Sensual Female Body Photography

Sensual representations of the female body have, or course, existed in art for as long as humans have been making it, in sculpture, painting, drawing, and now photography. Given the male fascination for the female body, this is pretty unsurprising! It will also most likely continue for as long as the human race exists and keeps making art.

Sensual female body photography covers a lot of artistic territory with a lot of different approaches. A ‘fine art’ approach would typically mean photographing in black and white, not showing the model’s face (or rendering it indistinct in some way), and concentrating on curves, lines and shapes. More of a ‘boudoir’ approach would typically mean photographing in color, showing the model’s face, and concentrating on sensual settings and poses. While there are many more than just these two approaches, they perhaps encompass the main distinctions in this genre.

If sensual female body photography is something that you’d like to try, the first thing you need to do is to recognize the difference between what is sensual and what is sexual. If you’ve already tried taking some photos of your model, you may have noticed this distinction when reviewing them – unless carefully composed the resulting effect can be flat and sexual rather than sensual. It may be a cliché to say it, but this is one area of photography when less really is more. Taking great sensual female body photos is all about learning what to exclude and to leave to the viewer’s imagination.

How you exclude things from your sensual female body photography depending on your approach (as above). If you’re adopting a fine art approach, a common technique is to have a lot of contrast in your shots, and to allow areas of the frame to fall into deep shadow. This is achieved by using just a few strong directional lights, and by post-processing to increase contrast in image editing software such as Photoshop.

If you’re adopting more of a boudoir approach, the same thing is achieved through the use of accessories, poses, and the creative use of large apertures that render some elements of the frame blurred. This is because unlike with a fine art approach, a boudoir-style approach typically uses lighting which is soft, warm, and even (this is achieved by large light sources such as soft boxes and even windows during daylight hours), and shows the model’s whole body and head, so you’ll need these things in order to not show the viewer everything.

Whatever your approach to sensual female body photography you’ll find plenty of examples of it in books, magazines, and online, so do your homework and get familiar with the techniques other photographers use in order to not show too much of their models.