Breathe in and hold your breath the voice said to me as I was lying on this table about to go through a giant donut. Then as I looked up, I saw this backlit image of clouds on the ceiling. I suppose the intent is to make me feel as if I was lying in a fire-ant-free meadow staring up at the sky as iodine started to flow through my veins. That is of course the primary intent of using nature images in health care settings, to take people away from potentially stressful situations.
The thing that comes next is perhaps unique to the critical eye of photographers. Right in the middle of a nice set of clouds was not some nice light rays peaking through or some unique cloud shape to stir my imagination – but a big old sensor dust spot. And that became my fixation for the remainder of this relatively short test. Some final chit-chat with the technician was wrapping up and he asked me what I do. In jest, I told him I sell nature photography to hospitals, but without sensor dust spots on them. He looked at me with understandable confusion about what I was referring to.
It is an interesting position to be in, as a patient being one of the target recipients of such imagery, and also as a merchant of such. But perhaps it is no different than the owner of a vineyard being invited to a dinner party serving white zinfandel. We can’t help but notice things that are otherwise unseen by everyday observers.
This observation perhaps was worth ignoring (and writing about), except for a similar case within the last couple of months. It was in a publication from the Michigan State Government. I’d hate to point out exactly which one because I don’t want to embarrass the designer. It was distributed as a PDF document and generally was nicely illustrated throughout. However, the cover photo had no less than 8 sensor dust spots throughout in the sky areas. It didn’t take zooming in or enlarging it to some unreasonable size either. They were obvious, to me at least. But they made it past the designer and any editors, just like those ceiling panels made it past the printer, the installer, and whoever else was involved in the purchase.
I am not normally one to nit-pick the work of others (unless requested of course 🙂 ), I’ve certainly made my share of mistakes. Dust spots may as well be a fly in my soup though. Once I see it, I can’t unsee it. It may be my own paranoia that I would make a similar sloppy mistake and let such an image get through my own checks. Honestly, I don’t know how common it is. But these two cases certainly are a reminder to check, check, check before print!
Featured Image: Stoney Creek Lake (FC10448) shoreline, catching the light from Autumn sunrise, Washington Township, Michigan – part of my calming images gallery.
A very funny story, really, and it’s even more interesting when you think about how careful the imaging technicians have to be, so that your own image is read correctly! I had a misdiagnosis last year that cost me lots of anxiety and extra money. I’ve let that go, mostly, and I’m not sure if that fault lay in the overall ability of the MD or just in his ability to read scans. The scans themselves must have been OK, because a more experienced MD was able to rectify the diagnosis – but interestingly, he wanted a new scan (for s six-month follow-up) done on a different machine by a different facility. On a related note, I was really happy when a local camera store had Olympus technicians on site one day, cleaning equipment for free. Cleaning a micro-four-thirds sensor yourself isn’t easy. But back to your “donut” experience, maybe keeping your mind super busy thinking about that sensor spot was just as good as drifting off to cloudland would have been. 😉
fortunately, I don’t think the person who picked the photo was reading the scans! 🙂
Seems Earl and I know the same friend! ? I’ve often wondered how often I’ve missed something in one of my images, whether in print or digital. It’s so easy to do. I see it in my writing as well.
If we are going to add writing into this “oops” saga, I have a lot of old posts to go through! 🙂
I think most serious photographers would identify with your story, Mark, although we each may have our own unique quirks. It can sometimes be easy to get so lost in our vision for a finished photo and lose track of the basics. I’m speaking for a friend of course! 😉
This photo reminds me of why I love autumn so much. I hope you have a great weekend.
Your friend knows the struggles well. 🙂
I have to chuckle because like you and most other ‘serious ‘ photographers I look at my images at 100% to make sure there are no spots and spend time ‘fixing’ all sorts of little things, trying to clone perfectly….and all the time non photographers look at the work they don’t see it anyway. But as artists it’s what we do.
I suspect nobody else has ever told the techs about or even saw the dust spots. I hate to say it but at photography exhibits and the like, I just can’t help myself…..yup, I’m one of those idiots that walk right up to a large piece to see if it’s pixelated and if I can see sharpening artifacts. I think that’s a very separate experience from the enjoyment of looking at the piece though.
Strong halos are another thing that usually bugs me that I tend to fixate on whether from someone oversharpening or overprocessing. But dust spots?? That’s just plain sloppy! 🙂 Maybe it will annoy that tech enough now that he will call someone about it. haha.
And hire you to replace them!!! That would be the smart thing to do.
That’s a great story, Mark. And one that’s probably way too common. I have a good friend who has won numerous awards for his prints, but once in a while his attention to detail is lacking. He once published a calendar where several pages had dust spots in an otherwise clear sky. But the clincher was one where he had darkened a face in the window of an old mill but had not darkened the same face in the reflection in the pond in front of the mill. It happens, and once in a while I’ll find a similar flaw in one of my own photos. Hopefully before I’ve sent it out or printed it! 😉
Yikes… those are some doozies, Tom. For one, that calendar would bug me for an entire month! 🙂 And reflection’s get you every time! I definitely have found spots I’ve missed when I thought I was done editing, which is why I always check again before sending any image out. Maybe some people just shrug it off – for me, it would be a major embarrassment.
I like the way you think 🙂