had a quick shift through the web site suggestion forum, and couldn't immediately find what i was after so here goes:
is it worth considering a slight amendment to the basic rules challenge to allow the the irradication of little dust spots, specifically by only using the healing brush tool? i'm beginning to learn that it's a right bastard to finally transfer a bunch of pictures from camera to PC, only to find a high percentage of them unusable due to little blotches. i don't think such an alteration to the rules would lend an unfair advantage specifically, it'll just end up with ever so slightly nicer photos... the only other option i can think of is to keep usig my compact for the basic challenges...
It´s essentially impossible for me to use a smaller aperture than f11 on the basic challenges. It´s normally not a problem but it would be nice to be able to take out the most obvious dust spots as they really irritate me.
If you've got dust spots showing at F/11 when the images is scaled down to 640px, you probably should look at cleaning your sensor.
to be honest (being an appallingly amateur amateur) this F/11 malarky is still a little over my head - all shots taken are generally less than F6.3 (though to be fair, i didn't know i had a repeating dust problem until i got home). perhaps i'm moaning excessively, it's just i get this little spasm of disappointment when it looks like a shot is unasable, only becuase of a couple of grey spoldges (each no more than 5 pixels wide after image sizing adjustment)
I'd kill to get f/11, but I'm stuck with a mostly all automatic cam with a max of f/8.2 (except a couple shots where I've had the assistance of a friend's higher quality cam)
If you've got dust spots showing at F/11 when the images is scaled down to 640px, you probably should look at cleaning your sensor.
The must be serious dust-bunnies to show up under those conditions? Or is the 10D AA filter to sensor gap smaller making the dust more noticable?
Cheers, Chris H.
It´s hardly that bad, but at f11 I occationally get dust spots on clear blue skies and I really don´t have the time or patience to clean the sensor. I blow it out about every month to get rid of most of it but mostly I don´t really care that much about them, if I have obvious dust spots I just remove them in photoshop. Oh, and probably 98% of my shooting is at an aperture f8 or bigger so again, don´t really feel like putting up the effort of cleaning the sensor. What can I say, I am a lazy bastard and that´s not going to change anytime soon.
Again, my vote goes to making this legal in basic editing, but strictly just to remove dust spots.
It's certainly been discussed before, and I've certainly had at least one shot that I would have entered in basic-editing challenges but for dust. I believe it's time to revisit this, since the proportion of users shooting with DSLRs has risen dramatically in the past year. I've pointed the SC to this thread.
I agree with this one too... Removing dust on basic rules.
Ok while we are at this can anyone tell me how is the safest way to clean the sensor without going to the shop to clean.
I've bought this lens kit cleaner that brings this brush and a blower would this help in anyway? thanks and hope not to spoil the thread.
I personally like the constraints of the open rules. It forces me to sometimes think real hard at solving problems that I would have solved with Photoshop like this.
edit: I like having the two types of challenge rules.
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
Why would it not be beneficial to the entire site to adopt the current advanced editing rules as the defacto standard editing rules across the board?
I agree with this one too... Removing dust on basic rules.
Ok while we are at this can anyone tell me how is the safest way to clean the sensor without going to the shop to clean.
I've bought this lens kit cleaner that brings this brush and a blower would this help in anyway? thanks and hope not to spoil the thread.
I highly recommend this method. It is by far the most effective method I've seen, and is used by a significant number of DPCers.
Who will detrmine what "dust" is? Sounds like an easy way to correct imperfections to a photo to me.
If you change it to "just dust" you may as well just open it up as in member challenges.
Sensor dust is pretty easy to identify. Although in some very unusual situations there might be other problems that would look similar, I've never personally seen an example.
IMO, it would be quite manageable to deal with "dust removal only" from a rules perspective.
couldn't you technically 'color-burn' the dust spot out under the basic rules? Seems ok since it's not 'changing pixel location or relation to one another'?
Had this dust spot problem a while ago. Whent down to wolf camera and got a lil' hand squeeze blower. That combined with a super soft cloth got it right off. No more problems. Seems odd to change the rules to encompass a photographer error. The hot pixel one I agree with. Not everyone has replacement camera money or the money to have it 'fixed'.
It just seems less appropriate to allow photographers to fix mechanical mistakes instead of cleaning their gear.
Who will detrmine what "dust" is? Sounds like an easy way to correct imperfections to a photo to me.
If you change it to "just dust" you may as well just open it up as in member challenges.
But then there's one less inticement to become a paying member.
That's a good point, but remember that "paying" members also compete in open challenges. I favor allowing the removal of dust spots in open challenges, and I don't think I am opposed to using the advanced editing rules for open challenges either.
Yeah... I know at least a few times i have not submitted a good picture because it was a basic editing, and the dust puppies made the photo look like total crap.
