[jhawksley]

I would be sure to check the sensor for dust.

Take a couple pictures of a blank, lightly colored wall, preferably white, even a piece of paper will do, and make sure to shoot from several angles (to make sure the specs are on the sensor and not the on the surface you are shooting). Open the images in an image editor and look for dust spots.

What to do if you find dust spots:
Use an air blower (NOT CANNED AIR, which can/will permanently destroy your sensor), which you can find at your local/online camera shop, or as some of my friends have, in the baby care section of a drug store. Set the camera to cleaning mode, and blast the dust away with the blower. DO NOT put the nozzle of the blower any farther in than the lens mount, and do not even go near the shutter. (Check your manual for directions on putting your camera in cleaning mode, as well as for specific notes on sensor cleaning.)

Preventing dust will cut your post process time, and while you can remove it from your images using Photoshop, you may miss some of it, and the process can become especially tedious when editing batches of photos, or if their is a large amount of dust spots.

Shoot the highest quality images on the cleanest sensor, and you'll save hours in PS, giving you time to shoot even more pictures.

Good luck!