What is THAT on my photos???!!!??

[toilandtrouble123]

Just got back from a week stargazing, wildlife watching, and relaxing in the hot tub, to find something wrong with all my images.  There's a translucent speck in all my photos, using the 28-80mm lens on my 350D, you can see some detail through the speck, and it completely vanished when I took a couple of deliberate overly-exposed shots.  I think its the DSLR, as just going back through some old discarded data from a few months ago, when the 350D had the 18-55mm lens on it for some generic shots, and the speck was there even then.  Used a itsy bitsy photography blow pen thingy, in case it was a bit of dust finding its way inside my camera, but the speck of doom is still there.  Could people check out the photos and tell me what it is, how can I get rid of it, and suggestions for processing it out of my images. Cheers, Nat

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Looks like you have a dust bunny or mark somewhere in your optical train. It looks too out of focus to be on the sensor but possibly could be. If you take some flats with your current setup you can eliminate the object by stacking. Otherwise you need to track down where the offending mark is located and remove it.

Louise

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Definitely some blob of material in the optical path. Close to but not on the sensor, I guess

[toilandtrouble123]

Just realised that in my wonder at how dark and clear the Galloway skies were, totally forgot to take any dark, flat etc. frames at the end of the night..... p*ssed of to say the least!! Cheers guys, shall take it down to my local camera shop to beg them to have a look at it. xx

[Davesellars]

Darks and bias you can take any time. Just match the temperature, ISO and exposure length for darks. You can probably get a reasonable flat if you remember the orientation of the camera... It won't be perfect but better than not using any.