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Orbs - Group Forum Photo Experiment

SirPhilip

Master Poster
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Jan 1, 2006
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One of the most interesting phenomena that is classified under "paranormal" are orbs - often photographed at the scenes of haunted places. What are everyone's conventional thoughts on this; lens flare/smudges/dust? Where I'm at now, Athens, has quite a bit ofN haunted places, especially The Ridges. A few months back, I was talking to a janitor about his adventures sneaking into the condemned areas of the building, and he said he got a bunch of photographs of "orbs".

I've been thinking, why don't we all organize a kind of experiment. I've never actually photographed an orb before, but there is a huge graveyard nearby. We could compare conditions, equipment, and places, as well as anything else anyone suggests, and see what conclusions come of it.

Anyone up for it?
 
Sir Phillip:

Orbs are easy to photograph. Find a room (one that requires the use of a flash on the camera). Take your photo equipment and an old rug. Set up the camera aimed at something across the room. Shake the rug a few times in front of the camera. Snap the pic.

Dust particles, when they are well inside the focal length of the camera, can cause the orb effect. It's been duplicated almost endlessly. While your experiment with graveyards might be fun, I don't htink it will prove anything. Orbs can be reliably created via completely mundane means, and those who refuse to see the evidence now are unlikely to be swayed by graveyard photos.
 
Wow, look at the orbs on this paranormal Shi Tzu! Amazingly difficult to capture using a point & click camera.

Yawn.

orbdog.jpg
 
I've never really understood this fascination some believers seem to have with orbs.

They look like out of focus dust/insects cought in the flash. They are usually taken where you would expect to find dust/insects.
Sometimes they look like an out of focus camera strap.

Uh, that's it.

I really do not understand how anyone could or would even have the desire to interpret them as anything else.

When I was younger I loved a lot of spooky paranormal stuff. I sought out ghost stories and passed on any I heard as true.
But even then I never for a second considered orbs I saw in photos to be anything other than perfectly mundane small objects caught in a flash.

Sir Philip, as Huntsman describes, if you want to photograph orbs you don't need to leave your own house.
 
It's funny... I sent my Dad some digital pics of my house right after I moved in. In one of them, there were "orbs". His comment? "You should clean your lens!"

It really is amazing what people will conjure up to explain things.
 
Someone recently posted a link to an explanation for the apparent "structure" found in these specks of dust. Anyone know where it is?

yes, I really am that lazy
 
Isn't it funny how professional photographers never have problems with orbs? And how they're almost exclusively the results of using cheap point&shoot cameras that have the flash close to the lens?

Tell your dad that cleaning the lens wouldn't help. The dust is floating in the air in front of the lens.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for years. It's frustrating when people refuse to accept a rational explanation. I've even demonstrated this to people, showing them that an SLR with a flash bracket doesn't have this problem, but the cheap-o P&S camera does. They still don't accept the results. I saw one website where the guy actually gave a credible explanation of how dust causes this, but then he said, "They can't all be caused by dust." Aaaarrrggghhh!!!:jaw-dropp

Steve S.
 
steve s said:
Isn't it funny how professional photographers never have problems with orbs? And how they're almost exclusively the results of using cheap point&shoot cameras that have the flash close to the lens?

Tell your dad that cleaning the lens wouldn't help. The dust is floating in the air in front of the lens.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for years. It's frustrating when people refuse to accept a rational explanation. I've even demonstrated this to people, showing them that an SLR with a flash bracket doesn't have this problem, but the cheap-o P&S camera does. They still don't accept the results. I saw one website where the guy actually gave a credible explanation of how dust causes this, but then he said, "They can't all be caused by dust." Aaaarrrggghhh!!!:jaw-dropp

Steve S.
Click to expand...

I may have seen that website. Or another one like it. They had an entire section where they explained, quite clearly and lucidly, how illuminated dust motes can look like orbs, and how camera straps can look like "vortexes", and how cigarette smoke or breath on a cold night can look like "ectoplasm." They intelligently explain to their website members how to avoid taking those types of pictures, and then proceed to display as legitimate ghost pictures a gallery of exactly the things they instructed people how to avoid. Duh!
 
Orbs are easy to photograph. Find a room (one that requires the use of a flash on the camera). Take your photo equipment and an old rug. Set up the camera aimed at something across the room. Shake the rug a few times in front of the camera. Snap the pic.
Click to expand...
Actually, my apartment room is quite dusty at the moment. I'll attempt to duplicate it using this 3.2 megapixel camera's flash, for some fun.
 
steve s said:
Isn't it funny how professional photographers never have problems with orbs? And how they're almost exclusively the results of using cheap point&shoot cameras that have the flash close to the lens?

Tell your dad that cleaning the lens wouldn't help. The dust is floating in the air in front of the lens.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for years. It's frustrating when people refuse to accept a rational explanation. I've even demonstrated this to people, showing them that an SLR with a flash bracket doesn't have this problem, but the cheap-o P&S camera does. They still don't accept the results. I saw one website where the guy actually gave a credible explanation of how dust causes this, but then he said, "They can't all be caused by dust." Aaaarrrggghhh!!!:jaw-dropp

Steve S.
Click to expand...
Admittedly I hadn't researched it (this forum often saves me the effort). Since people still claim they are something else, I guessed there was room for closure. (Yes, I also have a bad, reoccuring habit of introducing topics I should search about beforehand).
 
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Shi Tzu Of The Damned...

[Dog Photo]

And what a nice departure from the off-white and regulation ghostly blue variety...
 
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