Photoclubalpha

I would appreciate it if someone could look at the images below and tell me what you think the marks are.

These are crops from wedding photographs that my daughter purchased from a Professional photographer.

I have produced crops of a few images (not wishing to publish the full photos or the photographer's EXIF data).

There are three sample crops but I only put the small one inline as the forum prevents me linking to larger images.

Unedited image crop 1167x408 from image 4256x2832

Image available here

Unedited image crop 846x240 from image 4256x2832


Unedited image crop 1145x626 from photographer-edited image 3600x2700
Image available here

The Photographer-edited image is from the digital CD with high-res images that was purchased in addition to the prints taken from the same set (which also show these marks if you look for them on the lighter backgrounds). The photographer also provided digital copies of the extra images, this was not expected but a bonus.

From the EXIF data it looks like the camera was a Nikon D3 with lens 814 (24mm-Xmm F/2.8 zoom?).
The exposures were 1/250s f/22 at ISO 1600 and ISO 400.

Are these marks likely to be dirt on the lens/filter or sensor dust? The sensor spots I have seen tend to be more indistinct.
I would have thought that dirt on the lens/filter would be too out of focus to appear.

It looks like a very dirty sensor. What aperture was used for that photo? If a small aperture is used then the dirt on the sensor will look more distinct like in your example.

That is a VERY dirty sensor. You took that shot @ f22 you said and it certainly will show up at the setting. I'm surprised that you didn't see the spots @ f8 even.