Dust, Dirt, and Anomalies

by Fiona Broome and the Hollow Hill staff ©2005


These two photos were a huge disappointment.

In order to identify anomalies in particularly dark photos, we scan them and use one of our graphics programs to increase the contrast, brightness, and saturation. Sometimes we can see more that way.

(Our photos online are not enhanced, unless noted in the descriptions.)

When our first night photos at Gilson Road included the enhanced photo on the right, we were thrilled. These white swirling masses resembled the "sparkles" and "after-the-fireworks" images we often see. We were certain we'd caught the ghostly energy on film.

A daytime visit to Gilson Road confirmed our suspicions, as we checked for gypsy moth nests, which might have looked the same on film.

Nope, no gypsy moth cocoons/nests.

We were doubly delighted that these photos now appeared genuine, because the "sparkles" are among the coolest phenomena we witness on ghost hunts.

However, a later photo at Schoolhouse Cemetery, on the left, showed an identical "anomaly."

Our good spirits (so to speak) crashed. We hadn't captured the sparkles, after all.

At first, we were afraid that there was something wrong inside this camera. Closer investigation revealed a few fine splotches of white paint on our scanner screen, from the Edinburgh "ghost story" paintings.

The clear lesson is: Carefully monitor every step of the process, when you're sorting out what's an anomaly and what isn't.


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