Boudoir Photography can be a bit of an investment for many of us. It is a very specific niche and when you have never purchased any type of photography services, you may wonder why can explain the kind of pricing you can see in our field.
Besides the obvious of the photoshoot time and final images, there are a multitude of other aspects that are taken into account when building such an experience, and we are going to walk you through it all as well as what we do to make it as easy on you as possible.
The essentials you see from the get-go:
Of course, what we are about to share is based solely on our way of doing things, however, in a basic boudoir photoshoot offer, you have a few musts that all of us photographers tend to include.
1) The photoshoot time.
In our case, we only offer 2-hour photoshoots. We feel like this is the amount of time we need to be fully attentive to your needs while being creative and making your vision come to life. We also offer unlimited outfits which is a bit unusual in our field. On top of that, it also gives you the time to get comfortable and familiar with your surroundings and our directions.
2) The make-up and hair services.
While it is optional in our case, we do recommend keeping it in your experience. Having a professional getting you camera ready and pampering you before stepping in front of the lens contributes greatly to your level of confidence. And a good professional has their own costs, which we have to build in.
3) The location.
In order to give the high quality of work we offer, we only shoot in high-end studios. In 2024, we started our own and put a lot of love and work to make it unique and find the sweet spot between making it homey and photographer-friendly. Needless to say, this comes with a location fee.
4) The amount of photographers.
We are the only studio to shoot boudoir with 2 photographers. For us, it's a non-negotiable aspect of your business. Together, we bring more energy, and mostly, more creativity, which gives you pretty much 2 photoshoots into 1.
5) The editing of the final images
Of course, since you are getting photos at the end, you can imagine that they require a minimum of work before landing in your inbox.
Those are the pretty straight-forward points you can see the minute you discover our session fee. But there are so many more you may not be aware of.
What you don't see from the beginning but enjoy nonetheless:
Something that is easy to forget, but is very important: the level of expertise.
In our case, we have over 15 years of experience as photographers. We have trained ourselves meticulously and have developed very sharp skills in our boudoir abilities. Not only do we have to master all technical aspects - such as knowing what lighting highlights which part of the body for example, but we also have to be posing ninjas and adapt ourselves to every body type and level of mobility. Not everybody can pose the same, and every body requires different tips. At no points should you feel like we don't know what we are doing, even for a split second.
The rest of those hidden gems can be cut into 2 parts: before and after the photoshoot.
Before the photoshoot, the customer support:
First off: we offer an online consultation and take all the time you need to answer any questions you may have and walk you through the process. From then, we also maintain communication before we see you in front of the lens to share with you some tips & tricks to get ready as well as go over wardrobe advice. It is not uncommon for our clients to email us with some extra ideas or questions, which is absolutely normal and which we encourage! We want you to feel taken care of from beginning to end.
Post-photoshoot work:
Most of the work does happen from your photoshoot day, until you get your final images delivered. After everything we do during your photoshoot, it is time to sort through your images. With 2 photographers, we let you imagine the amount of photos we have to go through to provide a decent selection with variety, without it being overwhelming.
Not only do we pre-select your photos, but we also do a light editing on all of them. Raw images are hard to project yourself with and we prefer showing you something that will be closer to the final images you will purchase. This is about 4 hours total.
We then host your reveal session, and it is extremely important for us to make it into an experience with tea, coffee, pastries, a big TV, and all the time you need. Once again, we don't want anybody to feel rushed while discovering the stunning photographs. In average, our reveal sessions take 2 hour.
The final editing:
Ha, this is the most underrated step! Once your final selection is made, it is time to dive in into the final editing. And boudoir is one of the photography fields that requires the most attention for a simple reason: the bodies are almost bare.
While we don't edit the bodies like plastic surgeons, we do adjust everything else such as, evening out the skin tones all over the body, removing any blemishes, editing baby hairs, adjusting the lingerie (yes, we do fix twisted straps and so on!), cleaning up the backgrounds by removing anything distracting. We also made the choice not to use AI for any of our editing, so everything is done by hand. We honestly don't even count the hours for this.
Additional products:
If getting a print or album make your heart sing, this is also something we do ourselves. Photos to be printed go through multiple checks to make sure they are flawless and album designs are made by us before being sent to our printer and then to you!
Overall, that is around 15 hours spent on your experience.
What we offer to make it accessible
The minimum investment for boudoir is about $1500 but it is never in one shot.
The retainer system:
Our retainer cuts your photoshoot cost in half. We use your retainer to secure your time with us and whatever is left is due the day of your photoshoot. If you are a planner, you can schedule your session weeks or months in advance to make this expense even easier on you.
Payment plans at no extra cost.
During your reveal session, if you want to treat yourself to all of the photos you fell in love with, we have set up payment plans without interest. You can choose to divide your final amount into 3 instalments and even pick between making a payment every 2 weeks or once a month.
We hope this blog post helped you understand how personalized and complete your boudoir experience is. We didn't even go over the actual benefits of a boudoir session in order to keep this post concise, but we've touched based on them many times in our blog.
Transparency is important for us, so don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. You can also find our different experience below:
