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Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:35 am

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:23 am
Posts: 2

I'm having problems with my Alien Bees Ringlight in form of grey spots randomly scattered throughout my images when shooting against a dark background. I've asked Nikon about this and they told me it was common with ringlights, and that it's dust particles in the atmosphere of wherever I was shooting. How do I eliminate this from happening?




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Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:56 pm

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Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
Posts: 5266

If you are in a dusty environment, this is very likely the case. Light is firing straight forward, and bouncing straight back into the lens (angle of incidence = angle of reflection). The only two real solutions would be to eliminate the dust, thought that is not possible in all situations, or move the light off axis.




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Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:07 pm

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:23 am
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Thanks for the response to my query. I guess my concern is how prevalent is this problem with other users of ringlites and how they deal with it. I'm shooting a small home studio converted over from my oversized garage. the walls have been finshed and insulated all vents have been sealed. The floor has been treated and painted with epoxy so it's really pretty clean. please someone offer me some tips on how you overcame this problem if you've had the same experience.




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Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:46 pm

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:40 pm
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I found moving my camera further back into the ringflash, and zooming more, made this problem go away (for the most part), but I've only encountered this "issue" twice in the last 2 years...

sean




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Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:14 am

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Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:49 am
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More likely lens flare than dust spots. But I suppose dust is possible if there's a lot of it in the air. Moving the lens back or, better, using a lens shield should eliminate this.




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Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:35 pm

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Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
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As Luap said, lens flare is a good possibility, and would be enhanced by wider angle lenses. Using the included diffuser will extend the "tunnel" for the lens, which will block much/all of the light coming into the lens.




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Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:19 pm

Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:35 pm
Posts: 20

Can you post a picture of the issue so we can help determine the issue and so that others can see what might happen with a ring flash (if posting pics on this forum is allowed)?

Thanks,

-D




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