Boudoir Portrait Styles: Bodyscaping

It might surprise you to learn there are many ways to style boudoir portraits. Lingerie boudoir portraits and boudoir nude portraits are both very popular options for boudoir portraits.

But those aren’t the only ways to style a boudoir photo session. Another very popular style of boudoir portrait is the bodyscape or bodyscaping.

Great question! To an extent, it depends on who you ask. But generally, bodyscape portraits means posing and lighting a nude (or mostly nude) body or body part in order to create dramatic contrast. The high contrast between light and shadow highlights the contour of the human form.

Bodyscaping is a dramatic, dynamic way of telling the story of all or part of the human body.

“That sounds really cool but…you said nude form. Do bodyscape portraits require full nudity?”

Nope! It is necessary to reveal at least some areas of your body but you don’t have to go fully nude or reveal anything you’re not comfortable revealing.

Although bodyscape images do involve baring some skin, they’re actually a great way to experience dramatic boudoir images without showing more than you want. Bodyscape portraits can focus on one area of the human form while obscuring others.

So if you’re comfortable revealing some areas of your body, but not others, bodyscape images are a great option.
They can also be lit in such a way that one’s face is in shadow. This makes bodyscape a great option for someone who’d like to have nude images taken but doesn’t want the intimacy to include their face.

It depends on what style of bodyscaping portrait you’d like and how much you’d like to reveal. If you’d like a full body image, then it will likely be necessary to be mostly or fully unclothed. But if you’re interested in using bodyscaping images to highlight specific areas of your form, then you’ll likely only need to uncover the areas that will be featured.

What you wear (or don’t) ultimately depends on your goals and preferences for your session. During your boudoir portrait consultation, Ben will talk with you about the types of images you’d like to create as well as your comfort level with nudity, so there won’t be any surprises when it’s time for your session.

You can also incorporate other boudoir icons, the fabric drape or a beautiful robe, into bodyscape portraits. Just like the classic drapery boudoir portrait, fabric is used to conceal and reveal for both personal modesty and visual impact.

Anyone! Bodyscape portraits are incredibly versatile and flexible, which means they’re a wonderful option for absolutely everyone. The ability to focus on and showcase specific areas of the body means bodyscaping can also be a great choice if you want to celebrate and call attention to a particular place – a meaningful tattoo or scar, for example, or your favorite body part.

Like other portrait images from your session, how you choose to enjoy your bodyscaping images is up to you. You can have them collected in an album or book, on their own or with other images from your session. Bodyscape images make a fantastic choice for wall art in your home. If you’re looking for a dramatic, statement piece of art to hang at home, a bodyscape portrait is an amazing choice. They also look wonderful when hanging as a framed grouping of smaller images.

And, of course, if you’d like, you can always share your images digitally. You can ask your photographer to give your images a ‘social media’ edit. That just means any body part not allowed to be shown on the platform will be lightly and tastefully obscured to ensure the overall image will pass inspection.

Absolutely not! We can do multiple looks during your boudoir portrait session. You may choose to do a classic fabric draped set, lingerie, nude and body scaping or any combination during your session. As we plan your session we can talk through all of the options you’d like to do, including what you’ll wear for each and what your comfort level is But don’t worry – if the mood strikes during your boudoir portrait sitting, you can always add on bodyscaping images or any other boudoir portrait style!