Why do dark spots appear in the same place in every photo?
Asked 4/22/2012
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I’m seeing dark spots in my photos from a Nikon D7000. They show up more clearly in some images than others, but they always appear in the same position in the frame no matter which lens I use. Does this indicate dust or oil on the sensor, and what should I do about it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
3
Since they are always in the same place, this points to the presence of dust in the camera (and not in the lens). There are several questions on this site which explain how to clean the camera by yourself. Obviously, if you feel uncomfortable doing it, you can have it cleaned by a camera lab.
To some degree it is possible to remove these speck via software, when processing the (raw) file: but this is obviously going to work only to some extent, if you have a lot of dust.
Originally by user5032. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user5032
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
If the spots stay in the same place from shot to shot and don’t change when you switch lenses, the issue is most likely dust or debris on the camera’s sensor/filter, not the lens.
These marks can be more visible in some photos than others, especially depending on subject and aperture. A few spots can sometimes be corrected in post-processing, particularly from RAW files, but that’s only a partial fix.
The proper solution is sensor cleaning. You can:
- use the camera’s built-in sensor cleaning function if available
- clean the sensor carefully yourself using proper sensor-cleaning methods/tools
- have a camera service center or repair lab clean it for you if you’re not comfortable doing it
Whether it’s dust or possibly oil, the key clue here is that the spots are fixed in the image position, which points to contamination inside the camera rather than a problem with a particular lens.
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