I hate this, simply hate it. It's dust on the sensor... HATE IT.
Well, working with DSLR always gets you to suffer from it, so let's think what makes that happen, and what we can do to fix the problem.

First, what am I talking about?
Dust spots on your DSLR’s sensor appear as tiny black specks on the image. There’s a good chance you haven’t noticed the specks. They may only show when you’re shooting against the sky at a close aperture. You will see small dots, usually around the corners of the frame.

What causes that?
It's impossible to avoid this dust.
It gets in when you change lenses, or even if you pull the tele in your lenses, it pulls air inside the camera and with it the dust.

What can be done to minimize the dust?
1. Always switch your camera off while changing lenses. The static electricity pulls the dust in.
2. Turn you back to the wind so the wind won't blow the dust into the camera.
3. Make sure you don't have dust on the back of the lens you are changing to. You might just put the dust there yourself.
4. Be prepared with the new lens so you can switch lenses quickly
5. Change lenses the minimum you can. If you have a backup body, use different lenses on it so you won't have to change.
6. Plainly, be careful in the surroundings you change lenses in. You might want to reconsider changing lenses in a sand storm, if you know what I mean...

OK, I got my sensor dirty, what now?
1. Make sure you got it. Close aperture to F16 and shoot against clear blue sky. Check the image. If you see it,   you’re right.
2. The easiest thing is to avoid using closed aperture. Shallow depth of field will not show the dust (about F1.8-F8), but as soon as you close it - the dust will show again.

Action items - what to do?
1. Make sure you are in "lab conditions". A closed room, good light, and not much dusty air.
2. Your menu should allow a self cleaning option when it locks the back mirror so you will have access to your sensor (that is usually in hiding). In Canon I believe it mentions the sensor cleaning, and in Nikon it's the mirror lock option.
3. After you locked it, remove the lens and gaze at your friendly sensor. Like this...
4. Use a blower to clean the sensor ever so gently. Don't dare to touch it, only blow strong strokes of air to the middle and corners of it. It should be enough to remove big elements.
5. Don't be afraid to do that even if you don't notice dust in your photos. Every 1-2 weeks it's good to do this.
6. I wouldn't recommend anything more than this. Try to see if your sensor is clean by repeating the check. Close aperture to F16 and shoot against clear blue sky. Check the image. If it's still dirty, try the blower again, or give it to a local lab. Don't try the brushes and lotions. It’s not that the procedure is so difficult—it’s that the cost of a mistake is so high A scratch on the sensor and it's doomed.

I did a great shot, and I see the dust. WTF?
1. It happens. You see dust you didn't know you had, clean your sensor.
2. Use editing to remove the dust. There are programs that learn your photograph and automatically detects the sensor dust repeating in every photograph. They can get it removed automatically (there is an option even inside the camera menu). I don't recommend it It will sometimes cost you in details, and it will be too late to recover them since there is no record of the photo without the removal.
3. Simply use the cloning tool in Photoshop to get rived of it. When you have dust on the sky area it's even easier using the healer tool.

Any more suggestions?


Now, I invite you to take a look with me, at 10 of my favorites Under my weekly spotlight





Striking image from neglected urban surroundings.
I wish I knew where it was taken, but point is that "Propaganda" was written on the wall, and nobody can say that it wasn't.


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Feeling like an outsider, like you don't belong, or maybe simply enjoying the fact that you're unique... Good eye.


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Just a good tree.
But, what is it good for?


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How I love this style of still photography.
This is brilliant, and I give it my weekly Bravo!


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"My Boss back yard... "
Somehow it looks like it could only be a boss back yard... Beautiful!
You should be his boss.


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Wonderful image.
One photograph captures a split of a second


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Great expression and mood.
I'm sure it wasn't easy to set up, so I can really appreciate it.


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Nature's splendor.
Great work!


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A piece of unbelievble landscape. I believe it must be Narnia...
I see this, and I want to see it formyself.


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So simple, so graphic.
I have an image similar to this one, but it's ok to like this one as well


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It's amazing to see how much beauty and quality is passed un-noticed here in all one week. I hope that more great work will get noticed here. It's up to us. Use the comments favorites power to support the un-noticed.

Keep supporting!


*****



1. Art is all about expression

2. About Photography, and Israel too

3. DA Thoughts

4. Infra Red

5. Let me shed some Light

6. All the Info you can probably get on me – The BTL with G

7. Listen to "One Day"

8. About freedom of speech and ethics

9. A Different Look At Israel / Part 3, and part 4

10. Where you can download the "A Different Look At Israel" presentations.

11. Summing up 3 years of being a DeviantArt member

12. Summing up what I had to say in 2006

13. Special Interview - An Eye On The World

14. Tips on Shooting indoors

15. Tips on recommended filters

16. Using build in flash

17. Keep your pixels yours

18. About making money in photography

19. Do you know how to get exposure?

20. When does photography become manipulation?

21. About making money in photography

22. A Light unto the Nations

23. Shooting RAW or JPEG?