Humor. The little direction that never fails is making you laugh. I'll crack dumb jokes, make fun of myself, give you a hard time, talk shit with my makeup artist — anything to lighten the room. The real magic is right after you laugh: your lips and mouth soften while the smile is still in your eyes. That's the confident, knowing look.
If there's one direction that instantly makes anyone look more confident, it's humor. I love working with my clients and making them laugh — making dumb little jokes, making fun of myself, giving them a hard time, or talking shit with my makeup artist. Just a little bit of humor makes the air in the room light. It helps you relax.
If you're giving me a hard time right back, even better — it's a good time, and we're basically just hanging out. But the actual magic happens after you laugh and after you're done smiling: you soften your lips and your mouth a little, while that hint of a smile is still in your eyes. That's the look. It makes clients look like they know exactly how to work a camera, when really we were just having fun together.
That's the secret nobody expects. The most confident-looking photos aren't from gritting your teeth and trying to look sexy. They come right after a real laugh.
You don't have to know how to pose. That's literally my job.
If you've talked yourself out of this because you "can't pose" or you're "not photogenic," let's just talk — no pressure, no commitment. I'll walk you through what your day would look like, from hair and makeup to your same-day reveal, and answer every nervous question you have. You bring the positive attitude and a couple pieces of lingerie. I'll handle the posing, head to toe. It's time.
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