“Let us make pregnancy an occasion when we appreciate our female bodies.”—Merete Leonhardt-Lupa
As a result of some previous posts about maternity portraits, we’ve been getting several calls and e-mails from models and just everyday woman who are interested in a boudoir or intimate portrait.
The number one question we were asked (and one we decided to address today for those of you who may have been thinking about asking the same question) is “How late in a pregnancy can you do an intimate portrait?”
How I made this portrait: Tia was eight months pregnant when I photographed her in the kitchen on my former home. There was plenty of light from the north-facing bay window but I needed to use the Canon EOS 50D’s built-in flash for fill. Since there was so much light coming through the windows, Tia would have been a silhouette without the flash. Lens used was the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM at 53mm with an exposure was 1/125 sec at f/5 and ISO 800.
The downside of using the built in flash is that it’s so close to the lens that it can produce shadows from the subject onto a wall as happened here with the subject’s left arm. The solution, if you have enough room, is to move the subject far enough away from the wall so the shadows fall behind them. The rule for that is the distance from the wall should be equal to the subject’s height but that wouldn’t work in my cramped kitchen so I had to live with the shadows.
The answer is simple: It’s up to you and how you feel. The portrait that illustrates today’s blog post was made quite late in this client’s pregnancy and, I think, she delivered her baby just a few weeks after we made this portrait. And yes, we did a follow-up session featuring her and the baby. If there’s any interest, I’ll show some images from that session in an upcoming blog post.
So if you’re interested and have been inspired by some of the maternity intimate portraits that we’ve been showcasing lately, please send us an e-mail using the Contact button at the top of the page of that’s more convenient.
