Ideas for terrible amount of dirt in skies etc., from filthy lens

WinsomeWorks · September 17, 2010

Ok, I could hardly bring myself to post this link, because these photos are really embarrassing. But I need some ideas of best ways to get rid of nitty-gritty dirt in skies, using PS 4. I was shooting at my sister's wedding in extremely difficult lighting situations (for me anyway)... sun was brilliant & nearly overhead and I don't have an adequate fill-flash for the distances. But ANYway-- I think I'll be able to fix the gamut of awful lighting problems I had. (And, thank heavens, I was not the main photog... I just shot whatever I wanted to & could. But I still hope to give these to my sister all fixed up.)

So my biggest problem is fixing the heaps of photos with amazing amounts of dirt showing from my filthy lens, mainly in the skies! Here's a link with examples of the range of dirt problems I have: http://annalisa.smugmug.com/Family/Weddings/Sample-Wedding-shots-before/13803688_AvAoQ#1010960064_uRKCH The gallery is unlisted, but I think if I've given you the link you can see them, right? I won't bore you with all the details of why my lens was a mess -- think beach, early wedding morning run-arounds to shoot the women getting ready, etc. Obviously I had no clue it was filthy, or it wouldn't have been!

I plan to use whatever tools PS 4 can offer me to clean up this mess, as long as I already know how to use it or it's easy to learn. I don't understand how to use layers yet. I'm great at cloning, but it would take me forever. And I've found that some filters like Gaussian blur, etc. can make an even bigger mess when there's that much grit. Does anyone have other suggestions for me? I probably have 100-200 wedding/reception photos to fix, besides a batch from another day in San Diego when I had the same problem. Camera is a Nikon D1x on long-term loan, if that matters. Yes, the whole thing (sensor, inside, outside, etc.) has been recently cleaned by a repair shop. I'm tempted to send these photos to someone to work on, but I'm just very low on funds right now.

Dan7312 · September 17, 2010

I can't give you the details of how to fix this because I don't know PS that well at all, but I'm pretty sure cloning on layer is what you want to do. You put the clone part on a separate layer so you don't directly change the image and so you can after the fact adjust the intesity of the cloning and how it is applied.

However, the dirt I see in the images, like the dots and that curved thing looks like an eyelash on the left at the bottom of the sky, looks like it is on the sensor, not the lens. Dirt in a lens tends to cut down contrast and overall detail, it doesn't appear as spots on the image. Either the sensor got dirty after the camera shop cleaned it or they didn't do a good job cleaning it.

Since the dirt appears in the same place on every image I think once you make a layer to fix one of the photos you will be able to reuse that fix the others, though you may have to do some extra adjustment on them. Again I just don't know PS that well at all so I don't know the details of how to do this.

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I plan to use whatever tools PS 4 can offer me to clean up this mess, as long as I already know how to use it or it's easy to learn. I don't understand how to use layers yet. I'm great at cloning, but it would take me forever. And I've found that some filters like Gaussian blur, etc. can make an even bigger mess when there's that much grit. Does anyone have other suggestions for me? I probably have 100-200 wedding/reception photos to fix, besides a batch from another day in San Diego when I had the same problem. Camera is a Nikon D1x on long-term loan, if that matters. Yes, the whole thing (sensor, inside, outside, etc.) has been recently cleaned by a repair shop. I'm tempted to send these photos to someone to work on, but I'm just very low on funds right now.

aj986s · September 17, 2010

IMHO, cloning them out is the only option I can think of. You may want to consider investing in LightRoom if you haven't already. Its a terrific pics/files management system, that also offers a fair amount of photo touchup and enhancing, that for me satisfies about 85% of my pics (the other 15% I'll go into Photoshop to PP how I want). LR also offers the ability to "copy" enhancements to a variety of pictures, including cloning. but it will simply "copy" the cloning instructions exactly the same way and the same place for each picture. The "source" location of the clone may not always be the best for each individual pic. But it may help by allowing you then go back and only cleanup further those pics where the cloning wasn't acceptable.

I think its going to be a tedious exercise regardless of what you do, but not insurmountable. You say you have as many a 200 wedding reception pics to fix. If you were to spend 5 minutes on each one, you would need 1000 minutes, which is about 17 hours. I'd bet it would take less time than that....maybe a lot less.

Icebear · September 17, 2010

Not to pile on here, but yeah, your high pass filter was filthy. But here's my real reason for posting. Your exposure settings did not help you at all. Your apertures were between f12 & f20. Those teeny apertures intensify the visibility of any crud on the high pass filter. I realize you didn't know you had a problem until after the fact, but wonder why you were using such a small aperture, especially since all the shots you've shown us appear to be significantly underexposed.

Try this. Download a trial version of Lightroom. Use the Spot Removal tool on one image, then Synch all the images. All you might have to do is go through them all and touch-up where the synching may have introduced weirdness every once and a while (it's like an automatic clone stamp.) This scheme might save you TONS of time, and not cost you anything. Of course you're going to love Lightroom and end up buying it, but that's another story.

Y_Knot · September 17, 2010

Andy · September 17, 2010

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

So my biggest problem is fixing the heaps of photos with amazing amounts of dirt showing from my filthy lens, mainly in the skies!

The bigger problem is the severe underexposure and lack of fill-flash for the shadows. Fix that first (it won't be easy). Then on your selects, you can use the spot-healing brush to easily fix the dust spots in skies.

Next time, try evaluative metering, you used spot metering and you got underexposed pics

Art Scott · September 17, 2010

Andy wrote: »

The bigger problem is the severe underexposure and lack of fill-flash for the shadows. Fix that first (it won't be easy). Then on your selects, you can use the spot-healing brush to easily fix the dust spots in skies.

Next time, try evaluative metering, you used spot metering and you got underexposed pics

pathfinder · September 17, 2010

Andy is spot on!

Much of the spot removal can be automated in Lightroom3 or Adobe Raw Converter after the exposure issues are dealt with.

When you say PS4, do you really mean Photoshop 4 ( which is about a decade old ) or CS4 which is the version prior to the current CS5?

CS4 offers more options for cloning, than PS4.

racer · September 17, 2010

For the underexposure, I think it will defently help to learn how to use the cameras histogram to judge your exposure
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

If you go by the histogram, it shows you need around +1 stop, plus the fill flash. If you were to only add +1 for the exposure, you would see two mountains on the histogram showing that the shadows were to dark, so you would add enough fill so that the two mountains would merge, giving you one big mountain in the middle, gradually fading off to each side (if any of that makes any sense?)

Icebear · September 17, 2010

Or are you using PSE4? Whatevs, I think LR would be way faster and easier.

Gosh Anna Lisa, you really got the DGrin heavyweights out from their hidey-holes

digismile · September 17, 2010

Anna Lisa,

Just in case it wasn't obvious from John's post, your dust spots are likely on your sensor, not your lens. You'd be surprised what can be on your lens and not really be an issue compared to your sensor. The dust on your sensor likely isn't even visible to the naked eye!

Cleaning your sensor is not the scary task it was a few years ago. A local specialty camera shop should either be able to do it for you or sell you the cleaning kit you will need.

Good luck,

WinsomeWorks · September 17, 2010

Wow, everyone- thanks for the ideas, feedback, help, etc. It looks to me like I'm just going to have to basically go in by hand & do what I thought I may have to do in the first place. But seeing aj986's breakdown of the time, you're right, maybe it's not that impossible. I am going to go back & slowly read all the other suggestions too. Yes, I KNOW I need Lightroom. I was hoping to win a copy on Smug's Facebook page!!!

I just absolutely can't spend any money on it right now, sad as that is. I already still have the D1x sitting at the shop (needed a new shutter) because I can't afford to pick it up & pay for the repairs. So that & about 15 other things are in line ahead of Lightroom. I had a Beta version, but the problem w/ that was lack of tutorials. (are there trial versions of the new LR?) I need to do these wedding photos yesterday & just can't see myself learning enough about a new program to get this done fast enough. I'm a really slow learner when it comes to new programs. I don't know why; it's disturbing! I think it's because there are too many ways to do one action, and I just want one way to do it or it makes me completely crazy. Icebear-- seriously, how simple is learning the spot removal & "synching" if I know nothing in LR? I mean, could my cat do it?

The other thing in line ahead of LR, if you can believe this, is that I have maybe 25 rolls of KR 64.. yes, you heard me... and they've got to get processed by December, at the last place in the world (Duane's) that will do it... yeah, ka-ching, ka-ching, some more! Did I mention that I really want/need a new camera?! Ok, now that I've unloaded that sob story, here's some clarifications & answers on the rest, because I realize I didn't really give enough info:

1. No, the camera hadn't yet been cleaned back in June... not for a couple yrs. It just got cleaned recently when the shutter was also replaced & I haven't picked it up yet. I don't even know if it was worth the repair $, but it's all I got & It's not even mine, so I kinda had to do it.
2. Yes, the one moon-shaped spot was on the sensor, and I already knew about that one... just couldn't do anything about it while traveling. It's now been fixed. Nearly all the other dirt was definitely on the lens-- I cleaned it off & many of the rest of my CA shots are fine.
3. Someone mentioned the "high-pass filter" and I didn't know what they were talking about because I didn't have anything on the camera, hadn't edited the shots, and didn't think I had any sharpening turned on. Now when I looked at the camera info, I see it says "sharpening 1"-- so, I'm going to have to look into that when I get it back. Yuck--I normally have that turned off. That's a bummer, & yes it's gonna make exp. adj. difficult. :cry
4. Brings me to my next problem-- the camera is really my brother's. I have it on extended loan, as he has the D3. Otherwise, the only DSLR I'm able to use is an Olympus E-500 company camera (so-- on wkends, mainly). So, I really still don't know the D1x well enough to have been doing with it what I was trying to do. I'm getting there, but this is an old camera now & has such a battery-life issues for which there are zero solutions. So in certain situations I simply bracket a lot, since chimping, checking histograms, etc. etc. takes even more battery life (and time) than I have. I was running around like a crazy-person all morning of the wedding shooting stuff I didn't know I'd be enlisted to shoot, so by the time I got to the actual wedding, I felt unprepared, w/o the correct equipment, and worried about batteries. I ended up bracketing even at times when I didn't realize I was (stupid, I know), & unsure what to trust when chimping... often couldn't check the histogram due to time, etc. Screen on that camera is very difficult to use in brilliant overhead light, so I bracket & pray.
5. The whole time I was in San Diego, the light felt incredibly brilliant.(the only other places I've been in light like that were Tibet & Quebec!) 1/3 stop over, highlights appeared completely blown-out & un-fixable. 1/3 stop under & I got severe underexposure. I think after being there a few days, I finally thought of backing off the in-camera contrast. But I stupidly didn't think of it before the big day. I just knew that the blown highlights would mean a completely lost shot, whereas I could at least basically fix the underexposure. And yes, the spot-metering?? My brother taught me a little about that (especially how various metering works w/ flash)... um, 2 or 3 days after the wedding. So yes, I really screwed up there... and still need to study it more... definitely do not have it down. I'm a natural-light person. This is precisely why I don't do events, portraiture, etc. until I "have to". What I don't know about flash & indoor photography could fill books.... and probably does!
6. Pathfinder-- yes, I meant CS 4. I just thought PS 4 was the version of PS that's part of that package. I only use PS-- I don't know any other programs in that bundle yet. I don't even know Bridge, or ACR, etc. I feel like I have my hands full just learning PS, because I just switched from CS 2... this is why I think I've just gotta use whatever tools I have in PS right now. Dan, I'd like to use a layer to do the cloning, but I don't even understand layers yet. I'm currently trying to re-create all the actions I lost so that I can batch-process, which I think is the biggest time-saver I can do right now.
7. Ok. back to reading your suggestions. Thanks again, everyone!

racer · September 18, 2010

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

3. Someone mentioned the "high-pass filter" and I didn't know what they were talking about because I didn't have anything on the camera, hadn't edited the shots, and didn't think I had any sharpening turned on. Now when I looked at the camera info, I see it says "sharpening 1"-- so, I'm going to have to look into that when I get it back. Yuck--I normally have that turned off. That's a bummer, & yes it's gonna make exp. adj. difficult. :cry

That was there fancy way of saying "the camera sensor". When you clean your camera sensor, you are really cleaning the "high-pass filter" that is right infront of the sensor, so techniquly the high-pass filter needed cleaned.

but this is an old camera now & has such a battery-life issues for which there are zero solutions. So in certain situations I simply bracket a lot, since chimping, checking histograms, etc. etc. takes even more battery life (and time) than I have.

are you being payed for the wedding photos? or was it all for fun?
If you were being paid or if the person put all there trust in you, then you need to get more batteries and avoid any shortcuts!

I was running around like a crazy-person all morning of the wedding shooting stuff I didn't know I'd be enlisted to shoot, so by the time I got to the actual wedding, I felt unprepared, w/o the correct equipment, and worried about batteries. I ended up bracketing even at times when I didn't realize I was (stupid, I know), & unsure what to trust when chimping... often couldn't check the histogram due to time, etc. Screen on that camera is very difficult to use in brilliant overhead light, so I bracket & pray.

I think the way to do it, is you take a couple test shots when you get to the location, figure out proper exposure and everything before you start, so that way you can get the shots close. Obvious you dont have much time to mess around looking at things while it is going on. I think one test shot of a chair or something could have told you that you needed fill flash and a stop brighter

5. The whole time I was in San Diego, the light felt incredibly brilliant.(the only other places I've been in light like that were Tibet & Quebec!) 1/3 stop over, highlights appeared completely blown-out & un-fixable. 1/3 stop under & I got severe underexposure.

The photos were taken around 4 in the evening, that is a harsh time to take photos outside no matter were you are! As a general rule, you need fill flash when shooting at that time of day, especially shooting people. You might get away without using flash during the hour before dark (and the first hour of light in the morning), but most times between them, your going to need fill flash to illuminate all the shadows.

The reason everything looked so great, looked incredibly brilliant, was because the dynamic range was high, beyond what a camera sensor can capture. Thats why the camera couldnt capture the whole range from light to dark. It is a very good clue that your probably going to need fill flash

I think after being there a few days, I finally thought of backing off the in-camera contrast. But I stupidly didn't think of it before the big day.

Thats not going to help, because the range was more then the camera could capture, and turning the contrast down wouldnt have come close to giving you what you needed. Plus, if you were shooting raw, the contrast is disregarded.

I'm a natural-light person. This is precisely why I don't do events, portraiture, etc. until I "have to". What I don't know about flash & indoor photography could fill books.... and probably does!

You will definantly find out that flash will help outdoors. I was a 100% natural light person also, when I started wildlife photography, then trying to figure out what was wrong with my images, I found out that fill flash is almost a must in a look of situations. The key is, to add just enough to light the shadows, but still look like it is all natural light

WinsomeWorks · September 18, 2010

racer wrote: »

That was there fancy way of saying "the camera sensor". When you clean your camera sensor, you are really cleaning the "high-pass filter" that is right infront of the sensor, so techniquly the high-pass filter needed cleaned....
...are you being payed for the wedding photos? or was it all for fun?
If you were being paid or if the person put all there trust in you, then you need to get more batteries and avoid any shortcuts!....
...You will definantly find out that flash will help outdoors. I was a 100% natural light person also, when I started wildlife photography, then trying to figure out what was wrong with my images, I found out that fill flash is almost a must in a look of situations. The key is, to add just enough to light the shadows, but still look like it is all natural light

Racer, thanks for the clarifications! Some stuff that I didn't explain well:

1. Well, whatever I cleaned on my own while still in CA & was easily reach-able did most of the trick... and I think that was the lens (both ends), standard filter, etc. But yes, I'm sure after 2 yrs. the sensor needed it too, & had the spot, so it's still good I now got it cleaned.

2. No, I'm not being paid for the photos-- this was my sis, & I just wanted to capture whatever I could & give her a disc of the photos. She & other family members will probably order a bunch from here on Smug too once I get them put up. I do have several batteries now ($40 a pop for the good ones) but in some situations there are only so many you can carry. At the wedding, I had everything I own, but I hadn't counted on taking the 500 or so shots of the girls getting ready in the morning!

3. Well, I did take some test shots-- just enough to tell me I didn't have the proper equipment & that each time I turned I was going to have to re-set everything. I really couldn't tell much from the histogram even. Problem is, every angle I turned was a whole different light story. And I was constantly going to be at different distances from the subject. I also did use fill flash-- a lot. (I didn't mean I never use it, I just meant it's not my forte & the camera/ flash are still not entirely familiar to me) Remember, I said I don't have a powerful enough flash to reach the subject in many cases during the wedding. (reception was different-- fill flash quite helpful). All the fill flash in the world is gonna do you no good if it's not reaching your subject! I saw what the pro had who was doing the main shooting-- A humongous flash. I also forgot to mention another thing-- that sometimes when close enough, there were still times the fill flash didn't go off because it didn't re-charge fast enough. That's one problem I had w/ bracketing.

4. From past experience, I think turning the contrast down would have helped. That camera has several increments at which you can do that, & it's helped in the past. It also has a shade setting, which I used some, but it throws the lighting rather yellow. Cuts down on the blowouts problem in harsh lighting though. And I was shooting jpg, not raw. I also thought that if you are shooting raw, you can decide if you want the in-camera settings to be regarded if you want. Is that wrong? Because I would like to shoot more raw when I can.

5. It wasn't 4 PM- if that's what my camera said, it's because it was set on East Coast time. If I recall, the wedding time was 1 PM, and I know the sun was almost directly overhead, but with slight enough angle that each time someone turned or I turned, all settings were completely thrown off. The lighting actually got easier to deal with during the reception in the same setting, as the sun dropped more... it felt like more what I'm used to, anyway.

Well, I just have to set my mind to fixing these, & hope for the best. I know I screwed them up royally, but am still hoping to get something usable out of them.

racer · September 18, 2010

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

2. No, I'm not being paid for the photos-- this was my sis, & I just wanted to capture whatever I could & give her a disc of the photos.

phew, thats good!

I was under the impression that you were being paid and under pressure to get the photos corrected/done, so my responses were with that in my mind.
No pressure then fixing the examples you showed us! I would just up the exposure some, and clone out the big spots, and just make them 4x6 prints. If someone then wants one in a larger size, I would let them know of the camera/photo issues, or do the best that you can with what you have.

Andy · September 18, 2010

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

4. From past experience, I think turning the contrast down would have helped.

Proper metering and shooting in RAW would help immensely. Don't let the camera do your processing for you unless you are 1000% sure of the outcome.

WinsomeWorks · September 18, 2010

I can't/couldn't shoot in raw in that situation; not w/ that camera anyway. WAY too much memory used, WAY too much battery power. Whole day on the island w/ no way to unload, & only some ability to charge. People aren't carrying around laptops at weddings, & I don't happen to have one! Found out too late that that model can't use anything above a 2 GB card, so had to do what I could w/ what I had. I'm not sure what you mean by "letting the camera process for you". On the exposure, yeah, well, obviously proper metering is always great, haha! Especially in hindsight.

Andy · September 18, 2010

WinsomeWorks wrote: »

I'm not sure what you mean by "letting the camera process for you".

When you let the camera create jpgs.

OnlyElise · September 29, 2010

The wonders of Adobe RAW
I'm not sure if you've been able to handle the dirt issue or not, but if not, I would recommend you use the Adobe RAW program that comes with Photoshop CS4. Frankly, I didn't even know it was included in there until I happened across a tutorial for it. It has a tool that will automatically batch clean the photos you bring in for pieces of dirt on the lens/sensor.

First, open up Bridge, then choose your pictures. Click CTL/CMD+R to open up RAW, or right-click one of them and click "Open in Camera RAW." This will open up this plug-in program. There is a tool on top that looks like a paintbrush with little blobs around it... this is the spot correction tool. Once you fix the spots on the first one, click on "Select All" on the side of the screen, then "Synchronize." It should clean the dirt off all your pictures pretty quickly. If I were you, though, I would do all your horizontal ones first, then the verticals so nothing disappears that's not supposed to!

Good luck!

Ideas for terrible amount of dirt in skies etc., from filthy lens

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