Hot Pixels

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One night i was taking pictures of my neighbourhood, and i spot that there are tiny red, blue and white dots on the photographs. I was afraid of a possible problem with the sensor of my camera or my lens. First i thought that i scratched my lens somehow and something causes wrong reflections and refractions, so i borrowed a lens from a friend of mine. But the dots were in the exact same spots, so i was pretty sure that there is something wrong with my digital sensor. I was thinking about buying a new camera. But then i saw a web page about hot pixels which describes and explains my condition.

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So What is Hot Pixels?

Hot pixels are the individual pixels that sensitive to light more than necessary and there are hot pixels on every CCD or CMOS. Even i didn’t notice before hot pixels were there since the first day i bought my camera, and knowing that there will be hot pixels in the sensor even if i buy the most expensive digital SLR, is what made me feel better. So if you have the same problem don’t worry you are not alone.

Before finding an article about hot pixels, i asked to a few successful photographers about their opinion about the problem after i described under which conditions Hot Pixels appear. Then i unfortunately found out none of them really know what it is and this is the main reason why i’m writing this article. Here are the answers i get;

• “They are dead pixels there’s nothing you can do with it.” <- Most disappointing answer
• “Probably there are dust on your sensor.” <- Dust appear as BLACK dots on the picture. It gets more visible if you use high f values. Certainly dust doesn’t look red or blue on your picture.
• “I never took pictures at night so i don’t know.”

These people are the photographers who took thousands of pictures during their career, so how come they didn’t see the hot pixels on their pictures? It is normal, even the hot pixels are always there on the same spot, they are not visible in many conditions. So this is why these photographers didn’t see them before (It is not their fault.)

Which Conditions Makes the Hot Pixels More Visible?

• First of all they are tiny, for that reason they are not visible enough most of the time
• High f values (narrowed aperture) (F 20)
• High ISOs (ISO 1600)
• Low-Light environment, night etc. (They are visible especially on darker backgrounds)
  
• Long Exposure Times (30 sec.)
  

Under these conditions hot pixels appear in every DSLR camera. Some sensor types have more hot pixels than others. As far as i know CMOS sensors have more Hot Spots on them than CCDs.

What Makes Hot Pixels Increase in Number?

• Heat; keep you camera away from heat.
• Radiation; I don’t think you worry about Hot Pixels and your camera in this condition. Also keep away from radiation.

How to Get Rid of Hot Pixels?

Actually, there is no way to get rid of them, so just ignore them. There are multiple software solutions to this problem. Use clone stamp tool of Photoshop etc. They are tiny pixels and they are gone with a simple touch. Don’t be worried because of them…

Thanks…

Thanks to Ken Rockwell for informing me about the hot pixels, and ease my worries.