Just because it’s called ghosting doesn’t make it paranormal

It is very common for people to post a photo on social media of what they think is an ‘orb’. To them, this orb is proof that it is a ghost. It is often accompanied by a feeling or experience they have. Although they may feel or experience something, this ‘sphere’ is not proof of that. While the common explanation is that orbs are simply light reflecting off dust, some are the result of a photography term called ghosting, which is actually a form of lens flare.

Over the years I have studied and completed Certificate 4 in Applied Photography and really threw myself into the photography profession. A lot of this meant that instead of just picking up a camera on auto mode and shooting whatever, I learned not only the proper ways to compose a photo, but also how a camera works and what kind of things can affect your photos and cause strange things to happen. emerge. This has been such a useful tool when it comes to analyzing photos for paranormal investigations. Unfortunately for a lot of people this means that I’m much better equipped to debunk a photo, but I feel like if I can explain certain things in really simple terms and help people get a better understanding of photography without me I don’t have to study for that like I did then. why not. This will then help them become better equipped as paranormal investigators, not only in analyzing photos, but also in taking them. This will focus purely on regular photography with digital SLR cameras and mobile phones, which is what is used to take the majority of photos that a researcher will see. Ghost apps, faked photos and Photoshop aside, this focuses on unaltered photos. While this is aimed more at DSLR and cell phone photography, it’s important to note that just because you have a camera that has been converted to IR or UV specifically for research, if it has a lens and a light source, you’ll still get ‘ghosting’.

Just when you think you’ve taken a great photo, you get this green dot. It is not paranormal, it is the light from the light source (in this case the lamp in the room) that falls diagonally on the lens.

So let’s start really slow and simple and tackle what made me want to start this series of blog posts. Ghosting. Funnily enough, ghosting has nothing to do with ghosts. It actually has to do with that annoying green dot that shows up in photos. It’s even more than just a green dot; it is sometimes a line of several transparent spheres that photographers call ghosts and do not speak literally. Some people claim it’s a ghost and even fairies seem to be a popular ghost too, I’ve heard too. When you look at dust balls there are normally quite a few of them in the photo, so they are easy to debunk and different from what you are looking at here. Since only one or two of these guys appear in your photo, people sometimes get excited and lean towards the paranormal side because they are clearly not dust. Sorry guys, it’s not paranormal. Too bad, I know. Have you noticed that when this green light or one or two transparent orbs appear in your photos, there is usually sunshine shining down or a bright light shining into a room? Do they have a connection? Absolutely yes, they do. I find these orbs so annoying. With a lot of the photography I do I like to try to use light in a room or outside as fill as I am not a big fan of flash photography and I avoid it where possible. This means I always have a bright light source in my photos so these guys pop up a lot. It’s the green ones that I’ve been seeing a lot on Facebook lately, with people claiming they’ve caught something. I imagine that the transparent orbs are more obviously caused by sunlight and there are usually several of them, so when people see a single green orb in a photo they are surprised, confused and excited.

It’s not just green dots that are caused by this reflection. Transparent or light-colored orbs (usually more than one) are also caused by this form of lens reflection.

So why does the light cause this green dot or green orb to appear and ruin our photos? In a very simple nutshell, light hits the lens at an angle and bounces between the elements in your lens, creating a reflection. Yes, it happens with cell phone cameras too. Even a simple digital camera can produce this too; pretty much anything that is a lens has this problem.

Image source http://fstopspot.com/main/free-guides-for-photographers/controlling-and-managing-lens-flare-in-photograph/

This diagram shows very simply how this can happen on both digital and cell phone cameras

You will notice that the sphere (regardless of what color it is) is always aligned with a beam of light. This is always an important indicator and one of the first things to look for when analyzing photos. So how can we avoid picking these up? You can never completely rule out the possibility that you’ll encounter one of these annoying guys in your photo, but you can weigh the odds in your favor by employing a few tricks when you take your photos. So if you’re at a location shooting, there are a few simple things you can do to prevent this from happening.

If you have a DSLR camera, use a lens hood. The larger the hood, the less likely the light will bounce off your lens at an angle. If you don’t have a lens hood or are using a phone or digital camera, place your hand on the top to block out the light. Pay attention to where the light source enters. If the light source is on your side, it is more likely to bounce off the lens or shield the lens back with your hand in the direction the light enters. If you are using a DSLR camera, a UV filter on your lens could also work against you in this case and you may want to remove it. (This is why many IR cameras don’t pick up as many of these ‘bulbs’ when the UV filter is removed.) The good thing is that ghosting will be picked up by your viewfinder or your screen, so you should be able to see it before taking the photo.

There are some precautions you can take to prevent these ‘ghosts’ from appearing in your photos. From a non-paranormal perspective, they are extremely difficult to edit in post-production

There you have it! It’s actually a very simple concept to understand and it’s easy to explain to people. For some it is enough to know that the light reflects off the lens at an angle, while other people need the more complicated diagrams and want to start talking about elements in the lenses and I tune out just by thinking about it . It’s also worth noting that ghosting is actually a term used in photography to also describe a form of motion blur (something I’ll discuss in another post), but this particular form of ghosting is a type of lens flare. Light is the most important thing to take into account in photography. It controls everything, so we need to understand what effect it has on our photos. When we fully understand the effect light has on photos, we can debunk 99% of the real photos that cross our path. The other 1%, that’s why we’re here, right?