[SA Chris]

My camer had a bad attack of dirty sensor on Saturday. Never been bad before, maybe because dust has just not stuck, or because I've not had a bright sunny day for ages. Bit worried about knackering it while trying to celan it though. Any advice?

Also, I'm sure someone mentioned you can clone out dust marks from batches of images using PS. Is this true? What version?

Thanks

[dave]

for sensor cleaning just get one of these:

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=101365

relatively piece of piss to use and really effective.

[cofe]

use a good rocket blower first as this may do the trick on it's own. keep taking sample shots and check them on computer.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

use a good rocket blower first as this may do the trick on it's own. keep taking sample shots and check them on computer.

Cofe beat me to it...

You'd be surprised how much this baby will shift, and as long as you don't jab it hard into the sensor there's no chance of damaging your CCD. £8 from your local Jessogs. Don't be tempted to risk 'canned air' CCD's don't like being frozen!

[dave]

I find that a blower will shift the superficial dust but with anything stubborn you've not got a prayer. you're still going to need to clean it physically at some point unless you never change lenses or you sell your cameras often. do the blower then lenspen any shit that won't budge. after trying to make do with just the blower for 2 years i still had a build-up of dust, it wasn't clearing the main offenders. make sure you buy a decent blower (like the giottos rocket) cos you don't want a cheap-ass one that sprays rubber particles all over your shiz.

[SA Chris]

Ive tried with a blower, but i think there's too much dust to shift it all. I think it just rearranges itself with blower.

Any ideas about removing marks already there?

[cofe]

Any ideas about removing marks already there?

shoot wide open

rocket blower does remove most stuff. i'd rather do this, CHECK, and only use the lenspen if necessary, which is not always the case.

[dave]

you must have lighter dust than I get. I can stand there all day pummelling the blower bulb like hungry hippos, hit the autolevels and 80% of the dust its moves is just the shit i couldn't see in the photos anyway - the main badboys is still sat there saying "is that all you've got girfriend? bring it on mutherfucker".

[cofe]

evidently so. you should be more careful changing lenses.

[SA Chris]

evidently so. you should be more careful changing lenses.

Indeed. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Changing lenses in a game park, outdoors, on a dry windy day was possibly not a wise move.

This is how bad it is



Unfortunately too bright to shoot too wide.

[dave]

who's the guy carrying the swordfish?

[cofe]

evidently so. you should be more careful changing lenses.

Indeed. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Changing lenses in a game park, outdoors, on a dry windy day was possibly not a wise move.

that was aimed at dave.

p.s. why is that guy carrying a marlin?

[SA Chris]

It's a lass, and I thought you learned types should be able to recognise a garfish?

[Johnny Brown]

I wouldn't recommend the lenspen. Mine left smears that were more trouble than the original dust. Nor is the rocket blower a good option, they have a reputation for filling your shutterbox with rubber particles. Either man up for the expensive option of a swab kit or twirlybrush, or get some canned air (without propellant) and a goose feather. I just use a feather mainly.

Chris, that photo was obviously taken at minimum aperture on a telephoto, this is always going to give problems. Both photoshop and lightroom can be used to batch process, but this relies on identical compositions so the cloned areas match.

[SA Chris]

Chris, that photo was obviously taken at minimum aperture on a telephoto, this is always going to give problems.

About 80mm, hardly telephoto?

Will look at swab kits.

[dave]

i think the lesson here is different stuff works for different people. i find a blower works to an extent but in the longterm just delays a proper cleaning, and i've tried a brush thing that just made it worse. I found the lenspen gave me a cleaner sensor then when i had it cleaned by Nikon. Whereas johnny prefers a piece of bracken. you're best trying various options and see what you prefer. don't bother with expensive waste-of-time shit like this though.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

...or get a camera with an auto sensor cleaner. 

[SA Chris]

Pentax K10D is on the list, should this one die (or I euthenise it). Been told the sensor cleaners are not 100% reliable though.

[SA Chris]

Both photoshop and lightroom can be used to batch process, but this relies on identical compositions so the cloned areas match.

Sorry, to go on, but what do you mean by "identical compositions"?

[cofe]

lightroom has a clone tool which is essentially designed to remove sensor spots. you select the spot area and then select where you want it to sample from. a focused version of clone stamp from PS. together with various other settings (such as WB, exposure, contrast etc) you can then sychronise this setting across a batch of images. it works quite well but it samples the same area so for multiple photos they would need to be the same composition to sample the same bit e.g. a load of shots taken on a tripod with different aperture, WB settings etc. two entirely different shots wouldn't work. the benefit is it's a non-destructive way of removing sensor spots assuming you're shooting RAW.

does that make sense? this might show it but i haven't watched it.

 

[SA Chris]

Makes sense, thanks. I'm screwed in other words, and will have to remove them all manually.

[cofe]

Makes sense, thanks. I'm screwed in other words, and will have to remove them all manually.

they won't show up in all images though, unless you only take photos of white paper or solid blue sky at f8 + etc. spotting in photoshop isn't so bad. it's all punishment for us using digital cameras anyway. 

[dave]

I don't know if theres owt like this for pentax shit but in nikon software theres a facility where you take a "dust reference" photo of a sheet of paper at like f/22 and the software takes this and attempts to automatically clone out all the spots when you process RAWs with it. it does work too pretty much, the only ballache being you'd have to always use an up-to date dust photo. i can't believe you'd be the first pentax user with this problem, might be worth checking no-ones come up with anything similar, or cracked Nikon Capture to use pentax RAWs or whatever.

[SA Chris]

Well I am screwed on two counts;

1) Most of the last batch were taken against bright and/or blue sky with pretty small aperture, so most like that photo i put up before and
2) I didn't shoot in RAW.

[slackline]

I read about this ages ago, but couldn't find the link back then.  Have just found it again so thought I'd post it up.  Use at your own risk....

Cleaning your sensor with sticky tape (follow the link through to a detailed description).

Haven't tried it myself, so can't comment on how effective/safe it is.

[dave]

you'd have to be fucked in the head to try that.

[cofe]

you could spit on a hankie and rub it with that?