I'm also new...

[fotoman]

Very nice pics Darklyte, the color and exposure look very good.

Just one short tip:
When you shoot events outdoors in natural light, I highly recommend using AV (canon) or AP (nikon) and go with a wide aperture like an F4.0 or F4.5 (depending on the lens you have) with wider apertures you will not see spots in your photos from dust in the camera's sensor.

In AV (or AP) mode, you select the aperture you like and the camera will give you a matching speed setting to achieve correct exposure, there is also a compensating dial in case that there is backlight or dark background.

Well, in a nutshell, try not to shoot in full auto (Program) when the camera's meter sees lot of light, it will automatically set your lens on a small aperture like F16 or even F22, with apertures like that dust in the sensor will be more than evident specially when you photograph towards the light or sky.

[Darklyte27]

yea that lens had a nice chunk of dust INSIDE the lens. I sent it for service under warranty last month and its all nice again.

Those pics are 3 yrs old.

[fotoman]

yea that lens had a nice chunk of dust INSIDE the lens. I sent it for service under warranty last month and its all nice again.

Those pics are 3 yrs old.

Wow...

What kind of lens ? Are you a Canon shooter ?

Believe it or not, dust or even debris in your lens is not visible in your photos, unless you shoot at F22. I have an 80-mm Hasselblad lens with a pretty good chip on the rear glass element, I bought used (about 10 years ago) and the sales guy told me that if anything showed up on the photos due to that chipped glass, to please return the lens.

The 80-mm Hasselblad lens became an important part of my gear bag and completed hundreds of assignments with it over the years until we migrated to digital in 2000 and the chip never showed-up in a single photo.

Usually spots on your photos are due to miniscule particles on your camera's sensor, particles so small that some are not even visible to the naked eye. I clean my camera's sensors 2-4 times a year (depending) but dust is a part of digital photography, the best way to avoid it is to shoot using a wide aperture.

Wide apertures also separates your subject from the background in a very pleasing way, the background is soft or sightly out of focus, while the subject is sharp.

[Darklyte27]

you are not the only one to not believe me.
It was the dust spec.
I used the same lens on my XT and XSI and it shows up in the same spot.
Ever since I had the lens cleaned its not there anymore.
The lens is a Tamron 18-200mm
I really like the new ones, 18-270mm and the 22-300mm with the VC

the dust was on the inside on the rear of the lens. So when the sensor got the image, it was blocked by the dust.
It only happens when I zoomed far out though.