Is it Glamour Photography or Boudoir Photography?

I was recently in a group for “Boudoir” photographers when someone posted an image that was not a boudoir photo but was in fact a glamour photo. I mentioned that it was a great image but that it really didn’t qualify as a boudoir image as the model was just a girl standing outside against a wall wearing jeans and a bra.

Everything about the image was well shot; the lighting, composition, exposure. But it wasn’t a boudoir image.Shortly after posting my comment the owner of the group who is apparently a very well known boudoir photographer responded to me that I needed to read the rules of the group.

Well one of the rules of the group is that “we are not here to define ‘what Boudoir is.’ And that ‘Boudoir is what we want it to be.’

I find that comment really disturbing. Disturbing because well; she is supposed to be a professional in her field. The fact that boudoir has been clearly defined by the dictionary.

Seems clearly defined to me. And it tells me there’s no “River/Lake/Park/Outdoor whatever they want to put in front of it boudoir.

Look folks; I didn’t make the word up. The French did back in the 18th century; so it would seem the word has been clearly defined. For centuries no less.

This isn’t a matter of what I want to believe or what I want to call something. It’s a matter of knowing the difference in what you shoot and don’t shoot. A difference in knowing what to deliver to a client.

For those of you seeking to be professional photographers at some point it is important that you truly know the difference.

For example. Imagine you get hired by a lingerie company and they ask for boudoir images and you give them this image…

…rather than this image. How long do you think it is before you get the call telling you that you’ve screwed up and wasted a budget? Not very long at all.

The thing about boudoir is that it isn’t really just about a type of photography. It’s not at all about what the subject is wearing or not wearing.

Boudoir photography is actually about the location where the photography takes place, and that location; by definition needs to be a bedroom, bathroom, or sitting room.

Some place in the house that’s intimate where we don’t generally entertain just anyone.

This negates the idea that putting a model or subject in a bra and panties or nude in a field can be considered boudoir photography since it doesn’t take place in any of the aforementioned areas.

The problem as I see it is when photographers, especially so called professional photographers don’t make the distinction, and allow others; in particular those new to photography to use terminology which doesn’t correctly apply to what they’re talking about.

It is important to learn the proper terms if you expect to be taken seriously in the profession of photography. Companies expect that those they book for photography know what they’re doing.