Removing dust spots

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 12:09

I recently bought a second hand, low shutter count (under 3,000) D7100. Camera is mint and looks new, but has a dirty sensor it seems..

When shooting skies/plain backgounds at f10 and above there are lots of dust spots.. This isn't too much of an issue as don't tend to go as narrow as f10 anyway, but recently I've been shooting night long exposures and the dust spots are very noticeable..

I've been using the spot healing brush tool in Photoshopp CC, but finding some quite difficult to get rid of and most times the brush tool just duplicates the spot on the dark sky, whereas one click of the tool removes the spot instantly on a light blue daytime sky?

Any help or techniques to help me out please?

{SAS}TB · 15 May 2015 at 12:22

I have a D7100 and use

PEC pads

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEC-PAD-P...030?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item463a7dd9e6

Wrapped and taped around a glue spreader

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GLUE-SPRE...551?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5b11968ad7

And moistened with cleaning fluid

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ECLIPSE-2...760?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa9c056a0

Fold the pad the width of the sensor and tape into place on the spatular, quick few drops (or gentle squirt) of fluid

whip the lens off, mirror up and single wipe across the sensor

turn the spatula / pad and wipe the other way across the sensor

Test shot against a solid white background / wall

Rinse repeat if necessary

Plenty of YT vids with the finer details

Hope that helps mate

D.P. · 15 May 2015 at 12:24

Pec pads + eclipse

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 12:33

Cheers for the replies, but I meant in Photoshop

I have no problems removing them from daytime blue skies, but on dark night time skies the brush tool just duplicates the spot or makes it worse..

I'd be scared of actually cleaning the sensor myself as i'd probably make it worse..

Raymond Lin · 15 May 2015 at 12:38

In PS.

Clone/heal/spot healing tool.

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 12:46

Raymond Lin said:
In PS.

Clone/heal/spot healing tool.

Yes, as i've said, spot healing tool is duplicating the spots on dark skies/making them worse, but works fine on light skies. Clearly i'm doing it wrong.

Can anyone be more specific on their techniques (hardness of the tool, pen presuure on/off ect).

Thanks.

{SAS}TB · 15 May 2015 at 12:55

I was hesitant about cleaning the sensor but it was surprisingly quick, and easy

literally 5 minutes of removing the problem will save god knows how long in PS or LR ?

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 12:57

{SAS}TB said:
I was hesitant about cleaning the sensor but it was surprisingly quick, and easy

literally 5 minutes of removing the problem will save god knows how long in PS or LR ?

..and it removed all of the spots?

I honestly am the clumsiest most unpractical person ever. I really would end up making it worse.

{SAS}TB · 15 May 2015 at 13:01

It removed all the spots, yes

I was VERY surprised how easy it was and was cacking it first time round

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 13:04

hmmmm might have to bite the bullet then...

I've put the mirror up and the sensor 'looks' clean (clearly it isn't though) but theres a lot of dust on the mirror.

Probably a really daft question (this is my first DSLR) but dust on the mirror won't show up on the images will it?

Kei · 15 May 2015 at 14:01

Nope, dust on the mirror isn't even visible when viewing through the viewfinder. (though lots of it may affect viewfinder brightness/contrast) First thing you can try is a rocket blower holding the camera facing downwards and blowing up into the mirror box to shift loose dust.

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 14:13

Cheers. Just ordered a dust blower off the bay.

If that dosn't sort it i'll buy the cleaning kit as listed by {SAS}TB in post 2

D.P. · 15 May 2015 at 14:26

Steve M said:
Cheers for the replies, but I meant in Photoshop

I have no problems removing them from daytime blue skies, but on dark night time skies the brush tool just duplicates the spot or makes it worse..

I'd be scared of actually cleaning the sensor myself as i'd probably make it worse..

Much easier to get the sensor cleaned, saves a huge amount of time.

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 14:29

Yep, if the dust blower doesn't sort it, i'll get all the cleaning kit. Cheers.

D.P. · 15 May 2015 at 14:30

Steve M said:
Cheers. Just ordered a dust blower off the bay.

If that dosn't sort it i'll buy the cleaning kit as listed by {SAS}TB in post 2

I wouldn't waste your time with a blower, you will just blow the dust to a different part of the camera and it will fall back on the sensor later.

Te sensor end up being electrolytically charged, a it like a rubber balloon that attract your hair, so the dust tend to stick to it. Best method is just to clean it off and get the dust out of the camera.

The sensor is pretty robust so i wouldn't worry too much. Just a light pressure will do it. Try it on the cautious side and then if there is stil dust try again with a little more pressure.

Amp34 · 15 May 2015 at 14:52

Out of interest why are you shooting long exposure night shots at f/10 and smaller?

Steve M · 15 May 2015 at 15:41

I was in shutter priority mode and the aperture was automatically set by the camera. To be fair it wasn't quite dark and was shooting in a city centre, so was brightly lit, hence the camera selecting f10 and smaller.

{SAS}TB · 16 May 2015 at 06:50

Let us know how you get on mate

Steve M · 20 May 2015 at 19:42

So, it all came in the post today. Rocket blower did nothing.

I cleaned the sensor with pec pads + eclipse is all is well. Still 3 little spots but not that bad even at f22 and they are not noticeable at f10.

One thing I did struggle with was streaks and smears on the sensor after the eclipse solution had been on it. Had a tough time getting rid of them. Would smears on the sensor from the solution degrade image quality much?

Anyway, its 99% better than it was before with regards to the dust spots.

koolpc · 20 May 2015 at 19:46

Did this myself and been successful and once not so!! I had to get it cleaned professionally which was amazing!