Sparkles or Spots???

[rocknRev4Christ]

Hey all! I know I haven't been around for a bit. Sorry about that.

I just took some shots at a concert last night. I used my flash most of the evening. There was some lights from the ceiling and some LED colored but I used my flash in all of it.

My problem: most of the shots have sparkles or dots in them.

My question: what causes this? Flash picking up particles in the air? Is there a way to avoid this besides not using the flash? (This really isn't feasible as in most concert situations, there is low light to no light most times.)

Thanks for reading and posting and helping me become a better photographer!

P.S. I can post pics later if you need to see what I am talking about.

Edit: Pics below.






These are rough with no editing what so ever. As you can see, it gets steadily "worse" as the night went on though it didn't happen all the time during the night. I couldn't pin point what I was doing right when I got clear pictures this night.

[OsmosisStudios]

Pics are pretty much going to be necessary. From what I gather though its likely just the flash bouncing off particles in the air (dust of some sort)

[rocknRev4Christ]

I posted pics above. ty for your replies.

[BigFuzzy]

has everything to do with on-camera flash (and it's likely you were using pop-up flash, right?). If you were shooting with your flash at a slight angle, you'd not have this issue.

I recently shot a wedding for a friend, and when other friends all started posting their snapshots on FB, they all had the spots.. I did not because I was shooting off-camera flash. Same happens when shooting under water photography.

EDIT: Looking at the images closer now, I'm pretty sure you were using pop-up flash, right? Having a hot-shoe flash will help a lot though I can't guarantee it will go away completely.

[rocknRev4Christ]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

has everything to do with on-camera flash (and it's likely you were using pop-up flash, right?). If you were shooting with your flash at a slight angle, you'd not have this issue.

I recently shot a wedding for a friend, and when other friends all started posting their snapshots on FB, they all had the spots.. I did not because I was shooting off-camera flash. Same happens when shooting under water photography.

EDIT: Looking at the images closer now, I'm pretty sure you were using pop-up flash, right? Having a hot-shoe flash will help a lot though I can't guarantee it will go away completely.

You are GOOD! lol I have a Nikon L110. Not an SLR camera but its what I got. It has a pop up flash. If I were to shoot from either side of stage I wouldn't get this? Or do you mean strictly moving the flash to the side at an angle? My non stage photos turned out pretty good. I had pics taken with bands and didn't get the spots. They all could use editing of course but other than that, no spots on the band shots offstage after concert.

More thoughts?

[OsmosisStudios]

It's something to do with the environment you were in at the time: looks like it was dust that was stirred up by the performers.