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Bugs and fake ‘ghost orb’ photos

Jul 21st, 2005 | By Fiona Broome | Category: Insects, dust, pollen

When you’re hoping for real ghost photos, make sure that bugs aren’t responsible for your streaks, lines, and orbs. We see these ‘false anomalies’ online at other websites, with disappointing claims that they represent spectral energy. Here’s a good example of a bug:

bug in lower of two 'ghost photos' by fiona broome
As we recommend in Ghost Photography 101, we always take two photographs in a row, with the least time and movement between the two. In the top photo, there is no bug. In the lower photo, that irregular white orb is a bug.

moving bug in 'ghost orb' photo

Here’s a closeup of the bug:

If our film hadn’t been so fast (800 ISO), the lens of the camera would have remained open. We’d see an actual line of light in mid-air.

The qualities that make this clearly not a ghost orb include: The orb is bright white and opaque. The orb is not close to a perfect sphere. And, you can see movement at the left side of the orb.

Many “vortex” pictures that are sent to us are blurry lines caused by insects or camera straps. (More are probably caused by stray hairs in front of the camera lens. See our study: Hair test – false vortex photos.)

We avoid bugs as much as we can, by choosing locations and times when there are few bugs, if any. Many cities are relatively bug-free. Cold weather discourages many insects. And, you can use a sonic bug repellant or even bug spray to keep most bugs far from your cameras.

One of the easiest ways to see if there are too many bugs out, is to look at any nearby streetlight. If you can see bugs between you and the light, or fluttering around the light, your photos are likely to be unreliable. With the likelihood of bugs in the pictures, you won’t be able to tell which are real ghost photos.

We’ve studied ghost photos for enough years that we can usually spot a bug in a picture. We don’t confuse them with real ghost orbs.

However, until you’ve had a lot of experience with ghost photos–more than several thousand, at least–be very careful when you see a ghost orb that doesn’t look quite right. It may be a bug.

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