Spots?

[Richas]

The spots you see in this image are on every frame I believe. I’m wondering what caused this.
I developed a roll of portra 400, shot by my daughter, on a Minolta point and shoot.
I’ve done five or six rolls of C-41 using CineStill with no issues.
Towards the middle of the roll, she opened the back of the camera briefly. Not sure that’s related…

I welcome any ideas.
Thank you.

 

[koraks]

Is this the only frame that suffers from these spots? Are the spots also visible outside the image frame?

The first thing that comes to mind is what was once called "orbs" (and people thinking it was some kind of paranormal thing). It happens if you photograph with on-camera flash and a small(ish) aperture. Any dust flying around near the camera will be exposed rather strongly. The consistent shape and size of the spots make me lean into this direction.

 

[Richas]

Is this the only frame that suffers from these spots? Are the spots also visible outside the image frame?

The first thing that comes to mind is what was once called "orbs" (and people thinking it was some kind of paranormal thing). It happens if you photograph with on-camera flash and a small(ish) aperture. Any dust flying around near the camera will be exposed rather strongly. The consistent shape and size of the spots make me lean into this direction.

No, these are noticeable on most of the frames and the spots are in the same location on the frames. This camera sat for years before my daughter used it, I suspect these are from dust on the lens. I have since cleaned it so I removed the evidence...

 

[koraks]

Dust on the lens virtually never shows up on photos. It's too far out of the depth of focus.

If you inspect the negatives with a magnifying glass (the actual film, not the scans), do the spots show up? Let's exclude a possible problem with scanning/digitizing first.

 

[Richas]

I will examine the negatives but I think you may be right, I scan with a ZDSLR and I bet I forgot to blow off the dust from the film holder light diffuser....

Rich

 

[Richas]

It turned out that the spots were due to dust on my DSLR sensor. I just cleaned it with a cleaning kit and the spots/circles are gone.

Rich

 

[koraks]

Thanks for following up on that - sounds entirely plausible! Good to hear you fixed the issue.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It turned out that the spots were due to dust on my DSLR sensor. I just cleaned it with a cleaning kit and the spots/circles are gone.

Rich

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