What exactly are modern ghost hunters catching on camera? Are the images truly mysterious or are technological slip-ups and wishful thinking to blame? Let Â鶹´«Ã½ be your spirit guide…
Read more: “Ghouls on film: Paranormal photography goes digital“
Ectoplasm
A Victorian favourite, this pale remains a standard in ghost images. These days, this ethereal-looking substance is likely to be flash light reflected by condensation on the lens or from the photographer’s breath, says Wood. Savvy ghost hunters lurking in icy churchyards are careful to avoid this effect and ban smoking on the job for the same reason. Others may fail to notice a flash firing as the photo was taken. “People will swear the flash did not activate,” says Wood. EXIF data stored in the camera’s memory will reveal the truth.
(Image: Gill Hutton/Ghosts Caught on Film: 3)
Vortex energy
Another recent phenomenon, the elongated silvery forms of can also sometimes look banded like a tornado. It may be no coincidence that a textured camera strap hanging in front of the lens can create a . “Each photo should be judged on its merits,” says Gordon Rutter, of the Edinburgh Fortean Society and author of . “But the evidence is pretty convincing for camera straps being the culprits.”
(Image: Ben Crystall)
Flare spirits
Camera lenses contain several glass elements. When pointed towards a bright light they can reflect or scatter it onto the camera’s sensor. The result is a faint glow or washed-out region in an image, or a single spot (or line of spots). If a flare spirit disappears when the lens is shaded or is hexagonal in shape (like the lens aperture), it probably has rather than unearthly origins.
(Image: ASSAP)
Orbs
Odd balls of light known as began to appear widely in photos in the mid-1990s. To believers, they are a sign of . Sceptics disagree.
The lens systems on many compact digital cameras are not designed to focus on a subject closer than a few centimetres away. Dave Wood, from the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena, has shown how insects or dust appear out of focus when illuminated by the camera’s flash, creating .
Steven Parsons from agrees. He found airborne material near the camera lens and relatively close to the lens axis can cause an orb to appear (Journal of Research into the Paranormal (2010) 44, p 91-97). Compact cameras are especially prone to creating orb images, he says.
(Image: Mark Stock/ASSAP)
Phantoms
Flash photographs taken through glass can create phantom reflections, an effect known as Pepper’s Ghost. But camera flashes can have other effects, sometimes reflecting from objects outside the frame to produce diffuse patches of light or making distant objects – especially if they are flat or reflective – stand out in unexpected places. Similarly, slow shutter speeds can give moving figures an ethereal appearance.
(Image: Mattieu Fur/Victoria Hutton)
Pareidolia
The human brain is optimised to recognise faces, which could also explain why we are so good at picking out meaningful shapes in random patterns. This phenomenon, pareidolia, could be responsible for a host of otherwise unexplained sightings, such as the face of the Virgin Mary on a . In the same way, a chance arrangement of clothing, shadows or rocks could account for ghostly figures or faces in photographs.
(Image: Filip Gaž/Rex Features)
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