Dust on DSLR sensor

dmohalloran

Hi,

I have one spot of dust on my Nikon D40 sensor. I know the options that are available to me. I am getting a Giotto Air Blower as soon as I can get into Gunns. I have 2 questions.
The dust spot is very prominent, Please see the attached image below. My question is what is the best way to get rid of the spot PP. I have lightroom 2 and elements 6. The spot is on roughly 100 photos from one days shooting. Luckily I spotted quickly.
I have been using the healing tool in Lightroom 2. But I am a bit confused whether healing or cloning is better. Or does it depend on the photo itself?

The second question. I recently got a second lens for the d40. Is there any tips people would recommend for switching between lenses when out shooting? I have had the camera for a year, and last sunday was the first time I got dust on the sensor. Although there seems to be some dust in the viewfinder and mirror.

Thanks

AnCatDubh

Any of the imaging applications will have a clone tool which is what you will be looking for. It looks relatively minor to be honest and in the context of 'blue skies' is very easy to remove as there is little detail that you would need to reconstruct. It mightn't be quite so easy on some of your other images though if the dust spot is in a strategic position.

I don't know of any way of automating it so prepare to put some time into it to eliminate it on 100 images.

stick-dan

dmohalloran wrote: »

Hi,

I have one spot of dust on my Nikon D40 sensor. I know the options that are available to me. I am getting a Giotto Air Blower as soon as I can get into Gunns. I have 2 questions.
The dust spot is very prominent, Please see the attached image below. My question is what is the best way to get rid of the spot PP. I have lightroom 2 and elements 6. The spot is on roughly 100 photos from one days shooting. Luckily I spotted quickly.
I have been using the healing tool in Lightroom 2. But I am a bit confused whether healing or cloning is better. Or does it depend on the photo itself?

The second question. I recently got a second lens for the d40. Is there any tips people would recommend for switching between lenses when out shooting? I have had the camera for a year, and last sunday was the first time I got dust on the sensor. Although there seems to be some dust in the viewfinder and mirror.

Thanks

yeah sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you have two spots on your sensor that i can see, one in the top left aswell.

dmohalloran

Stick-Dan, thanks,
i did not notice that, but now that you point it out, i can see it on every shot.

jackdaw

dmohalloran wrote: »

Hi,


The second question. I recently got a second lens for the d40. Is there any tips people would recommend for switching between lenses when out shooting? I have had the camera for a year, and last sunday was the first time I got dust on the sensor. Although there seems to be some dust in the viewfinder and mirror.

Thanks
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This is something im quite carefull with .. and since giving my sensor a good clean i haven't had problems and i change lenses a lot.

allthough its very brief, i still put the body cap on right after taking the lens off + i do it with the camera facing down ... and in a sheltered location so dust can't blow up ..

then I have the lens ready and put it on immediately as i take the cap off (again camera facing downwards)


this should work !

Plus get yourself a wetclean kit .. there is nothing to it as long as you follow instructions exactly .. just get the correct one (swab size and fluid type) for the D40

gorilla_image

A quick and easy way to test for dust is set you camera to Aperture Mode, set the Aperture very tight eg. f/16 of f22, then take a photo of a bright, light coloured area (eg. like the sky in your photo). This will show up most of the dust on you sensor. If your brave enough to tackle ceaning your sensor (many people aren't) you can buy a sensor cleanng kit, in my expeience of theses, the more expensive the better. Alternatively shooting a wider wide a wide aperture f/5.6 will mean that the dust in you images is not visible.

Hugh_C

gorilla_image wrote: »

Alternatively shooting a wider wide a wide aperture f/5.6 will mean that the dust in you images is not visible.

Not necessarily the best approach for landscapes though.

Hugh