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Could someone please explain why I am getting white, semi-transparent dots for night photography with flash on?

enter image description here

Original image here.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you using the flash? If so, see Why does using flash sometimes create these white spots in the photo? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Apr 27, 2012 at 12:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ That is dust. . \$\endgroup\$
    – dpollitt
    Apr 27, 2012 at 13:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ Your room is haunted: they're ghosts, spirits of the dead, etc. At least, that's what they told me on one of those ghostwalk tours near a cemetery. The guide asked the tour group to take pictures of the empty cemetery, and marveled at all the ghosts and spirits that appeared on the group's P&S cameras. Many people were amazed. \$\endgroup\$
    – cjc
    Apr 28, 2012 at 14:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ OMG, that's too funny cjc! \$\endgroup\$
    – Paul Cezanne
    Feb 23, 2013 at 0:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate of Why does using flash sometimes create these white spots in the photo? \$\endgroup\$
    – Olivier
    Jan 7, 2017 at 11:35

4 Answers 4

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Looks like there was some dust or watter droplets or whatever in the air and that they reflect the flash light. The effect is not very present but as your background is black you can see them. Furtehrmore as they are out of focus they appear as disc rather than dot (in fact you got nice bokeh)

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To me it looks like a dirty lens?

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    \$\begingroup\$ You won't see the dirt on a lens like that, even at f/32. I mean, if you can't see the scratches from the lens in this image.... lensrentals.com/blog/2008/10/front-element-scratches \$\endgroup\$
    – nwcs
    Apr 27, 2012 at 14:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ You're not seeing the dirt (or in this case, most likely fingerprints). You're seeing high angle light that is refracted by the skin oil on the lens' surface. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Feb 23, 2013 at 0:08
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Fingerprints on the front lens (especially of a point and shoot) look exactly like this photo. The light from the flash bouncing back from the perimeter of the lens at high angles will emphasize them. You are not actually seeing the oil from the print itself, you are seeing the high angle light refracted by the shape of the oil on top of the lens. Since this light is grossly out of focus, the points look larger due to bokeh. The brighter the light, the larger the "spot".

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It certainly looks like dust in the air - one other thing to check is that your sensor is clean - you can buy kits to clean the sensor from probably all camera shops.

When you use one, REMEMBER! BE GENTLE WITH YOUR SENSOR :)

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