Looking for some boudoir poses for plus size women? This guide is going to show you how to direct your client, wife or girlfriend towards the best photos she’s ever seen of herself.
When most people think about posing curvy women, they usually try to find poses that will slim the woman out. As a professional boudoir photographer, I find that it’s easier to instead think about posing a women to balance her proportions.
The basic idea is that by directing the woman into different positions, we can enhance her natural hourglass figure. To do this, we will ask her to push regions of the body away from and toward the camera. Areas of the body closer to the camera will appear larger, while those pushed away will appear smaller.
Using this technique, we can also highlight the woman’s best assets and diminish the area’s she’s insecure about. To illustrate all of these concepts, the following are 12 ideas for plus size poses you can try out on your next photoshoot.
1. Push Her Hips Back
Plus size women tend to worry about the size of their rear end. To make this area appear smaller for standing photos, direct the woman to put all of her weight on her back foot. Once she does that, direct her to push her hip away from the camera. This will make her butt appear smaller from the camera’s perspective.
To take this idea a step further, you can also ask her to put her front knee in front of her back leg. By crossing her front knee over the back knee, you will create an S shape at her hip line which will help exaggerate her hip to waist ratio.
Master The Art of Posing Women
In this guide I’ll show you how to pose the nude female form in a way that tastefully flatters her body type and creates emotion. This guide is intended for beginner and intermediate photographers and will teach you how to balance the proportions of any woman to make her look her best.
By first teaching you the fundamentals of posing, these principals will help you progress to a point where you can confidently pose any woman in an improvised fashion.
2. Get Her Arms Up
Since women generally tend to hold their excess weight in their lower bodies, one of the ways we can easily balance out her natural hour glass proportions is to exaggerate her upper body.
By directing the woman to put her arms above her head she’ll get a double enhancement. First, getting her hands above her head will get her arms off away from her torso. This will help make her waist appear smaller by subtracting the width that the arms can add to her appearance. Second, you’ll exaggerate the widest part of her upper body by keeping her elbows bent and wider than her shoulders.
Both of these enhancements work in concert to make her waist line appear significantly smaller in comparison to curves of her upper body.
3. Lay Her On Her Stomach – Boudoir Poses For Plus Size Women
One of my go to poses for plus size women is to direct her to lay on her stomach. My favorite place to do this on on a bed so I can strategically ruffle up the blankets around her. By hiding her tummy under her, and cutting into her body line with the sheets, we can exaggerate her natural curves.
To further enhance her s shape, have her bring a knee up so she can pop her hip up. This combined with the waist reduction techniques will have a very positive impact on her figure.
4. Pose Her on Her Back – Boudoir Poses For Plus Size Women
Posing the woman on her back is a really effective way to slim her waist line. This is especially true if you take the photo from a perspective where her face is closest to the camera.
In this position, gravity will naturally pull her tummy down. That said, this pose will also likely flatten out her bust for the same reason. To correct the shape of her bust in this position, have her wear a bra with good support. This will help her preserve the curves of her bust while also pulling attention away from her tummy.
5. Arch Her Back – Boudoir Poses For Plus Size Women
Having the woman arch her back is another pose that offers multiple points of natural enhancement. Firstly, by directing the woman to arch her lower back, she’ll naturally elongate her stomach. This will have a naturally slimming affect regardless of the pose you have her arch into.
Second, by arching her back she’ll also convey seductive body language. For obvious reasons, when women arch their lower back, this naturally puts their bodies into a more alluring position. Thus, having her arch her lower back is almost always a good idea for both of these benefits.
6. Show Her Hip Line – Boudoir Poses For Plus Size Women
Showing off one of her hip lines is very flattering way to pose a plus size women to exaggerate her curves. I like to do this by exposing a signifiagant portion of her hip and waist while obscuring most of the torso.
By popping her hip to the side you can exaggerate her S curve by adding size to her hip. The increased size of her hip will make her waist look smaller by proxy. When doing this as an implied nude photo, I’ll enhance the affect by blocking the rest of her tummy with the correct lingerie or a sheet.
7. Highlight Her Back Side
Since most plus size women have insecurities about their stomachs, I find that capturing them from behind is generally a flattering way to draw attention away from this region. More then just drawing attention away though, it’s important to also highlight areas she likes about herself.
If she has love handles around her upper torso, make sure and pose her with her hands up. This will help stretch out the area and either diminish or remove the skin roll. By popping her hip to the side or her booty toward the camera, you can again exaggerate her hip to waist ratio.
8. Over The Shoulder
The over the shoulder pose is another fantastic way to take attention away from the stomach and instead highlight the woman’s face. This pose works really well as both full body pull back or as a close up. Make sure and direct her towards a flattering expression as the success of this shot will depend on it’s authenticity.
9. Showcase Her Booty – Boudoir Poses For Plus Size Women
In my experience as a boudoir photographer, many plus size women consider their bust and or booty to be their best features. Therefore, capturing detail photos of of this region is an easy boudoir pose for beginners that she’ll love. Remember to have her pop her booty toward the camera to exaggerate her hip to waist ratio.
10. Close Up Portrait
Some women will have a minefield of insecurities you’ll have to navigate when capturing their boudoir photos. A great shortcut around all of this is to capture a close up portrait of her first. By showing her at her best right off the bat, most woman will trust you more and be less apprehensive about the award feeling poses. Thus, close ups are a great way to establish trust in the posing process and helps get buy in from her so you can direct her into more complicated positions later.
11. Use High Camera Angles
Photographing women from above their eyeline is one of the easiest ways to slim their figure. This is again because it will put her face closer to the camera then the rest of her body.
The trick is to be slightly above her eyeline but not so much that you start to loose her lips and chin. To get the correct placement and a flattering angle, I’ll often start well above my clients eye line, and then correct her by having her bring her chin up. This will bring all of the attention to her face, then her bust, then everything else as it falls out of focus.
12. Use Her Limbs To Block Her Tummy
Earlier we talked about bringing the woman’s arms above her head to get her arms away form her body. Although this is a slimming way to pose her, you can also use the same idea in reverse by cutting her arms into her body with the pose. A natural byproduct of this tactic is that she’ll be able to use her arm as cover for her tummy.
Note that this pose will press the upper arm into the woman’s upper torso which can make it appear larger. Therefore, you’ll need to photograph her from an angle that puts this arm as far from the camera as possible. Alternatively, you can also conceal her upper arm with a shawl or a long sleeve bodysuit to help minimize the negative affect of this pose.
Master The Art of Posing Women
In this guide I’ll show you how to pose the nude female form in a way that tastefully flatters her body type and creates emotion. This guide is intended for beginner and intermediate photographers and will teach you how to balance the proportions of any woman to make her look her best.
By first teaching you the fundamentals of posing, these principals will help you progress to a point where you can confidently pose any woman in an improvised fashion.
