Ghost pictures can be real, fake, or the product of simple mistakes.

In our another article, Ghost vortex or camera strap?, we showed a variety of vortex-like images made by stray camera straps.

But, that’s not all we discovered in our experiments.

At left, there is a very strange shape that seems to wrap around the patio railing. Part of the figure seems in back of the railing, and the rest is in front of it.

That’s the camera strap, and it’s entirely in front of the railing. In fact, it’s at least two feet closer to the viewer than the railing is.

If we hadn’t been using a tripod during this experiment, the shape could have been more blurry, irregular, or a different color. It might even look like a ghostly figure passing through solid matter.

This shows that, unless it’s highlighted by the flash, the camera strap can look translucent or even invisible in some areas. (Click photo to see it larger.)

At right, the sky appears to be lit up, or as if the subject was a mountain range against a light sky.

Again, this is the camera strap. In this photo, it’s at the top edge of the camera lens.

Its irregular, sometimes translucent edges make it difficult to identify as a camera strap. We talk more about this in another article, Ghost pictures and ‘floating’ camera straps.

At left, the yellow trash can isn’t haunted, and that’s not a vortex leading to it. It’s the camera strap.

Though all of these are odd looking photos, none of them are likely to be mistaken for ghost pictures.

However, as we pointed out in Ghost vortex or camera strap?, the context makes all the difference.

The photos below show what we’re talking about.

Like you, we’ve seen similar pictures online, represented as ‘ghost vortex’ photos.

We’re not claiming that they’re fake, or that they aren’t ghost vortex photos.

We’re hoping to emphasize the importance of knowing where your camera strap is when you take ghost pictures. That’s the only way that you can state confidently that a vortex–or other eerie anomaly–is real.