white spot on digital images

dbe4876

I shot some fall images the other day in RAW, and when I looked at them at home I found white spots on the images. I can't tell if they are sun spots or if they are telling me about my camera's CCD. Attached is a shot that displays the spot.

As you can see the spot is more like a foggy area. You can still see through it. Is this a sun spot, produced by moisture, or a CCD issue?

Would appreciate knowledgeable input.

Thanks much
Dave

mr peas

its a Ghost!! jk hah

maybe its just dust on the front element of the lens, take a look at it and see if theres anything on there. i doubt its anything near your ccd. it looks like its much closer to the end of the lens because you can see sort the shape of the aperture blades in it so it has to be on the glass. but thats only what i think.

SteveM

mr peas wrote:

its a Ghost!! jk hah

maybe its just dust on the front element of the lens, take a look at it and see if theres anything on there. i doubt its anything near your ccd. it looks like its much closer to the end of the lens because you can see sort the shape of the aperture blades in it so it has to be on the glass. but thats only what i think.

Yep, I'm gonna go with dust on the lens or lens flare. Looks kinda characteristic of lens flare cuz it's pretty colorful and prismatic. I'd take some shots of open sky not towards the sun and look for a repeatable pattern. If there is one, you know it's dust somewheres.

pathfinder

This is lens flare.

Dust motes on the front of the lens do not cause any visible spots, just genrealized loss of contrast and sharpness.

Art Scott

a polarizer will help cut this down....as will a lens shade at times, I think, I don't usually ahve a shade on my lenses it weighs too much...

dbe4876

Art Scott wrote:

a polarizer will help cut this down....as will a lens shade at times, I think, I don't usually ahve a shade on my lenses it weighs too much...

Thanks all. That reminds me, I **DO** have a polarizer for my G5. But for some reason lately I've run off without it. Humm...

Robt

Art Scott wrote:

I don't usually have a shade on my lenses it weighs too much...

I don't know what you shoot but I must ask ; how does one avoid flare without some sort of "shade"? I lost the lens hood to a 12-24 nikon a while back and found that I simply could not see the flair until I opened them [the images] in PS. Then, of course, it is toooo late.

There was a great walker/ hiker named, I believe "Colin Powell", who use to cut off the tags of his tea bags to save weight. How does a photog do that and still preserve the quality of the image?

SteveM

Robt wrote:

I don't know what you shoot but I must ask ; how does one avoid flare without some sort of "shade"? I lost the lens hood to a 12-24 nikon a while back and found that I simply could not see the flair until I opened them [the images] in PS. Then, of course, it is toooo late.

There was a great walker/ hiker named, I believe "Colin Powell", who use to cut off the tags of his tea bags to save weight. How does a photog do that and still preserve the quality of the image?

I think as we get older, we get used to and ignore some of what we see. You can "see" lens flare with your naked eye but probably don't realize it. Maybe not the spots, but certainly the effects. When you look into the distance at a moderately lit scene or subject, but can't see it because the sun is overhead or at an angle and that light, not the light of your subject, is spilling into your eye. What do you do? Instinctually shield your eyes to look into the distance.

So, either don't shoot into the light or without a lens hood, or do the same as you do for your eyes and shield it with your hand. No teabag tag required, just the hand you have to tote anyways.

ziggy53

Robt wrote:

I don't know what you shoot but I must ask ; how does one avoid flare without some sort of "shade"? I lost the lens hood to a 12-24 nikon a while back and found that I simply could not see the flair until I opened them [the images] in PS. Then, of course, it is toooo late.

There was a great walker/ hiker named, I believe "Colin Powell", who use to cut off the tags of his tea bags to save weight. How does a photog do that and still preserve the quality of the image?

You still need to block the stray light. Try these:

http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/faq.php

ziggy53

pathfinder

Ziggy is spot on - a lnes hood really is not optional. And most lens hoods for wide range zoom lenses are barely better than nothing.

A good lens hood can improve the quality of your images - ie: reduce flare.

Look at the lens hoods used by the movie industry - some of them are almost a meter long; they take lens flare seriously, and do eveything they can to control it.

Here is a good lens hood, for a 200mm telephoto lens

SpeshulEd

not to mention, the longer the lens/hood combo on your camera, the cooler you look when you take pictures.

mr peas

pathfinder wrote:

Here is a good lens hood, for a 200mm telephoto lens

Looks like an exhaust tip on a Honda Civic.
But yeah, you do get +10 cool pts. haha

Bendr

mr peas wrote:

Looks like an exhaust tip on a Honda Civic.
But yeah, you do get +10 cool pts. haha

Lol, So true! So True, and indeed, it does look cool...