What are these spots in my pictures?!

[Yeager]

I just took some pictures of the tropical storm blowing by and zoomed in to 100% and cropped these out. Any ideas? Dust, moisture, sad camera?

http://www.pbase.com/nekard/image/33557299.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/nekard/image/33557302.jpg

[Spargo]

I'm a n00b, but I'd say those are either diseased clouds or dust on your sensor. Just my guess.

[evilenglishman]

birds?

[Yeager]

I wish they were birds but I doubt it. They come up in a couple of spots on my pictures. You cant see them at all without cropping in. Just something I noticed and wondered what you guys thought. Might take some pictures of the blue sky whenever possible.

[Chris1le]

If they show up in the exact same spots you have a dirty sensor. First try blowing the sensor with an air bulb blower. If that does not work try this site out.

http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

[ssim]

This looks like something definitately on your sensor. I find it odd that it seems to be on a band across the center of your sensor area.

Have you ever had your sensor cleaned before??

Cleaning the sensor is quite easy. I've done mine many times. Full procedures are in your manual. I use Pec Pads and their solution and have always had great results.

[MediaMagic]

set your camera on a tripod, aim the lens at a white/near white wall, manual focus, stop down to f11 and take a shot, then keep stepping down further and take a shot at each Av setting through f22. The smaller the aperture, the more prevalent the spots should become.

This should give you very clear pictures of what's on the sensor and where. Repeat the process after using a blower bulb, and see if they're gone. If not, you may need to clean the sensor with a swab and solution. Do a search on "sensor cleaning" and you'll find tons of information on the topic.

[Scottes]

I'd do MM's trial once, at f/22, but with 2 different lenses. Testing with one lens doesn't prove where the dust is located - sensor or lens. (Though it's most likely the sensor.)

[Yeager]

Thanks everyone!

[mdude85]

could be dead pixels.

[HKdom]

The spots seem too evenly distributed along the middle to be a dust pattern...

Did the blower work?

[toddb]

They look like the nats I shot that ruined my sunset shot. In my case they were just a swarm of bugs....I was hoping that the shot would pick them up but they did. I didn't zoom up, this is uncropped...but you can see that there is a similar horizon strip of what looks like a dirty sensor...but it's just bugs.


http://www.toddburke.net/forumpost/CRW_2797.jpg