How to take good nudes and sexy selfies

One might think that taking naked photos of oneself is as simple as removing the clothes and clicking the shutter button, but there’s a whole science behind the fine art of taking nudes (if you want to have professional looking and money worth shots, of course). But do not fret – nothing we cannot cover with a couple of tips in this article.

So wether you’re an adult content creator/performer/cam girl that want to sell nudes or simply want to give your partner a special and spicy surprise, here we give you the lowdown on how to take sexy nudes.

Let’s talk equipment first

If you want to go all in, you can go for a single-lens reflex camera. They are, of course, way more expensive than other types of camera, but it pays off in quality. However, bear in mind that to use a DSLR to the best of its possibilities, you should have a certain degree of photography knowledge and skills.

If, on the contrary, you want to keep things cheaper, you can always turn to your smartphone’s camera. Most phones made in the last five years of so, have good cameras that will serve you just fine for your goal. What’s more, you’d be surprised to know that lots of influencers and content creators use only their phones to produce their footage. Anything above 5MP will be considered more than ideal in terms of quality.

5 secrets to taking good nudes

The first mistake everybody makes is thinking that nude pictures are just pics where you’re completely naked, and that that’s what makes them sexy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Nude pictures used to be and still are a big part of artistic photography. They started as an art form aimed at depicting the sensuality of the human body in all its subtlety. Sure, you can snap a hot mirror selfie and it would still be considered a nude. But if you get creative, you will get better results and probably have more fun too.

There’s a slew of exciting ways and poses that can make your nude pictures sexy without having to flash your breasts and give it all away. It’s all about teasing and enhancing the mystery of your naked body, which leads us up to our first tip on the list.

1. Know your poses

Thanks to the internet, you can do a quick search and find different poses for taking nudes, or even scroll through boudoir pages on TikTok and Instagram for inspo.

Remember, you don’t have to be naked or flashing all your assets necessarily. The right pose will already go a long way.

Some of the best positions to take nudes include those where you highlight your chest (rolling your shoulders back so that your chest comes forward), pop your booty by crossing your legs (either laying down or standing up), or spotlight your back by taking a photo of your silhouette from behind, glancing over one shoulder. You can also add elements of touching your lip, hands in hair, ripping your clothes off (intensely holding your neckline), etc.

A pose that never goes wrong for taking nude photos that highlights both the curve of your back and butt, is lying on your belly and either bending your kneed to push your booty up, or placing a pillow under your thighs. And how about a bathtub nude? This one can feature any body part you want: kneed, legs, feet… literally anything. Moreover, the way water captures the light is very eye-catching and pleasing, so that’s a plus. You could even pull a bubble bath to your own creative advantage.

That being said, there are also merits and benefits to taking a more spontaneous approach versus staged pictures. There’s something incredibly titillating about “spur-of-the-moment” pictures, so don’t hesitate to grab your phone and snap a spontaneous shot. Speaking of which, we also have selfies in the spectrum. A nude selfie is easier to produce and probably that’s why it’s also the most popular type of shot.

The key for taking sexy selfies is paying attention to your angles. Most of us know the right angles to make certain body parts pop and show more or less, but in case you need some help with that, here’s the rule of thumb: tuck everything in and hold it up while you strike sexy poses, but without making it look obvious. For example, put your elbow under your boobs to make the cleavage pop.

And last but not least, there’s a technique most professional photographers use that works wonders for selfies. Once your shot is set up, exhale half a breath, pause… and that’s the moment to press the shutter button. It will ensure that your hands are not shaking and will steady your focus.

2. Don’t be afraid to use props

Feel free to use any type of props such as chairs to pose on, mirrors or sheets. This will give you something to work with, get creative, and thus produce a bigger array of shots.

With a sheet, for example, you can call attention to your bare skin exposing parts of your back, arms, or torso. Similarly to what would be on view when waking up naked with a lover. This will let the receiver of the nude’s imagination run wild.

With a mirror, you can take the classic mirror selfie, front pics, cute booty pics, and even kneeling on the floor pics.

3. Harness the power of lighting

Angles and lighting are everything when it comes to taking gram worthy shots. And against popular belief, you don’t have to spend much on good lighting, in fact, you can do it completely free. One of the best places to find the good lighting you need are white walled rooms (white sheets are also a plus) in broad daylight. The natural light will reflect on the white walls you will practically glow.

Another pro tip is standing in front of a window, rather than standing in front of a lamp. Direct sunlight can bit a bit harsh though, so walk around in front of different windows checking yourself in your phone’s camera until you find the perfect spot where you’re evenly lit.

Now, if we want to get a little more professional, we would suggest investing in a ring light. They are not very expensive (you can find all ranges of prices) and they are totally worth every penny. Natural lighting is always better, but in instances and locations where you cannot find it, a ring light will do the job. Nowadays, every influencer and Instagram model is using a ring light for their indoors content, and it’s not by chance.

You can also consider candles, which are useful if you have missed peaked daylight hours and want to create a more romantic vibe.

Technically speaking, the best lighting system is the one composed of 3-point adjustable stand lights: one in the front and two on each side. Just be sure to never put lights in view of the lease, and you’ll be good to go. If you want to go the extra mile and get rid of harsh shadows, you can buy a soft box (this is what many adult creators do). The soft box will add a layer of diffusion producing a soft light and minimizing unpleasant shadows.

4. Take care of your background

This should be a no-brainer, but it also wouldn’t be the first time we see selfies taken in a filthy room sticking out in the background, so just in case: double check your background before you start snapping pics. Pay attention to what’s in your shot, because it can be easy to be focused on looking fierce, and meanwhile forget about the pile of dirty clothes appearing behind.

But that doesn’t mean that you have to eliminate all elements from your frame; we’re just talking about dealbreakers like toilets, dirty dishes or laundry, trash cans, and so on. On the other hand, you can include candles, books, plants, attractive lamps, clean furniture, and even props such as fruits, flowers, etc. The idea is to enhance, rather than distract.

5. Do postproduction

Even if you think that you took an amazing-almost-perfect shot, chances are, it can be improved with a little bit of post editing. Even professionals retouch their final photos, so don’t feel bad for downloading a photo editing app and let it work its magic. For example, you can use Adobe Lightroom to create preset filters for your photos, or fix the light, contrast, etc. If the lighting conditions weren’t the best when snapping the shot, they will be on the post editing table.

Bonus tips

Use a tripod

Have you ever seen a killer photo of someone with a perfect frame on Instagram and wondered who actually took it?

Well, it’s probably not a “who”, but a “what”. A lot of people are using tripods to get a variety of images that wouldn’t be possible to capture otherwise. There are even phone tripods that let you set up your phone wherever you want, and take your shots through a remote that connects via Bluetooth to the tripod.

Most quality tripods can be scored for as low as 20 dollars, so it’s worth the purchase.

Take multiple photos

If you see a beautiful photo posted on someone’s feed, is because there were other 30 similar ones that got discarded. The secret to achieving the perfect shot, is having multiple tries. In the case of professional photographers, if they want to have 20 perfect shots, they need to take at least 100. That’s the equation. So remember to take multiple photos in order to get “the one”.

Practice caution

Imagine that you keep your nude pictures in your phone and one day it goes missing or even worse, gets stolen. Or your lover’s phone. Not to mention that you should only send nude pictures to people you can really trust, unless you’re not identifiable in the pics.

Having and sending nudes comes with its risks, so just be aware that they could end up being seen by more people than you would like. So watch out for photos where your face, identifying jewellery or tattoos are in plain view. Above all, always proceed with caution. Practicing safety is as important as knowing how to make hot nudes, so make sure to always follow the ground rules of secure sexting.

• Turn off services that automatically backup photos: if you’re an iCloud Photo Library or Google Photos user, know that your images and videos are automatically synced to the cloud, meaning that your camera roll is not the only place where they live. Make no mistake, this is a great feature for instances where you might lose your phone. But if you’re sexting, it becomes an inconvenience, as hackers can still your footage if they would hack the cloud. So just to be on the safe side, turn off the syncing on your phone settings.
  
• Wipe your photos clean of EXIF data: every time you snap a shot on your smartphone, EXIF data is embedded into the image file. This data includes information like the kind of camera you used, but also your precise location, which can be potentially dangerous if you’re sexting with someone you don’t know. Therefore, it’s better to remove the EXIF data from the image before you hit “Send”.
  
• Save your nude pictures securely: all your compromising photos should be locked inside an encrypted, password-protected folder either on your computer or phone. Thus, you ensure that even if your device is stolen, no one will be able to access this content.