What causes "orbs" in photos?

[astroNikon]

A few months ago I just started playing around with my camera and did "ghosts", "orbs", "light writing" and those things that you see on those Ghost Hunter shows. I put them on my FB and people actually thought they were real. Oh boy ....

You have to love cheap lenses too for that stuff, it becomes natural.

 

[Dao]

This thread will be 10 years old few days later.

 

[astroNikon]

This thread will be 10 years old few days later.

Imagine that. And there are still orbs in this world !!

 

[lambertpix]

Orbs are spirits floating around .... According to the ghost hunters. Hehehehe.

I got that one time from a Gettysburg enthusiast who thought he'd been photographing ghosts. "Oh, really," I said, "so do you find most ghosts show up when you're pointing your camera at strong light sources?"

Sigh.

 

[skieur]

Orbs are BS.
Auras are BS.

And you, of course have duplicated Dr. Kirlian's experiments and proved him wrong. I won't hold my breath waiting for your book.

 

[manaheim]

holy crap ... old thread.

 

[astroNikon]

holy crap ... old thread.

NO

Holy orbs, not holy cr#p

 

[Trever1t]

I believe!

 

[18.percent.gary]

Recently a women put a posting on my local Craigslist in the photo section asking for help from pro photographers. Apparently a large number of photos she took of her kids had an ominous "apparition" looming in the edge of the photos and she wanted help capturing it with some high-end gear.

I was really bored at the time and responded asking for some photos to see for myself.

Each one had a slightly out-of-focus gray wrist strap (the kind found on most low-end point and shoots) blown out by the flash and dangling in the right side of the frame. I guess it only appeared in photos where she tilted the camera down towards the floor to get shots of her little kids.

Being the nice guy that I am I politely responded with my logical, professionally worded, scientific explanation of the phenomena and advised her how to avoid any problems in the future.

I was then promptly berated in a 500 word tirade of a reply as to how it ABSOLUTELY HAD TO BE the spirit of the now deceased grandmother from the great beyond shepherding the children through their young lives. If I was not willing to help her by capture better images of the "ghost" with my high-end gear (at no cost to her I assume) then I should "get a life" and "stop wasting her time". People who believe REALLY believe sometimes.

True story.