Really scary ghost photos are practically the Holy Grail for ghost hunters. However, scary or not,
most ghost photos can be explained. Here's how we analyze ghost photos.
Below, you'll see a good, average photo take at Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH.
There is only one possible/likely anomaly (perhaps a ghost), and that's the one noted as "Orb?"
LIGHT LEAKS IN GHOST PHOTOS
The yellowish tinge in the upper right corner looks like a light leak, largely due to the color.
However,
it is frame 14 on a roll of 24, and no other photos on the roll show a similar tinge where the film
was exposed to light. So, it may be an anomaly; we can't tell.
Light leaks are usually at the edge of a photo and appear orange or yellow. If you are working with a film camera, the
usual reason for a light leak, examine the negative. The color will extend outside of the picture frame.
Usually, if one photo shows a light leak, several of them will.
BUGS, POLLEN, DUST IN GHOST PHOTOS
Some people interpret lines in a photo as a ghost or even a "vortex."
I believe that each line could be the
path of a flying insect, highlighted by the flash. In low-light conditions, the camera lens is open long enough
to capture the insect's movement. These
are noted as "Bug?"
Lines might also be anything else that floats in the air, usually unnoticed. This includes dust, dirt, pollen,
and milkweed. It's important to rule these out before deciding that an orb or line is an anomaly.
FAKE ORBS IN GHOST PHOTOS
Fake orbs are easy to create with graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Over the original
photo, add a layer. In this case, I set the transparency
at 35%, filled a selected circular area with pale blue, added lighting
and coloring effects, and then blurred it slightly.
CONCLUSION
The original orb in the photo might be something, but it might be dust, pollen, or a bug. The yellow light might be
an anomaly, too. But, without additional evidence, this photo isn't unusual or baffling enough to be interesting.
We feature many other ghost photos that we believe are real anomalies. See them at
Real Ghost Photos, and among our photos from
Haunted Places in the U.S., Canada, U.K.
and Ireland.
