Taking Images with a Dirty Lens

kurtmunger.com

Most Photographers are pretty tedious when it comes to keeping their glass clean. They carry around at least a micro-fiber cloth, or a cotton corner of their shirt in case of an emergency cleaning. At the very least, it certainly is annoying to be walking around with an oily fingerprint on the front of your element. But when it comes down to it, how often have you taken a photo, and said "oh, this Smudge got in the way?" Probably not that often. And why would someone name their kid Smudge?

Whenever you do have an obstruction on your image, it is probably due to dust on the sensor itself. There are tests you can do to explore this, but if you can't see it in the image, why bother? Cleaning the sensor is not exactly wiping off a front element. It's not so much that it's a hassle, and a delicate process, but the fear that you could actually make it worse. If you are confident and handy, take your time and it can be done well. Otherwise send it in to the manufacturer if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself.


Image Copyright Christine Gacharna

In the image above, Christine clearly marks the dust on the image. She also guides you through her [dangerous] cleaning endeavor. Here are a few tips to make sensor cleaning easy:

1) Look for menu items to aid in cleaning. Newer cameras such as the Canon 40D include options like "auto clean" and "clean manually." Cleaning manually locks the shutter open, giving you access to the sensor.

2) Try to remove dust without even touching the sensor. Blower

3) If you are not comfortable calling yourself a technician, send it in to one.

Another thing worth mentioning is that some cameras provide special features just for "removing dust." Many EOS cameras include the "Dust Delete Data" function, which allows you to communicate the issue with the DPP software. It allows you to add additional information to your photos, as you take them. When you import to your library, DPP will give you an option to automatically remove dust on all the images. This won't be ideal for every situation, but sometimes could be a great help. Personally I would set up a Photoshop action. This is if the camera's auto cleaning isn't suffice.

Another way to test this is to evenly light a white wall. Set your aperture to f/16 and take the photo. Import into your editing software and zoom in to 100%. Any obstructions will be apparent.



For more on this "Dirty Lens" write-up, and to see what type of image this lens takes, visit Kurt Munger's website.