Ben and Faye

This is Ben and Faye, a wonderful (and very good looking) model partnership to work with.
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Ben + Faye #1

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Taken at the fantastic Ashton Court Mansion in Bristol, these two shots were with a simple set-up that gives good results every time.
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In the first shot I used my favourite linear set-up; an SB800 in a shoot-through umbrella top camera left and a Vivitar 285, gridded to camera right. Firstly, I all but killed the ambient light. Then I added in the SB800 which 'became' the ambient. Next I added the 285 which gave the rim light to Ben, because it was gridded, its effect had diminished by the time it reached Faye, because I didn't want a hard rim light on her softer features.

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Ben + Faye #2

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The second shot was even easier; one SB800 in a shoot through umbrella to camera right. Here I did want the ambient light to be evident; to show part of the grounds outside. The umbrella was positioned to give just enough bounce back to fill in the shadows on Ben and Fayes to the left side. The ornate stonework to the window and the beautiful timber joinery frame a wonderful couple.

The flashguns were set at 1/2 and 1/4 power and the aperture tweaked as I needed to. my camera, a D200, was set to 1/250, the max sync speed. I usually start at 1/250 at f5.6, ISO 100 and go from there.

A big thanks to Ben and Faye for being fantastic models and good luck in the future.