A key ingredient boudoir photographers can use to elevate their photography is to create more depth in their images.
But how do you do this?
Photography is a two-dimensional medium that captures a three-dimensional world.
Length and height are fairly well defined by your subject and any furniture that occupies your frame, however, depth can get under-represented but is vital to having your boudoir images look more lifelike.
In this article we’re going to explore two very different ways to create more depth in your boudoir images.
You’re probably familiar with the first one, but I’m guessing a lot of you have never heard of the second one.
But first…
Understanding Zones
I’m sure most of you understand the planes of foreground, middle ground, and background but for those who don’t.…
Foreground, middle ground, and background are three zones or planes of space your eye sees when viewing what’s in front of you, or rather, what your lens is showing you as you look in your camera.
Foreground is the zone closest to camera, background is the zone furthest from camera, and your middle ground lies in between those two.
The size of these zones will vary depending on the size of the room you’re shooting in and its depth, or how deep it is.
Keep in mind these zones are not defined by a strict measurement,
but rather general areas that dovetail one another.
If you’re taking a close-up you may only have two zones, a foreground and a background, which we’ll talk about a bit later.
It’s important we talk about these zones beforehand because both techniques will emphasize them in two very different ways to create depth.
Technique 1 — Using Depth of Field To Create Depth
Depth of field is probably the quickest and easiest way to give two-dimensional images the appearance of more depth, and the most popular.
Having your subject in the foreground in focus while the background is blurred out of focus will clearly distinguish your foreground and background zones.
You achieve this by shooting your subject with a lens that has a low aperture (f2.8, f2, f1.8, f1.4, f1.2).
Most boudoir photographers will have a 50mm lens with one of these f-stops that will work just fine.
Having your subject in focus in the middle ground with your background out of focus will show a middle ground and background… but no foreground.
This, in my opinion, is a wasted opportunity unless that’s the look you’re intentionally going for.
And that’s really the main concept here, you being intentionally aware of your three zones and either utilizing all three to achieve maximum depth, or eliminating one to intentionally achieve a specific look.
Failing to emphasize a zone can cause your image to look somewhat empty.
To remedy this, simply have something in the foreground, on the left or right side of your frame, out of focus, to establish that zone.
It could be the edge of a lamp shade creeping into your shot, or the leaves of a house plant, but whatever it is, it’s out of focus establishing your foreground plane.
You could also have something that creeps into the lower portion of your foreground, like the top edge of a couch, or some decoration that’s resting on a coffee table.
The idea here is that in order to establish these three spatial planes, (foreground, middle ground, background), one way to do that is to place objects in those zones and use depth of field to best feature them in relation to your subject.
The ZigZag and Diagonal Line Patterns
Okay, so they’re not officially called the zigzag and diagonal line patterns, but that’s what I call them. I was first exposed to them when I took a directing workshop when I was learning about filmmaking.
The ZigZag Pattern
When composing your shot, place something in the left side of your frame in the foreground, something in the right side of your frame in the middle ground, then something centered or slightly off-center in your background.
Your subject will be in one of these three positions with objects in the other two establishing those planes.
The idea here is that you’re composing a more interesting shot that shows maximum depth whereby the viewer’s eye can travel through the image in a zigzag pattern, from subject to lamp to background banner on the wall.
You can, of course, mirror this pattern.
The Diagonal Line Pattern
The diagonal line pattern is when you place objects in all three zones diagonally across your frame either left to right, or right to left, from front to back (foreground to background).
Although the lamp is a bit large, you can clearly see the three zones established in this diagonal pattern.
Technique 2 — Establishing Foreground, Middle Ground, and Background With Light and Shadow
We just talked about establishing your three zones by placing physical objects in each zone and using depth of field and specific patterns to showcase them. But there’s another way to establish those three areas as well without using depth of field.
Using Light and Shadow To Define Your Three Zones
We all know how light and shadow can contour an object or person to create the illusion of depth and dimension in a two dimensional medium like photography, but we can also apply light and shadow to an entire space to define it spatially.
Picture an empty room with nothing in it — no windows, no doors, no furniture, basically a white rectangular space.
Now introduce shadow starting from the foreground and gradually becoming more lit in the middle ground, then fading back into shadow in the background but with the soft glow of a small window or artificial light against the back wall.
The small window or light in the background will pull your eye through the entire image… like a luminant vortex of sorts.
You don’t, however, want the light in the back to be more powerful than your key light in the middle ground. That will draw attention away from your subject.
Think of that soft light in the background as more of a subtle nuance that will add even more depth to the image with this particular lighting setup.
If you don’t have a small window or soft artificial light at your back wall, you can always go without as in the example below.
Although there is no small window or light at the back to pull your eye through the image, the darkened foreground, lit middle ground, and darkened background still creates the illusion of depth in this two-dimensional image.
Using Both Depth of Field and Light and Shadow In All Three Zones
Using both these technique in combination with one another will give you the greatest effect to achieve more depth and dimension in your images.
For example…
… have something blurred in the shadowed foreground, your subject lit in the middle ground, along with your darkened background with a small softened light source, is the ideal scenario to achieve maximum depth and dimensionality in an image.
Is this always possible?
No, because it depends on what’s available in the space you’re shooting in, but it is something you should be thinking about when composing your shot.
If there’s an opportunity to create this scenario, then great!
If not, then try and get as many elements as you can if the aesthetic of the image will be improved by doing so.
The Ideal Space That Creates Maximum Depth
If you’re looking for a space to shoot boudoir in, or looking to use a room in your house and you shoot with natural light, you should strongly consider looking for a space that provides you the opportunity to create a darkened foreground, lit middle ground, and darkened background.
If you have a small window on the back wall on the left or right side, that’s a bonus. If not, you can just use some type of artificial light like a lamp of some kind.
Ideally, you want a space rectangular in shape so you can take advantage of its depth.
As you can see, this space is rectangular with three windows along one side that provide cross light for each zone, along with one small window on the back wall.
This will allow you to shoot length-wise with the window at the far end as your light source that pulls the viewer’s eye through the length of the entire room.
Once again, you can substitute a soft lamp for that small back window.
With this many windows you would need curtains, shades, or black flags to cover them so you can control the light where you want it with regard to each zone (foreground, middle ground, background).
(Alternatively, you could have one long window across one wall with sectional curtains to control the light at each zone.)
You can block the light from the first and last windows so just the middle one allows light in.
Your subject could pose in the middle ground illuminated by the second window with cross light, and you would have a darkened foreground and darkened background.
This setup gives you plenty of foreground, middle ground, and background to play with.
Another setup would be to have an illuminated foreground, with a darkened middle ground and background, giving you maximum depth of the space.
The big advantage of having this rectangular shape is that you have a flexible middle ground you can compress by decreasing the distance between your subject to the background…
… or elongate it by increasing the distance between your subject to the background.
This gives you maximum flexibility for increasing or decreasing the depth in your shots.
Three windows along one side would be ideal, but a more realistic room would be something like the following, with just one window in the middle ground.
This could still provide you with a darkened foreground, lit middle ground, and darkened background.
You may have to restrict the amount of light that comes through the window to achieve this with black flags or curtains, but you could still make a one window room work (preferably rectangular).
Maximizing A Small Space For Depth and Dimension
To get the most depth from a small space you’ll mainly be working with a foreground and a background, with your subject either in the background with something in the foreground out of focus, or vice-versa.
Since the space is so small there really won’t be a middle ground.
To get that perception of depth with your subject in the background, you’ll need to shoot at a very low aperture (f/2.8, f/1.8, f/1.4) to blur whatever foreground there is. (Make sure there’s something you can blur if blurring the background like a curtain, window frame, ornament, or piece of furniture.)
Conclusion
Creating more depth and dimension in your boudoir images can be achieved in two ways:
- By establishing your three zones (foreground, middle ground, background) with objects in each zone and using depth of field to feature them appropriately
- By establishing your three zones with light and shadow (or a combination of both).
If you found this article helpful, please forward it to someone it may also benefit.
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