Paranormal photography dates back as far as 1862 when a British photographer William H Mumler had been experimenting with a camera (cameras at this time were not common items to have).  As he developed some photographs of family members he noticed that images of other family members who had been long dead also appeared in the photographs alongside the living family members.  These family members had died long before the camera had even been invented.

Since then, paranormal photography has become a hugely popular – and controversial – topic. There are four main types of paranormal photograph: vortices, smokey forms/vapour and, of course, orbs.

Vortices are shaped similar to a whirlwind (similar therefore to a camera strap, which can sometimes be mistaken for a vortex).  Some believe these are manifestations of spirits, where others believe that vortices are gateways to the spirit world.

Smokey forms / Vapours are less common than other types of spirit manifestations, but are thought to be either the spirit of a dead person or the aura of a living person. They do not have a solid form, but are more smoke-like.  It is noticeably different from a photograph of someone exhaling when it’s cold outside, or cigarette smoke.

Orbs are by far the most commonly photographed paranormal anomaly.  Orbs are not thought to be actual spirits, but are thought to be an indication that there is a great deal of psychic energy or activity in that area. Orbs typically appear as small to medium circles – sometimes just one and sometimes as many as fifty. They usually have an off-white tint to them and tend to appear close to the person or people who are emitting the psychic energy.  There are natural ways in which orbs are created in photographs; such as natural sunlight hitting the lens, raindrops and dust particles.  The advent of digital photography and photo editing software has also made it considerably easier to fake orb photography (and, indeed, many other types of paranormal photography).

If you’ve taken your photograph with a digital camera, there could be another totally rational explanation for the appearance of an orb. Investigative group Para.Science has thoroughly researched the top of orbs and digital cameras, contacting digital camera manufacturers for further explanation. Their findings showed that a typical 3 megapixel digital camera actually captures less than 10% of the total image information within a scene (when compared to a 35mm camera negative). So how is the rest of the picture formed? The digital camera’s software has to ‘guess’ the rest of the picture – it fills in the gaps by doing comparisons with the information from surrounding pixels. Therefore, a single pin prick of light can either be completely ignored, or it can be expanded by the software as it compares and creates the rest of the picture, so the single point of light gradually becomes a fainter and fainter circle of light – just like an orb.

Additionally, individual photodiodes (individual photosensitive elements on a imaging chip, which each become one single pixel in a photograph) sometimes don’t respond correctly to the light falling on them and may send a signal that it’s either 100% on (white) or 100% off (dark).  Again, the camera’s software would expand these into orb-like anomalies.  It’s actually not unknown to have “black orbs” (created when the photodiode sends out the 100% off signal) but they are less commonly spotted because they tend to blend in with the photograph.

So, if you are on a mission to photograph orbs and want to be taken seriously, you really should invest in a 35mm camera in order to avoid the major digital camera anomalies described above. 35mm cameras also come with the benefit of having negatives, which means you have extra evidence that your photograph has not been tampered with. Remember to tell whoever is developing your photographs to give you ALL of them, including those which appear faulty - or you might find that they throw away your ‘best’ photos, thinking they are faults!!

If you ARE lucky enough to capture an Orb, be sure to share it on the Paranormal Evidence Wiki!

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