[paulstan]

I just purchased a Canon 40D with a 100mm 2.8 macro lens. All of the photography that I do macro, specifically flowers. The problem that I am having is that tiny white dots appear in the photos... these are very noticeable on dark flowers. I have the camera set to Av mode with an ISO of 100 and autofocus using the built in flash. Any suggestions to solve the problem would be helpful. I am new to this, so your patience is appeciated.

[hoffy]

This is what I surgest. Set the camera up on a tripod with the macro setting on, Get a piece of black card or something which is black and clean. Take a picture of this on the settings that you use, also try it on other settings. Don't use flash.
If you don't have any white dots, then do the same with flash.
If you have white dots, I am afraid you may have a problem. I don't know if the lens is new, but it could be fungle growth on the lens. Very rare but I have seen it once. Dust on the sencor would appear black or grey.
If this is new set-up and you get white dots take it back to the shop you brought if from. I have never heard of a flash causing white dots, I have neard of glare spots as the flash has been knocked out of alinement.
Good luck.

Paul

[Soupdragon]

I'm with the above on the flash being the cause of the bright speckles.
Can I also suggest posting examples, otherwise most of what you read will be guesswork.

[stepheno]

What you said maid me think of a flower I took once. Had lots of white dots but this was the reflective properties in the flower. If this isn't what you mean then it's as Hoffy says. here's the image

[Markulous]

Yeah, as Stephen suggests, it may be the small reflections from the flower. A friend of mine (who takes only flowers for catalogues/magazines) always uses a circular polariser (whatever the light conditions) for just this reason. She also shoots RAW and processes to Adobe RGB to maximise the colour space (reds suffer with sRGB)

[paulstan]

Here is a sample of the problem...
http://www.geocities.com/~paulstan/test6.jpg

Paul

[paulstan]

Well I took a photo of a piece of black cardboard without the flash.... No spots...
Then with the flash... still no spots.

[Markulous]

Yeah, reckon it's flash reflection off the flower texture. TBH, you really shouldn't use a flash anyway - to get the quality flower pics anyway!

[stepheno]

It wasn't raining was it? Look like water drops.

[Soupdragon]

Do plants sweat?

[Markulous]

Look top right - and this is just sunlight. Flash will exacerbate the problem, polariser will reduce



Succulents are even worse!