Fuzzies are dark blurry looking spots that usually show in the skies of photographs. They are caused by dust resting on the camera sensor. No matter how conscientious you are about cleaning your sensor and avoiding dust, it’s going to get on to the sensor no matter what. It’s insidious and evil! Fortunately, there is a way to see even invisible dust in Lightroom 5.
Visualize Spots
This feature is part of the Advanced Healing Brush in Lightroom 5 (A.K.A. The Spot Removal Tool) that I wrote about in a previous Photofocus post. Open the Spot Removal Tool in Lightroom 5 by pressing the Q key or clicking its icon–the second one from the lift under the Histogram in the right sidebar.
This photograph of the New Yorker Hotel has an obvious dust bunny in the sky. There is another one, barely visible on the left just above the rail. Both are circled in red.
Tap the A key or click the check box for Visualize Spots in the Toolbar. (If it’s not showing hit the T key.) Previously unnoticed dust spots appear. Use the slider to adjust the intensity of the effect. The arrows show five dust motes that just weren’t showing before. They would be really obvious in a large print. The smokey looking lines are the clouds.
Use the Spot Removal tool to heal them away.
Clear, dust free skies are a beautiful thing indeed.
Thank you for a very informative article. As someone who shoots many airshows in a season, I am all too aware of the “spots in the sky”! I can verify that no matter how hard one works at keeping the crud off the sensor and lens, inevitably some always lands in the image. This is a FANTASTIC tip for ensuring the spots be gone! I was used to working with the spot removal tool and always wondered if any spots had been left behind. Not any more! Thank you again for this very useful tip!
Tom
Reblogged this on AJR Photographs and commented:
This is a really useful Lightroom tip.