Boudoir locations, suggestions?

[Austin Greene]

Well I have my first boudoir shoot lined up with a past model of mine, but locations appear to be pretty limited in my area. I'm considering a nice hotel, but I was curious who else might have completed a similar shoot in that setting, and how they thought the results came out. We have one local hotel with less-than-average tacky furniture, but I'm looking down other avenues as well. I have yet to find any spacious homes which are available for me to use, keep in mind that this is a college town, I'm a college student, as is the model.

No access to a local studio either

Thoughts?

 

[Murray Bloom]

Unless it's what you're after, stay away from cheap motels and similar sites. Invariably, anything you shoot in such places will turn out looking like porn. A nice hotel room is lots better, but they might frown upon hauling light stands, tripods, lights and gear through their lobby. Ask about a service entrance. Ask a real estate agent about homes on the market or rentals that you can use for a few hours for a fee.

 

[Smokeyr67]

Taking a good looking young lady to a seedy motel might be misconstrued by the PI your soon to be ex wife hired to keep an eye on you

 

[amolitor]

Whatever you wind up with, try to scout it beforehand. You're going to want more space than a normal hotel room allows, frequently.

A cheaper joint could work, IF you can get pretty far away from the bed (down a hallway, into a kitchenette) and if you can move things around a bit, and use shallow DoF to hide the rest. I'd scout out motels with suites/kitchenettes. Look for:

- space to move around the model
- walls that look in good enough repair to make look seamless in post or with DoF
- light furniture that can easily be moved
- if there's "art" can it be taken down, or are there angles from which it is invisible or mostly so?
- overall, how hard is it to truly manage everything that's in the frame

A place with a balcony or otherwise glass doors with sheer curtains is very nice. The light from such a door is quite excellent. Maybe a "honeymoon suite" at a local cheap motel.

Bring your camera, check angles and whatnot. Crouch down, stand up, move here, move there.

Then bring along some sheets and pillows and things WITH you. Props galore. You'll need lights, but it can be pretty basic, if you're doing straight up boudoir. You just need soft even light and a lot of it. If you're gonna do bodyscapes, dimly lit stuff, location hardly matters, that's all about squirting light around well.

 

[Big Mike]

squirting light

That's a new one.

 

[amolitor]

I totally think of a handheld snoot as basically a fire extinguisher or a glue gun, except for light instead of foam or glue. This is something I do quite a lot of.

 

[ShaneF]

pick the furniture you want and set up a shoot in the middle of sears

 

[pixmedic]

squirting light

That's a new one.

I think "light" was a metaphor :mrgreen:

 

[nycphotography]

I've shot in hotels plenty of times... the key is to NOT get the nightstand and headboard "art" in the pictures. Those are the props that invariable scream HOTEL. Oh, and the bedspreads too. UGH.

Carrying gear in isn't an issue for me... I have a black swat duffel full of light stands and light heads, and my camera bag is a backpack. Just carry the thing in w/o commenting on it. Motel 6? No problem, do the two man body bag carry, they won't care. Waldorf? No problem, toss the duffel on the brass cart and roll it right up to your room, they won't notice.

I've taken hotel rooms and completely moved everything all around. Put just what I want where I want it, and stacked the rest of the furniture (tables, chairs, dressers, including the tacky night stands) in another corner. Or in the hall (at 2am nobody really notices much). Or in the bathroom. Once I unscrewed the horrid wall art and put it back when I was done. Yeah, the management can get pissy. I said once, "Well, I guess you can have this two ways... I can leave right now and you can put it all back, or you can chill for a couple hour and when I leave, you'll never know I was here. Your choice." They can't really call the police for damaging, as you haven't actually damaged anything. Most they can do is ask you to leave. Which works to their disadvantage as then they get to clean up after you. OH, and by the way, use prepaid debit cards with just enough money to cover the room for these, never your real credit card w/ access to real money.

Take a big fluffy white down comforter, some frilly white pillows, and some frilly white curtains. Take down the tacky hotel curtains (put them back when done). You can tape a cut sheet of background paper to the wall too (painters tape so you don't leave sticky behind). You can get fabric cheap at walmart and use it for throws, covers, bed skirts, or other interesting effects.

You can also do one of those suites (liek Embassy) for a couple bucks more. Then you have more room to move stuff around, you have kitchen props, and you usually have a bigger bathroom you can use creatively.

I'd scout a couple of the hotels near you... go to the front counter and say you are planning a surprise getaway for your wife and you... is there a room you can just see real quick? They'll usually send you with a housekeeper. Then you'll have about 3 minutes to check it out, tops. Take your smartphone and snap some quickies of the layout.

Once I got the counter girl at mighnight to let me "borrow" one of the nice lobby chairs for a bit. I asked her if she could help me... I told her I was taking pictures of my girlfriend and SHE didn't want the tacky chair in the room... I could shoot in the lobby, but that's so public. Maybe if we borrow this one chair for an hour and bring it back before anyone notices? Smile sweet at her, get her to imagine herself in the same position, and she's doing anything she can to help rather than hinder. If anyone notices, just say you didn't see me take it. lol.

Think it through and plan a little and be creative and you'll do fine.

 

[JClishe]

Hyatt Place's work well for this, they're 2 room suites at a very affordable price that gives you different shooting options and room to move around.