Time for another blog post for my photographer friends.  I shot some photos last Friday for our Fugitives on a Forgotten Highway project as we made our Mini Tour 2 from Watertown to Yankton.  Very successful and enjoyable day.  Made lots of photographs.  However, when I imported the photos into Lightroom, I realized that I had a dirty lens and/or sensor.  You can see "Dust Drama" here in this sample image.

 

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If there was one or two dust specks here, I'd just jump in with the spot removal brush as seen here to the left.   However, I'd might find that I'd miss some spots with this approach.  The good news is that Lightroom has a great tool to help for a situation just like this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visualize Spots

 

Once I select the Spot Removal tool, I can check the box for "Visualize Spots", but it is easy to overlook this option.  You'll find it on the bottom left of the photograph near the Tool Overlay options.

 

Checking this box will immediately have a dramatic change in view for your photograph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy cow, look at all those spots!

 

 

I can certainly get an immediate understanding of how serious my dust drama is!  However, this view makes using the Spot Removal Tool so much more efficient.  

 

Use the Spot Removal Tool exactly like you would normally.  You can uncheck the Visualize Spots checkbox as you go to see your progress.

 

 

 

 

Returning to the normal view shows that I've fixed the vast majority of the issues.  You might still need to finish up on one or two items, but for the most part this helps me knock off pretty much all the dust problems.

 

Dust Drama Eliminated

Moral of the story.  Make sure your equipment is clean, BUT if you get stuck in this situation, Lightroom is definitely there to help you out!

 

Happy shooting!   Remember, there's a photo in there somewhere!

PJ

 

07/21/2015 - Just changed the title from Lightroom 5 to Lightroom CC and LR6 as it still applies.