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Another Ghost Photo

Loss Leader said:
It's a hoax. The girl in the photo gives it away. It's supposed to be a picture of her that just happened to catch a ghost in it. After all, there was no reason to take a picture of a post office - according to the story, he didn't suspect it was haunted. Yet the girl is barely in the shot. She's way down and to the left, giving room for the ghost in the far window upstairs.

It's amazing how much of the belief in ghosts and UFOs rests on the belief that grown people are constantly snapping pictures of things that they don't expect to be interesting.
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This seems to me to be probably the best bit of evidence presented so far in favor of "hoax". It could, of course, also be the iPhone app, or the poster. Perhaps it is a combination of two.
Thank you all very much for your input.
 
Ha. I saw this last week and thought it might be worth a laugh at.

There's so much going on in that photo - different reflections and imperfections in the glass that I'd vote for a simple explanation of pareidolia.

I'm also sceptical that the enlargement seems clearer than the original enlarged - it may have help to "clarify" the image.

MattusMaximus said:
Did anyone else see the poll on that page? It asks whether or not you believe in ghosts. Right now it's at 66% yes, 33% no.
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Thanks very much!

That's exactly why I didn't post the damned thing.

The same newspaper ran a "Does god exist" poll which came out 70-30 against.

Now we know what all those non-believers believe instead of god.
 
Given the circumstances, I'd be more inclined to suspect cloud reflection and pareidolia than some elaborate hoax.

Never attribute to malice what simple cognitive illusions can explain.
 
Sledge said:
ETA: I was googling for a page about the app and found this. Good grief.
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W. O. W. :eek:.

I'm speechless. Really. That's just... oh my god. That deserves a blog post, or a thread of its own here. As a matter of fact, I think I'll start one now.
 
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Pure_Argent said:
This story on OddStuff states that a man has taken a picture of what is, apparently, a ghost. Here are the pictures:

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1265285643/539/3295539.jpg

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1265285706/543/3295543.jpg

Photoshop? Cloud? Something else?
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To the OP and various comments in other posts:

I think the 'fold' is the string for the blind. Which means that the image is either a little behind the pane, or a reflection in the pane.

The shadows in the image do not fit the direction of the sun. (Of course, ghosts may not cast shadows, but there ARE definitely shadows in the face image)

Someone said that the composition is improbable for a casual picture. I don't quite agree; it is certainly unusual for an amateur photo, as most would take close-up of the girl, making her legs look big and having only half of the sign on the post office in the picture, but I actually see this one as a very nice composition, with the girl moved to the side, so a portion of the building is seen fully.

What do I think the image is? Probably a reflection of clouds, possibly with the face-like feature 'improved' by a picture editor of some sort. The colors and the general shape of the image corresponds closely to the notion of a reflection of a cloudy sky. The face in unusually distinct for a cloud image, but far from impossible. - Or some enhancement was done.

Hans

ETA: If you look closely at the face in the image, it is actually not as good as it seems. The proportions are not good; on the average human face, the eyes are normally on the horizontal centerline of the head. The man in this image has a very low forehead and skull, almost ape-like proportions. Also the pesrpective is wrong: we see him face on actually from slightly above, but the image is actually on the second floor, where we should see the face from below.
 
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I see a blind string in that window only, in every picture I see of this post office.

283964b7a68b4886ed.jpg
 
MRC_Hans said:
What do I think the image is? Probably a reflection of clouds, possibly with the face-like feature 'improved' by a picture editor of some sort. The colors and the general shape of the image corresponds closely to the notion of a reflection of a cloudy sky. The face in unusually distinct for a cloud image, but far from impossible. - Or some enhancement was done.

Hans
Click to expand...


Looking at the enlargement a bit more carefully, I am convinced it is a reflection of clouds. There are two slightly diagonal black lines that look superimposed on the face. I would guess those are power lines being reflected in front of the clouds.

ETA: Yup, you can see those power lines in the larger picture JcR posted.
 
Diagonal lines are visible on what seems to be the surface of the glass, but one question is what they actually are, and another is whether they're even reflecting off the glass or are behind the glass. The image definitely does look like it's behind the pane rather than reflected on the pane.

Photoshop manip is an obvious choice-- and I've done a lot of Photoshop, and I actually worked with it professionally at an NBC affiliate for awhile doing on-air graphics-- but on the whole, the overall look would cause me to stick with the good old-fashioned poster theory. It would be a clever way to do it, because I do think it's a slightly different look than any image manipulation software would give (and Photoshop isn't the only one out there.)

ETA: The Jack Nicholson comp was cute, but remember... you've got to match resolution for all your source material!
 
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Oh, the power lines do go over the image, definately not the app. Gotta be a ghost.
 
Ghost rider

It looks like clouds.

The reflection of the power lines means it would have been difficult to photoshop. A poster would be a rather elaborate hoax. It would have to be black and white in order to reflect the same sky color as the rest of the windows. If that were the case, it seems the grey shadows, especially in the lower part of the image, would be more blue. In either case, there is no pattern or detail that jumps out as something that could only be from a person or a picture of a person.

The windows are obviously reflecting the sky. The image is a white fluffy shape. So it looks like a reflection of clouds. I looked up other pictures of the post office and they seems to reflect the sky in the same sort of way.

The really creepy thing is that same old bicycle appears in many photos dating back to at least 2007, but not always in the same position. The ghost must like going for bike rides! :p
 
The pics may be taken by the same old cyclist.
I note we can't agree on whether it looks like a man or a woman.
It seems to me the phone / power line reflection actually delineates the "person's" left shoulder and gives an impression of a leg of a pair of spectacles.
I wonder how many of us are actually seing "the same" figure?

I say clouds. Nice old building. pity it's empty.
 
Is the part in the red circle supposed to be part of another ghost -- off to the side, and there was a ghost party going on? Is this ghost flipping us the bird? Or is this an artifact from a colonial painting that got photoshopped onto a blue screen (like the other widows)? Could be a cloud but since there's zero accountability for this photo, I vote photoshop all the way. Why not?
 
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