From an airplane and seeking help, too.

[cristen]

http://digital-photography-school.co...ship-plane.jpg
Hi. I welcome critiques on this shot I took from an airplane using the following:

Canon EOS Rebel T1i EOS 500D
Exposure Time: 1/1000 sec
F-stop: f/22
ISO-3200

But most of all, I want to know what is that black dot at the lower left side of my shot. I've had that for quite a while now. The outside of my lenses are always clean, It would have to be inside the camera. Is it dirt or something? How could I get rid of it. HELP!!

[autofocus]

Probably dirt on the sensor..cleaning a sensor can be a very delicate procedure. Short of going into a procedure that I have never tried I would recommend doing a google on it. Have you looked at the inner glass on the lens?

[cristen]

Originally Posted by autofocus

Probably dirt on the sensor..cleaning a sensor can be a very delicate procedure. Short of going into a procedure that I have never tried I would recommend doing a google on it. Have you looked at the inner glass on the lens?

Yeah, I tried to look inside the camera but don't see anything. The cam is set to clean the sensor every shut down. That black thing is really bothering me; sometimes it's just too prominent in some pics and sometimes it's just a fuzzy blur. Could I brush the inside of the cam? The set came with a brush. (Forgive my ignorance..)

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by cristen

Yeah, I tried to look inside the camera but don't see anything. The cam is set to clean the sensor every shut down. That black thing is really bothering me; sometimes it's just too prominent in some pics and sometimes it's just a fuzzy blur. Could I brush the inside of the cam? The set came with a brush. (Forgive my ignorance..)

The sensor is only reachable after you flip and lock up the mirror (should be a function in your menu to do that) Did you do that when you looked around? If you see something on your sensor you can try to brush it off carefully. You don't want to make any contact with the mirror, so be careful

[cristen]

Originally Posted by autofocus

The sensor is only reachable after you flip and lock up the mirror (should be a function in your menu to do that) Did you do that when you looked around? If you see something on your sensor you can try to brush it off carefully. You don't want to make any contact with the mirror, so be careful

Oh, I'd rather not tinker with that. My cam is relatively new and I don't want to ruin it. Would professional cleaning fee be worth it for just a speck of dust?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by cristen

Oh, I'd rather not tinker with that. My cam is relatively new and I don't want to ruin it. Would professional cleaning fee be worth it for just a speck of dust?

I guess it all depends on how much it bothers you, and how expensive the cleaning will be. Maybe you can find someone who's more comfortable doing it and let them take a look at it. You won't hurt anything if you just flip up your mirror to see what you can see. Once again, you can do that option which should be located in your menu...you DON'T want to try to flip the mirror with your hand or some other device

[cristen]

Originally Posted by autofocus

I guess it all depends on how much it bothers you, and how expensive the cleaning will be. Maybe you can find someone who's more comfortable doing it and let them take a look at it. You won't hurt anything if you just flip up your mirror to see what you can see. Once again, you can do that option which should be located in your menu...you DON'T want to try to flip the mirror with your hand or some other device

Yeah, it bothers me, but I will have to gather the courage to do the cleaning myself. Will also figure out how to access the menu as I have never tried to explore my cam functions as much as I would have wanted to.

Though maybe out of topic, could you please comment on the pic itself? Construction or whatever?

[IABoomer]

I'm not sure why you stopped down the aperture so much, or pushed the ISO so high. If you shot at something more like f/5.6 (4 stops more light) you could lower the ISO to 200 (less noise), keep your shutter speed to prevent motion blur, and a nice side effect is, with the wider aperture, you probably wouldn't have seen that dirt spot, or at least it wouldn't be as prominent in the shot.

As far as composition goes, you're kind of right smack dab in the middle of the picture. You've got this leading line of the wake, but then you just get stuck in the middle. You could probably crop out the dead space off to the left and put the boat closer to a line of thirds or a Fibonacci spiral.

I did a little crop, and tweaked the levels a little to add some contrast. I'll remove the image if you don't want it posted.

[cristen]

Originally Posted by IABoomer

I'm not sure why you stopped down the aperture so much, or pushed the ISO so high. If you shot at something more like f/5.6 (4 stops more light) you could lower the ISO to 200 (less noise), keep your shutter speed to prevent motion blur, and a nice side effect is, with the wider aperture, you probably wouldn't have seen that dirt spot, or at least it wouldn't be as prominent in the shot.

As far as composition goes, you're kind of right smack dab in the middle of the picture. You've got this leading line of the wake, but then you just get stuck in the middle. You could probably crop out the dead space off to the left and put the boat closer to a line of thirds or a Fibonacci spiral.

I did a little crop, and tweaked the levels a little to add some contrast. I'll remove the image if you don't want it posted.

It's ok. I liked the way you "tweaked it". I still have to orient myself as to the photography jargon; even the parts of the cam. This is how "newbie" I am... sort of technologically challenged as well.
I will keep your comments and recommendations in mind always. Thank you so much.

[cristen]

here's another shot of that ship which i tweaked a little. is this better?