Black spot on subjects face when using flash? Both w/40D&60D. Why?

[Douglas]

Several times I have ended up with a dark spot on subjects eye, looks like subject ahs a "black eye". Once with 40D and on camera flash and others with 60D w/ 28-270mm lens and sunshade on lens and 580EX flash. What could possibly cause this.

[ScottyP]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Can you post an example of this? 

If I am not mistaken you posted this once before and got guesses ranging from your long lens casting a shadow in the flash, to improper lens hood, to unflattering direct flash shadows.  Apparently none of those were correct, or none were proven over the others?  To get better answers, you really should post an example so people can see it.

[Douglas]

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@ScottyP wrote:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Can you post an example of this? 

If I am not mistaken you posted this once before and got guesses ranging from your long lens casting a shadow in the flash, to improper lens hood, to unflattering direct flash shadows.  Apparently none of those were correct, or none were proven over the others?  To get better answers, you really should post an example so people can see it.

 

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 The lady at the left in striped shirt. Notice area of right eye.

[slerch]

My only recommendation is that it's possibly dust or dirt on your sensor, though I've not heard of that appearing only with flash photography (should be in all of it).

Easy way to check for dust:

http://www.thephoblographer.com/2010/09/29/how-to-check-for-sensor-dust/

[cicopo]

Could you post a few tight crops showing affected areas large enough to analyze. Close ups will be a lot more useful.

[ScottyP]

Crazy.  The lady happens to be squinting with that eye, too, almost like it is some kind of injury or deformity.

This happens with two different cameras?  But not always?  What happens if you shoot a white wall or a bright blue sky; do spots appear?

I guess it is possible to have two cameras each with a big dustspot near the center of the sensor, and the "near the eyes" thing is a fluke.

It almost looks like red-eye repair gone wrong.  Lightroom's red-eye repair creates a circle in the pupil, and the circle varies from grey to black depending on the image.  This almost looks like one of those circles gone rogue.

Any more examples, and cropped in closer?

[Douglas]

Hi Guys, appreciate the interest, really do  but fairly certain this is not sensor dirt etc as it is not showing on other images.

Also I'm aware of red eye damage gone wrong as I have in fact experienced that... so  that's not the case. its weird I know but it has happened.

I thought it might be the sunshade on the lens, but it has not been consistant, so really baffled by this as otherwise the 40D and 60D and 580EX has worked flawlessly

. 

[digital]

That is really freaky deaky. In all the years I have never seen this one before. When you blow it up you can see how yellow the skin to the left of the black thing is which again looks like the effect of a bruise. Along with the squinting eye it sure looks like it.

But look at this horizontal line between the yellowed pixels below and the ones above. You can really see it at 400 to 500%. There should be a more natural transition in this area. You would think there would nee a more natural transition like from the center of the nose to the right.  Of course the sensor coudl have read it that way.  

Dunno. I was gonna say the sensor is acting up but on two bodies? Someone mentioned red eye reduction. 40D does not have it on board. What are you using for PP? Obviously if red eye reduction was used then you would not see it pre PP.

Gonna have to follow this one. Have you called Canon?     

[Douglas]

No, I have not called Canon as I have taken hundreds if not thousands of pictures and the only instance (3 that I recall) of such a dark spot, was with flash, indoors at an event or gathering of folks. 

Now the subject in this picture is my sister and she sat at the same table as I, and there was no visible bruise on her face.

There are some other images of her also and no dark spot.

And I'm sorry not sure what you mean by PP, if its Post Processing then its Photo Elements 06.

Thanks Folks, appreciate the feedback and hopefully we can i.d. this issue tho it isn't a severe problem when total images taken is considered. I would hate for it to show on an important image(s).