Hair test – false vortex photos

Ghost vortex claims are even more controversial than ghost orb pictures. Most vortex photos show a swirling line on the right side of the photo. Many skeptics correctly guess that this can be caused by a camera strap.

However, the ‘ghost picture’ at left could fool many ghost hunters.

It’s a hair.

We deliberately took photos using Fiona’s long red hair for the test. The picture above was sharpened in its reduced size, but only enough to duplicate the appearance of the original, larger digital photo. Otherwise, this picture has not been Photoshop’d.

At right you can see another hair photo, which looks like vortices.

We removed the red coloration from the hair to more closely duplicate average hair color.

We also sharpened the image so that it looks like the original, larger picture.

We’ve seen many ‘ghost vortex’ pictures that were similar to this one. We were surprised.

Some of our hair photos didn’t show much. Unless the hair is at least an inch in front of the lens, it’s not highlighted enough by the flash.

We’d never want to suggest that all similar-looking photos are caused by hair in front of the lens. They aren’t.

In fact, we’ve maintained that ghost pictures are only as reliable as the integrity and expertise of the people who took them.

However, these pictures show that hair–even a single hair or a couple of them–can create fairly convincing looking ‘ghost vortex’ photos.

Hair can cause other false anomalies, too. See our other discoveries at False shadows from hair.

Or see more false vortices at More fake ghost pictures with hair.