The Best Backdrops for Stunning Maternity Boudoir Photos
WITH BETHANY ELLEN
My favorite genre for winter months? Boudoir. A lot of people ask me if maternity boudoir photography is a “real thing.” Of course, it is! Maternity boudoir is an ever-growing genre, and there are several factors at play that make it increasingly requested by my clients.
Boudoir sessions often hold deep meaning for my clients. These sessions are frequently used to mark significant milestones—clients use boudoir to celebrate birthdays, weight loss, weight gain, weddings, divorces, and countless other milestones.
So, the question I often follow up with to my skeptics: why can’t a new baby fall under those same milestones?
Maternity Boudoir Photography: A Celebration of Motherhood
Becoming a mother is a strange dichotomy for women. It is seen as her greatest duty, but also a loss of identity within herself. Once a baby is born, a woman must forget herself in order to meet the physical and emotional needs of a person she’s just met. She must “bounce back” from medical trauma, but not be too smug about it. She must maintain an impossible, ever-changing standard of beauty, but not be “too sexual” because that would be embarrassing for everyone else.
The initial pushback to maternity boudoir photography is often why women opt into a session. They are tired of fighting a losing battle and refuse to participate in old standards that push women into boxes they were never made to fit into.
And if you’ve ever worked in my studio, you know defiance to “rules” is how I stumbled into specializing in maternity photography in the first place. Anything that breaks boundaries and rules calls to me.
All of this to say, yes. Maternity boudoir is a real genre of photography, and it’s helping women become more confident in a new facet of their identity.
Studio Backdrops for Maternity and Boudoir Photography: Why They Matter
Backdrops often create a “set” more than other props, outfits, and materials. With the right photography backdrop, you often don’t need much more to set a scene. You can use the right backdrop to enhance a subject’s natural beauty, be it through color, texture, or dimensionality.
Today, I’m working with the White Flowing Silk Drop, and I love how it transforms the space. As a studio backdrop for maternity and boudoir photography, it’s soft, elegant, and versatile enough to complement different lighting styles, wardrobe choices, and moods.
White Flowing Silk Drop
White Elegant Fine Art Backdrop for Maternity and Boudoir Photography
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Clients aren’t often blessed with the “eyes” of artists. That’s why we are in this career to begin with. Backdrops can help a client visualize a scene in a way that helps you mutually tap into a well of creativity. It often cures pre-session jitters to see a scene built for them, even if the scene is a beautiful backdrop. This will help them relax and feel more like their natural selves, which will help enhance your session.
The right photography backdrop can complement a client in multiple ways. You can use color to juxtapose a client from the backdrop, or match tones to create a gorgeous painterly-style image. You can use texture in a backdrop to create more depth in an image. You can also use dimensionality to create something ethereal and otherworldly, something totally unique to your market.
The Power of Textured Backgrounds
Texture can add elements of depth and elegance to your backdrop. I’m personally a fan of using texture to add interest to my sessions, whether I’m on location or in studio. Now that it’s super cold outside, I definitely want to use texturized backdrops to my advantage!
I personally have loved the texture and depth on the White Flowing Silk Drop. It creates a bit of dynamic action and has the versatility of serving as its own prop or allowing us to play with depth and place another piece of fabric right in front of mom, as you can see here.
Bold Maternity Boudoir Backdrops Choices Are Still Versatile
I think a lot of photographers are wary of buying a bold backdrop for fear that it won’t be as versatile as something simple. I was nervous when ordering White Silk Flowing Drop for the same reason. However, there are a few things to consider when choosing a bold backdrop for your session.
- Use dynamic and dramatic lighting to change the overall feel of your scene. This can give you the appearance of multiple “looks” without buying multiple outfits or backdrops.
- Use gels to add different colors or textures onto your backdrop if it makes sense. I didn’t have gels on hand for this session, but they would have completely changed the backdrop color without having to buy and store multiple drops.
- Change the wardrobe up! We moved from classic silk for an implied nude to hard denim to give two entirely different moods to the session. One feels more formal and one feels more casual.
Using Photography Backdrops to Appeal to Multiple Clients
As I previously mentioned, backdrops can help shape a scene based on your creative goals. It can also appeal greatly to a client’s personal style. You want to stand out amongst a saturated market? Make sure you go beyond seamless paper. Having unique, versatile photography backdrops that can appeal to a diverse client base is a major selling point for your studio.
A client may not know what their personal backdrop style is. I wouldn’t expect them to. Instead, we have our clients fill out a personal questionnaire with each booking. This also gets our feel for what our clients are feeling. Are they excited? Are they nervous?
If your client is insecure about a specific body part, can you use creative lighting and contrast to draw focus elsewhere? If they are wanting to do something nude or semi-nude, do you want to blend their skin in with that backdrop or let them stand out?
Beyond comfortability, ask yourself what the decor in their home looks like. You might think boudoir images won’t go up on walls, but limiting beliefs like that keep you from booking maternity boudoir sessions in the first place. If you wanted to give them the opportunity to print your images, make sure that the scene you’re creating fits within their home environment. It makes the barrier that much smaller to getting your art in their homes!
Final Thoughts on Maternity Boudoir Photography in Your Studio
To wrap, I want to stress the importance of maternity boudoir in your studio. If you plan to offer any kind of women’s portraiture in your studio, I highly recommend you offer maternity boudoir sessions as well. Boldly offer it, the worst your clients can say is no.
What I find is that while pregnancy is temporary, the effects quite literally last forever. I’m not a fan of claiming that I give women empowerment during sessions like these—I think that’s a really dated vernacular. However, I love providing the opportunity to let women feel more connected to their bodies, which is the first step to being proud of what you’re allowing your body to do.
I hope you feel challenged to create something beautiful this month, and I hope you get a chance to utilize your BackgroundTown backdrops to do so!
If you’re looking for more inspiration for your maternity or boudoir sessions, check out the Maternity Collection and Boudoir Collection—they’re packed with backdrops that can help with your next shoot!
Final Images
