# Beauty Portraits: Celestina Tiew @ Punggol



## Zeckson

Had an opportunity to work with Celestina, our very own Singapore FHM Girls Next Door 2009 winner, on a conceptual shoot of something nobody has yet tried. I had been thinking about the concept for months and had discussed ideas and execution with Celestina way back.

Only at the beginning of July 2009 then we had a chance to actualize our ideas... We basically want something different from the norm, perhaps introducing a little fantasy into the shoot. I decided on a Goddess theme like those of the Japanese anime. Initially an fallen angel was chosen and I even bought a pair of wings for Celestina but the wings didn't fit well and looked too flimzy, so we dropped the wings and amend the theme to the Goddess...

I even spent 2 days going to the same location and made observations as to the timing of the day where the light is best. I found my spots. I am ready! Unfornately on the day of the shoot, things were not that smooth and I lost my beautiful light. Anyway, here are some shots that I managed to pull off. Not quite what I wanted but... Well... What the heck!

Just in case you are not able to view the images due to bandwidth exceed, you can see them here on my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeckson/sets/72157621843305234/


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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Josh220

Great shots. What type of lighting equipment do you use?


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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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## Zeckson

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This is where full frame cameras will win over the edge in noise control. I am using a D80, guess I just have to live with the noise...


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## Zeckson

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And here is Celestina having her little "supper" with Zec... Hee hee hee.


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## Zeckson

Thank you for viewing my images. Special thanks to Celestina for being my photo model on that day.


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## Josh220

Wow that is a ****load of pictures. My post got buried. What type of lighting equipment do you use? 

And you don't need a full frame camera to get better noise reduction. The D300 is great at this, especially over the D80.


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## Zeckson

Josh220 said:


> Wow that is a ****load of pictures. My post got buried. What type of lighting equipment do you use?
> 
> And you don't need a full frame camera to get better noise reduction. The D300 is great at this, especially over the D80.


 
Josh, here is my setup:

Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Tokina 12-24
Flash: 1 x SB-900, 1 x SB-800 and 2 x SB-600
Accessories: Shoot through umbrella as main light, bare flash on all other lights.

I usuall limit my ISO usage on my D80 up to ISO800 cos anything more than that, I really cannot accept the noise. It is still acceptable if I am just to take it as it is from the camera itself but when I do post processing, the noise that is brought out goes wat beyond my acceptance limit.

I am not sure about how well the Nikon D300 or the Nikon D90 can control the noise level but I did hands on a Nikon D700. ISO6400 is indeed impressive.


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## Josh220

Zeckson said:


> Josh220 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Wow that is a ****load of pictures. My post got buried. What type of lighting equipment do you use?
> 
> And you don't need a full frame camera to get better noise reduction. The D300 is great at this, especially over the D80.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Josh, here is my setup:
> 
> Camera: Nikon D80
> Lens: Tokina 12-24
> Flash: 1 x SB-900, 1 x SB-800 and 2 x SB-600
> Accessories: Shoot through umbrella as main light, bare flash on all other lights.
> 
> I usuall limit my ISO usage on my D80 up to ISO800 cos anything more than that, I really cannot accept the noise. It is still acceptable if I am just to take it as it is from the camera itself but when I do post processing, the noise that is brought out goes wat beyond my acceptance limit.
> 
> I am not sure about how well the Nikon D300 or the Nikon D90 can control the noise level but I did hands on a Nikon D700. ISO6400 is indeed impressive.
Click to expand...


Awesome, thanks for taking the time to list everything.


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## Annamas

God her eyes pop . . .amazing man, just amazing!


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## Zeckson

Annamas said:


> God her eyes pop . . .amazing man, just amazing!


 
Thanks for your comments.


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## NateS

Wow....as always these are amazing.


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## Dmitri

I don't know who voted "Don't waste my time!"... These photos are incredible! So yes, wow - and then some more wow, with a wow dessert.

edit: Also, I been to your flickr site. I can't believe you don't do this professionally! :camera:


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## SrBiscuit

Dmitri said:


> I don't know who voted "Don't waste my time!"...


 
that info is available by viewing the poll results, and clicking on the number of votes...the list of voters will be visible. i'm also not sure why that person voted that way.

maybe some constructive criticism would be in order...


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## TriniPhototakeoutta

Awesome as always. Always look forward to your work. Only nit pick is in #2 and #3 her skin tones seems a bit washed out imho. Think this is due to the spot of white from the sky right next to her in these two shots.


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## gopal

it is all jungle and the goddess...a think u shd have few colourful dresses...this cud change her mood of the face, otherwise repetition is in many...the model is beautiful. ur exposures are too good.


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## Zeckson

NateS said:


> Wow....as always these are amazing.


 
Thanks Nate.


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## Zeckson

Thanks all that have commented. Yeah, I was wondering what could be so wrong in my images that it warrants a "Don't waste my time" status. I would appreciate if I could get some valuable criticism from this person. Perhaps he/she might be a professional portrait photographer that had done countless assignments. I would like to pick up a few pointers from this person so as to improve.


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## Derrel

I do not think I have ever seen as many lines of as such distracting copyright and self promotional information as your pictures have. The text overlay really distracts from the images,especially where it appears much lighter than the background, or where the text overlay covers large portions of the model's clothing or the body, like on frames 9,10,and 11.


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## musicaleCA

Derrel said:


> I do not think I have ever seen as many lines of as such distracting copyright and self promotional information as your pictures have. The text overlay really distracts from the images,especially where it appears much lighter than the background, or where the text overlay covers large portions of the model's clothing or the body, like on frames 9,10,and 11.



Ditto. The text is legally redundant. Putting a simple © <year> <name> would suffice. That alone says that you're claiming copyright and the rest is just legalese fluff that shouldn't be in the image itself.

That, and on top of it there's a logo and email address. The email is, well, redundant. If someone really wants to contact you, they can look up your name or your Flickr profile. The logo, of all things, is _coloured_. In every image that colour serves as a gigantic distraction.


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## Zeckson

Derrel said:


> I do not think I have ever seen as many lines of as such distracting copyright and self promotional information as your pictures have. The text overlay really distracts from the images,especially where it appears much lighter than the background, or where the text overlay covers large portions of the model's clothing or the body, like on frames 9,10,and 11.


 


musicaleCA said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> 
> I do not think I have ever seen as many lines of as such distracting copyright and self promotional information as your pictures have. The text overlay really distracts from the images,especially where it appears much lighter than the background, or where the text overlay covers large portions of the model's clothing or the body, like on frames 9,10,and 11.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ditto. The text is legally redundant. Putting a simple © <year> <name> would suffice. That alone says that you're claiming copyright and the rest is just legalese fluff that shouldn't be in the image itself.
> 
> That, and on top of it there's a logo and email address. The email is, well, redundant. If someone really wants to contact you, they can look up your name or your Flickr profile. The logo, of all things, is _coloured_. In every image that colour serves as a gigantic distraction.
Click to expand...

 
Thank you both for your comments. In the country I am working in, BIG copyright notice is advisable. Not only they are to claim copyrights but also serve as a distraction to discourage image leeching from the Internet. People can simple download the images and say it is produced by them. Big copyright notices forbids them to crop away the notice. Also, I want to put the email there. People here do not work the same way as the both of you do. To you, they are redundant. To people in the country I am working in, they mean a lot. So please refrain from making your own judgement on them.

Of course, one can argue back saying why I choose to place my BIG notice at the corner and not anywhere else if the purpose is to stop leeching? Well, putting them anywhere else in the photo will really distract your attention away from the face. The current position is what I deem best.

In addition, just try to ignore the copyright notices and appreciate the photo. Please don't tell me that you cannot even appreciate the works or criticize them because there is a big copyright notice "blocking" your view. I would prefer comments that shows appreciation or comments that help me improve from where I am and not on some small things like what you both mentioned on your posts. If customers really want my images, they can contact me for the real high resolution images. Anyway, just accept the posted images as they are.

Alternatively, if you do not have anything to comment or do not wish to comment, you have to freedom to close the window and move on. The freedom is yours. Over here, I have the freedom of using big copyright notices on my images as the owner of the images and the thread starter.

But I still thank you for taking time to write such lengths.


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