Camera Labs

Hello, I just bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D7000 and I'm pretty happy with it.
Tonight I went for some low light shooting, and after i took several long exposure shots i noticed some bright spots on the upper zone of the picture.



This pic was taken with a nikkor 35mm F1.8 G with the following settings in M mode:
f/2.0
Iso: 200
Shutter: 5 sec
Long Shutter Noise Reduction: ON

What could that be? Reflections, dust on the sensor? Bad sensor?

Do you use a UV filter? If you do so take it off before shooting "this kind of images".

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III + Canon EOS 33v
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466

no, I didn't use any filter. I was thinking maybe the sensor was too hot, cause I was shooting several long exposures.
Is it possible?

It is probably noise caused by the long exposures. Your camera should have a long exposure noise reduction facility somewhere in the menus. try turning it on and playing about with the various settings.
Alternatively Photoshop has a noise reduction slider but it is not too successful, it may help though.

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Nikon D300 D80 D40 18-55mm 18-70mm 18-135mm 55-200mm 18-200mm 28mm 2.8f 50mm 1.8f 85mm 1.8f
Panasonic DMCFZ28 Slik Pro 700DX

I know a little about a lot, a lot about little and everything about nothing.

i would say it looks like lens flare.

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DeviantArt
Canon 1D MK3, 1x580EXII, 1x430EX
Canon 50mm 1.4 USM, Canon 100mm F2.8 USM
Canon 70-200 F2.8 L IS II, Canon 16-35 F2.8 L
Sigma 300mm F2.8

Canon Pixma PRO-9000 MKII

and a 17-40 F4L in a hundred little pieces

Definitely lens flare from those bright street lights

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» Nikon D90 | Nikon D7000 + MB-D11 | Nikon 18-55mm VR | Nikon 17-55 f2.8 | Nikon 80-200 f2.8D | Nikon 35mm f1.8 | Nikon 50mm F1.4 | Sigma 85mm f1.4 | Nikon SB-600 | Think Tank UD-60

It does look like lens flare, I had the same problems with my D7000 and 35 f/1.8 tonight while photographing at a light show. If it bothers you, you could always use a lens hood, and if that doesn't help, you you could always remove them is post processing.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

It was on



It doesn't bother me at all, I just want to make sure that there isn't something wrong with my equipment

Nothing wrong with the equipment - it's definitely lens flare.

I have to ask though - why f2????

I'm still learning how to take properly exposed pictures .
I bought the D7000 yesterday and previously I've only used P&S with nearly no manual controls available.

If you're on a tripod and shooting scenery like that with most of the frame at a distance (i.e. near infinity as far as focussing is concerned) I'd try stopping down to f4-f8 with the 35mm. You'll get better sharpness and contrast (obviously longer shutter times as well, which may become a mitigating factor if you get up to and beyond 30 seconds as a shutter speed and don't have a remote shutter release)

The problem is that I have a really crappy tripod that is far from being stable. I used self timer in mirror lock mode and still got blurry pictures with the nikkor 18-105.
So i got frustrated and mounted the 35mm to see if I could get some decent shot with a quicker aperture.
I did manage to get few acceptable shots like this at F8 though, with the 18-105mm.

Buy cheap, buy twice, as the saying goes for low budget tripods!

True, a new one is probably on top of my shopping list

That's the one I chose some months ago and I'm very happy with it:
http://www.amazon.it/Velbon-Sherpa-600- ... 907&sr=8-1

Maybe I should write a review someday...

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III + Canon EOS 33v
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466