Boudoir Photoshoot KL Session #2 with Mss Yumiko

I was back to my second boudoir photoshoot on the weekend with Mss Yumiko in Kuala Lumpur and I kind of like the result of this themed sleepwear session. It was a three-hour indoor photoshoot in an Airbnb duplex apartment in Petaling Jaya. There are a few challenges for me while doing this second shoot with @mssbabezzyumiko including finding the natural light, good lighting position and composition in a tight place.

I didn’t get much control of the light in this shoot because other fellow photographers also joined the shoot. This is a fun boudoir shoot because I like to use natural light when shooting boudoir photoshoots especially when the sunlight was creating backlight just like in the photo below.

Natural Light for Boudoir

There are many ways to explore boudoir photography based on the creativity and the mood that you want in the photos. The previous shoot was a dreamy boudoir photoshoot that involved having glowed in the highlights. As I say, there are many ways to explore a boudoir with the lighting and create something moody, dramatic, dreamy or sensual based on the type of shoot you wanted to achieve.

I mostly used the natural backlight technique outdoors, which is known as the advanced portrait technique, and I was quite surprised this time that I can get this good backlighting in the living room area. It was a good choice to choose the morning session.

Shooting with Off-Camera Flash

It was a trial and error when it comes to finding the best light. I am still struggling with indoor lighting, especially when using an off-camera flash. In this second session, I shot with my Godox AD200 Pro flash and a small octagon softbox. There is sufficient natural light in the area so I decided to use the flash as a fill light. I’m not an expert in flash photography and still have a lot to learn.

The only thing that was bugging me was the continuous LED light that was placed in the room, which created shadow behind the model during the entire shoot. I’m not happy with it.

I was shooting with my Fujifilm X-T4 for digital photos and the Contax G1 for the film. I love to shoot with both digital and film during a photoshoot so that I will be able to explore the unique colour tones in digital and analogue.

Shooting Boudoir with the Fujifilm X-T4

Boudoir Pose Refrigerator
Fujifilm X-T4, Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR // Kuala Lumpur 2022

I was using the Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR and the Viltrox 56mm F1.4 and I did get some nice portrait shots of Yumiko. I was shooting with the Kodachrome 64 and Boudoir Chrome recipe, one of the Fujifilm SOOC recipes I have created just for indoor portraits and boudoir shoot use only. I don’t really edit my photos nowadays because the color tone is really good enough when shooting the custom film simulations unless my client wants a different tone.

For this shoot, I didn’t make adjustments or edit using Capture One and it is all shot straight out from the camera. I kind of love it! As for the lens filter, of course, I’ve added some creative effects with my favourite lens FX filter, which is the Tiffen Black Mist filter for the glows.

Shooting Boudoir with the Contax G1

This is my first time using the Contax G1 film camera for portrait shots. I was so excited and shot 2 rolls of film which is the Kodak Vision3 500T and Kodak Ultramax 400, both film stocks were shot at 400 ISO during this shoot.

Unlike the Fujifilm crop sensor, I was quite happy shooting with the Carl Zeiss Planar T* 45mm F2 lens. I was able to capture the whole body compared to when shooting digital with the Fujinon XF35mm due to tight spacing.

After doing several tests with the Kodak Vision3 500T film, I find out that I don’t have to worry about natural light in the room and am confident that the film camera can do well in low light. I did have some lighting issue when shooting indoor with the film but I try not to get shutter speed lower than 1/125 in the entire shoot.

Final Thoughts

It was good that I joined the group photoshoot because I did make new friends, and we share experiences and chit chat about the camera gear that we have. In this shoot, I’m not just shooting boudoir portraits and I think in boudoir photography, we actually can shoot the body parts, including legs, thighs, hands etc. I did make a few mistakes in this boudoir photoshoot after doing the research and looking at some boudoir sample photos. I was planning of making a boudoir photo book, probably there might be someone interested, right?

I think that some parts of the lower body are better covered up, hidden in the shadows, and not too revealed to give a sense of… curiosity to the viewers? Well, still exploring this genre of photography and I’m happy that I’m able to learn from this mistake and hope the next boudoir shoot I can do better!

Do you like my work? If you are interested to have a photoshoot with me, you can hire me as your personal photographer in Malaysia for street portraits, travel portrait photos or of course, boudoir shoots!

Check out more of the photos in the photo gallery.

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