Common Explainations for Orbs, Mist, and Smoke on Film

Orbs: Orbs in pictures are almost always dust, bugs, moisture condensation, and sometimes. your lens needs to be cleaned. Orbs are the most common illusion in pictures.

Mist: If the area where the picture is taken is damp, chances are that you have "mist" appear in the pictures. Most old buildings have a source of constant moisture and it can adversely affect your film. Moisture gets into the camera and taints the film often causing blurs that appear as mist.

Smoke: If you or anyone in the room is or was smoking, the film will often catch it. It can produce some spectacular results and allow your eyes to more easily matrix what itsn't really there.

Other factors in producing illusions: Glass, mirrors, jewelry, shiny insects, polished wood, light, shadows, television sets.

Most "ghost" pictures have a logical and physical explaination that is not paranormal. Keep these in mind when you look at or take pictures. Don't be let down or upset if your pictures turn out to be false. We wouldn't have the few, rare, and authentic pictures we do if people gave up.

Happy Hunting!

 

I can't explain it but I do know that nothing visible was there.

 

Given the tail of the orb...I'm inclined to call it a bug..HOWEVER, I posted this picture over at one of the PI forums I belong to for opinions. They like to do things like blow up the image for closer inspection, run it through their infared digital enhancers and what not.

That's a bit too geeky for me so when I get their results, I'll share them with you. Genuine orb or not, it's a good picture.

 

Hey thanks a lot cynical otter. Let me know if they want the original I can post it or send it to ya too. I would really like to know what it was. A little background info on the pic for you:

Taken around 11:00 PM, Sept 3rd 2004.
Camera: Kodak DC215 Digital.

A few friends and I were in a park, at the end of a long driveway that leads to the top of a hill. There is a forest in the background which we were just walking through before I took the picture. We had gotten spooked inside the forest (I think it was just a bad vibe, no real interaction) and had just run out of there back into the car. When I took the pic we were just about to leave in a hurry, I had just jumped in the car and decided to take a picture out the open window in the direction we had just come from. I took the picture with the intention of capturing whatever supernatural thing was out there that made us so uncomfortable. Well, I didn't know anything about orbs back then, but I saw the bright object in the display as soon as I took it and I verified right then that there was nothing out there in mid space. At that point I showed my friends the pic and we got the hell out of that forest real quick.

The forest is in a park called Weldon Park which is just north of London, Ontario just off of Richmond St. I looked into any clues as to what the orb could have been, like other stories of ghosts in the park but I didn't find anything back then.

Thanks for sending it out hope this helps my case. They can contact me for more info if they like.

 

Here is a link to the original:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Ironcore/DCP03368.jpg

If they do UFOs can they take a look at these two as well I can't figure out what that black egg over the treeline could be.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Ironcore/UFO1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Ironcore/UFO2.jpg

Thanks again.

 

just playing devils advocate here cynical ....hoping for some good discussion . just a couple of questions = would you say a orb is a first stage of spirit? ectoplasm mist second stage? its just that you dont mention it in your account above .also on investigations apart from electrical equipmment used have you used other methods ie = bell "incense "candles " scrying etc etc (all believed to be a connection to the spirit world ) could i have your view on photo below taking on a investigation after tuning in ( weather dry clear starry night ) (nobody smoking ) .....cheers

 

It's a bug. That's the consensus.

You can call it your BORB.

 

is"nt a bord something you stick on a xmas tree

 

I don't think they are any stages or levels. Some spirits can only(or choose) to manifest as orbs. Orbs and mist require very little energy to form. Much less then what would be required for a full apparition. However, most spirits don't become visible at all. It's safe to say that about 97% of hauntings never result in any sort of visuals. You are more likely to catch EVPS, EMPs, and cold spots then pictures or film.

To answer you question about non-electrical equipment, yes, scrying is commonly used. Often it's used before any electronics are busted out. I myself have never done it but I have seen it done. In my experience, candles are not a good tool because they are too easily effected by the environment.

Easy. Lighting, and the amount of dust/bugs/dirt in the air. It's sheer luck of light-strike. I will post them if I can get copies scanned of my mother's dog-grooming shop. We have pictures of before, during, and after the remodeling. Before and during...the pictures were riddled with "orbs" but in the after-shots, there isn't one "orb". Ghosts don't just leave once a place is remodeled. They tend to stick around and be all "orby" if that's their bag.

Most old buildings and outside at night have higher concentrations of moisture, especially humidity which can adversely effect film. This is one reason why most professional photographers can't guarantee good quality photos of nighttime events and often charge more for night events(weddings, proms, ect) because the amount of corrections they have to make to the portraits, whether it's removing red eyes, "orbs", or smears. When you recieve your lovely photos from your Homecoming or Prom, they are heavily airbrushed.

When I had to work the photo lab when I was manager for Walgreens, one of the major rules was to make sure that no water was inside the developers. We had to wait atleast 2 hours after cleaning the machinery before any film was run through. Water+fim=bad.Very bad.

And every picture that everyone takes is effected by the moisture in the air. No picture is an absolutely perfect image. If you look closely at them versus the actual thing you photoed, you will see what I mean.

Photo experts mainly. Those who know real photo images from fake images and who have the equipment to examine images down to the individual pixel. They can break images down and actually tell what they are. A bug becomes a bug, dust and dirt have specific shapes. A reflection becomes quite obvious.

All professional ghost hunting teams have atleast one computer dork who's sole purpose is to try and debunk all evidence presented.

The only true way to prove the existance of the paranormal is to prove all possible explainations and whatever is left that can't be debunked is the evidence needed.

While I tend to view ghost hunting as a fun hobby, there are thousands of people who treat it as a science, as a job. They don't goof around.


As for my own personal pictures. Not any more. The sites I provided you with on the other thread indeed have some good evidence that has yet to be disproven.

I am though, trying to form my own team...and if that takes off anytime during this century, I hope to have some cool stuff to post on the net and brag about.

Are you part of a team. What's your interest in the field?

 

z

 

i believe in ghosts and whatnot, but the pictures they take are so stupid, when they could create the same picture with a floating grocery bag as an orb or some shit.

 

Picture one: Looks altered to me but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and I posted it on my one forum full of photo-dweebs. If it is altered in any way, they will find out. If not, they may have an explaination or may have caught yourself a mighty fine apparition photo.

Picture two: Am I looking at the Dorb at the bottom corner of the doorway there? That's dust or dirt. Nothing spectacular. a small spec of dust or dirt on a camera lens can do that. HOWEVER, since I'm such a cynic when it comes to orbs I submitted this pic as well. Maybe they will see something I don't.

 

oh it's definitely not altered. i'm not that bored with myself
what site are you using for your info, by the way?

 

It's a forum I belong to for paranormal investigators and people interested in the field.

http://www.tprconline.com/index.php

 

i have been part of a few investigation teams here in the uk over the last ten years or so " as being a sensitive to spirit i have experienced clair-emotion"clair-touch"clairaurience"clairsentinence " at some very interesting locations and also within my own surroundings . thank you for some interesting discussion ..............ps just wonded if you have sent that photo i put up to be analysed ? .......would be interested on their reportings......cheers

 

I have another explanation for "orbs" appearing in photographs that you guys may be interested in. I have a digital surveillance camera that is activated by motion occuring in the camera's field of vision. As I reviewed the previous night's activity one morning, there appeared a white circle of light that was identical in appearance to an "orb" on the playback. It flew up into the picture and danced around, then flew off to the left and ultimately off the screen. I wondered as to it's origin for about a week, and another experience gave me my answer to the mystery: I had purchased a new digiltal hand-held camera, and went outside to experiment with the "telefoto" capabilities of it. I saw another tenant halfway down the parking lot with his back to me. I chose to use him as a subject and held my camera up to my eye and zoomed in on him. He appeared to be holding something in his hands that he was aiming at the wall in front of him. Suddenly, on the wall in front of him there appeared a circle of white light that was identical to the one that had appeared on my surveillance camera the week before! I removed my camera from my eye and looked at him with my naked eye - no circle of light on the wall. I put my camera back up and looked through it again - the circle of light was there! What he was holding in his hands was a digital camera as well; both his and mine had infra-red capabilities for low-light applications. What I believe was occuring was my camera lens was able to see the infra-red output of his camera that my naked eye was not able to detect. We discovered that this man was often up in the middle of the night; using his camera to mess with our surveillance equipment - we ultimately also discovered that this was the individual who had been vandalizing vehicles and stealing gas, etc.; which was the primary reason we set up the surveillance equipment to begin with - to catch whoever was doing these things. And, catch him we did!

I want to make it clear that this is conjecture on my part, but I'm fairly certain that's what was going on here. I also want to say that I do believe in "ghosts" - I use that term for want of a better word for them. I say this because I have had four experiences in my lifetime so far that involved the presence of what I would say was a ghost. The occurrences took place years apart in vastly different places - after the last two incidents, I do definitely believe in the existence of something that we can't explain by logical reasoning; and I like things that make sense - because of my tendancy towards sensibility, I found the experiences quite unsettling; and to this day, cannot provide a reasonable explanation for them other than "ghosts"! I am really in pursuit of what a "ghost" really is, though - I'm not completely certain that it is about someone dying in that location, etc.
the best way I can describe it is that during the occurrences, I felt the presence of some sort of energy force so strongly that it was undeniable. I was so certain that "someone" was there, that I had to turn and look; for surely someone else was in the room - but noone was there. But something was there! I've entertained the thought that perhaps it's something on another dimension or something of that nature, but I do not have the correct understanding of dimensions specifically, so i'm probably wrong about that. If you wanna hear anything about my experiences, let me know, and I'll recount them.

Sincerely, Michaela
___________________________________________________________

"They will never make a perfect heart until they make one
that can't be broken." ....... The Wizard, "The Wizard of Oz"
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Explain this!

 

is this the original photograph ? if so its interesting.after having a quick look (will study it in detail later) my first thoughts are its a slim rock "the interesting thing is that i see a mans face he seems to be crouching down from behind the tree (the dark area being his shoulders and body . also the ground looks dry so i assume it was"nt raining .

 

I don't think it's a rock, it appears to be something in motion. There are stripes on the "sleeeves" of the monk's cloak. It could be a double exposure, it could, well be something else.

Without a negative to see (and if it's digital, it's even harder to examine in detail) it just can't be said what it is.

 

It's matrixing and obviously a reflection. Nice try though. You can tell it's a reflection by the glare caused by glass.