[attachmentid=10796]

I act in community theatre. I recently played the lead role of Ichabod Crane in the legend of sleepy hollow at a very old theatre that is reputed to have at least three ghosts in it.

After finishing the play, cast photos were taken on the last day and when i recieved the pics I was startled to see a spirit orb in one of the photos. Normally these can be explained by dust on the camera lens or dust floating in the air centimeters from the camera, but this orb was partially eclipsed by one of the actor's shawls, showing that the orb in question was not between the camera and the stage.

I do believe in ghosts, although I am pretty skeptical of photographic proof. Yet this has me stumped to the point that I believe this is a photo of a genuine orb. Does anyone have any ideas of what else this could be?

(edit) dammit, the board says the pic is too large. Will attempt to crop.

I don't know.... It looks like it's on the camera lense.








Welcome to the Forum!

Save the pic, open it and zoom in. You can see the lady's shawl obscures it. You'll also see a blue nimbus around it's edge.

Okay where exactly are we looking....i have a very clear picture but can see no orb at all.........??????

Do you mean the huge blob in the background? Cause that looks like a fingerprint or smear on the lense to me.

If you notice..theres a very faint image resembling the "orb" that you're talking about behind the girl who is bending over in the pink skirt and a red shawl (or whatever they call it). Its probably just light reflecting is all.

No still cant see anything...and my download of the picture is crystal clear...will try lighten it up some

i see alot of anomalies in the picture. maybe a ligth effect

It's on the left, immediately beside the last girl on the left, at the level of her thighs.

And thanks Jayman for pointing out the other one, I missed it. Quite a bit fainter, though.

Lets look at it this way. If this spirt has enough energy to make an orb that big it would turn out (in the picture) as an apparation (human figure) not an orb.

Bleh, sorry, I just assumed anyone posting here would have at least a passing familiarity with orbs.

But hey, it's never too late to learn.

http://www.ghosttracker.com/photos-Fakes.html

http://www.ghosttracker.com/photos-04-11-07SuzyPITT.html

http://www.ghosttracker.com/photos-03-03-0...nsionDepth.html

Read that, then look at the picture again.

Light effects do not hide behind people, not to mention no light sources are in the picture and no reflective surfaces were on stage. The only light was ambient lighting overhead behind a drop that masks them from the audience, which is where the photo was taken.

The problem is that orbs are the most criticized form of paranormal evidence. Photos containing orbs have became the most popular ghost image since the creation of digital cameras. I personally disregard orb photos that were taken with a digital. I am a photographer and I do both digital and film work. I have often gotten orbs in digital work in bad lighting situations that I did not get on the film taken at the same location and time.

This orb is interesting that it seems to be behind the individual on the stage. It can't be considered proof of a haunting though. You must expect people to try to explain it away. Even those of us with experience and study in orbs will look for every explanation. It doesn't mean they have no knowledge in orbs though.

Orbs are generally solid and have even been known to create shadows. This orb is shaped exactly like a large lens flare. The part of the orb that is hiding behind the individual is the extreme edge and the person it is "behind" is wearing an off white shawl and a white apron. This would cause the lens flare to appear behind her because it is a soft light flare that could easily blend into her brighter clothing.

I feel this flare is caused from a non-direction light reflection on the lens. This could be caused by light difference between the dark backdrop and the lighter clothing of the people.

I have had many situations where a model I am working with is posing in front of a dark backdrop with lighter clothing or skin. It causes a soft reflection from their skin which flares on the lens. This can either create a large lens flare or soft glow effect on the model.

This is just my opinion and professional experiance as a photographer.

Was this taken with digital or film?

Digital, I'm afraid. Thank you for your reply and a reasonable explanation. It was for precisely that that I came here.

Is it normal for a blue nimbus to appear around the edge of such an anomaly? And what is your opinion of the second, lighter orb behind the girl in the red shawl on the right?

a piece of dust, nice try

There is a slight blue tint to the spot on the left but it isn't just on the outside. You can see spots of color all through it. The dark blue could easily be accounted for by the black background which black has a deep blue coloration to it in certain light.

The one behind the girls head on the right is a little harder to explain. I'm trying to see if it goes over the shoulder of the girl and over the head of the girl but it hard to tell. It does look like it goes over her shoulder but because of the white coloration of the bonnet on the girls head, it is hard to tell if it goes over her head or behind it. It does look like it goes over head head if you look at the line of her face under the bonnet. There is a whitish tent to it.

Most real orbs create shadows and I see no shadows here. These definately have all the signs of digital orbs and not ghostly orbs.

Actually not a piece of dust. It is a lens flare. Big difference.

I did some more research on this and think my theory on why the orb has a deep blue coloration has been confirmed. I went through lots of orb photos and the majority of them were dust or lens flares. If there was a black background they had a deep blue coloration. If there was a red background they had a deep red coloration. And there was one with green walls and chairs and the orbs had a green coloration.

Just something interesting I found.

Is it just me or does it have a specific pattern to it? Like wee circles or something? I dunno. Could be any thing, as others have said it could just be the light. I think I'll keep an open mind. As always.


From Star_child

Here are some differnet views of the large orb. All I did was ajust color channels and such. no doctoring. if you look at the 1st two its almost as if the girl is casting a shadow on the orb.

1. raised brightness
2. desaturated
3,4,and 5. color channels
6. sharpened
7. posterized
8. contours

[COLOR=blue][SIZE=7][FONT=Courier]I saved your photo and reopened it using HP Image Editor and changed a few things and this is what I came up with. It looks real to me, but I'm no expert.

it took me ages to fathem out where it was. it's a shame it's not clearer

I did the same to the second orb. I didn't turn the color channels up as much due to the fact that the orb is so faint.

Also I'm not poking any fun at anyone but this made me giggle. if you stare at the 1st orb for a bit it looks like a happy face.

I can't even see the first one.

Oh well.

Ahhhh... there they are.

I'd like to get a fresh crop of opinions, so....

Bump

If it makes any difference, it was the Paramount theatre in Bristol Tennessee.

I do like to give my opinion on orbs.



I did a local equalization, which I think helps show the dimension of orbs in photos. I see what I consider a classic coiling, often seen in spirit orbs, in the large orb on the left. I also fully believe that the orb behind the females on the right is a spirit orb. I especially like that the orbs are "behind" the people. Quite often they aren't.

With alot of enhancment, a person can find just about anything in a picture.


Anyway, I took a good look att he orginal poster's pic. The 2 orbs are clearly there - the huge one to the left and the one behind the girl's head. The one behind the girl's head could be anything, even part of the background, do personally, I'm dismissing it as nothing paranormal.

Actually, the huge one to the left could have several explinations so - I'm gonna say it's probably not paranormal either.

Looks like lens flare to me

Jesus people, when are these orb things going to end? Not to be rude, but this orb thing occurs everytime we have a new member. Not that there is anything wrong with new members, as we welcome them, but merge all orb topics together and let them believe what they believe as must of us know that orbs are not paranormal. It's just common sense, that orbs are not there when you look at them with the bare eye, but show up when you take pictures and use the flash?

I tend to agree. I hate orb pics. I just see lens flare or dust. So many people just will not accept that though. *sigh*

NME, tolerance of diversity goes a long way toward learning and growing. Let's keep some diversity of opinion. Thus far, the balance is far in favour of those that post they don't believe orbs are of a spiritual nature. But it bears to remember that there have been countless times in history where the majority believed erroneously.

Orbs are not there when you look at them (for most people), but neither are xrays nor microscopic bacteria, far away stars, natural gas emissions, etc., etc. I believe cameras perform as a tool for illuminating a phenomenon that exists beyond the perception of the average physical eye.

With the hundreds of billions of life forms that live and have lived on the earth, it is not hard for me to believe that orbs are everywhere (whether human, animal, or something else).


I beg to differ that a person can find just about anything with local equalization aside from what is truly there. Local equalization is a one-click process with my photo-paint program. It is a function based on a mathematical equation that suppress overall contrast while revealing local detail.

Hey Alisa I have an undecided Orb pic in the ball lightning thread, I would be interested to see your interpetation on it

This thread here, top post http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...pic=71393&st=15

Looking at this picture I do not see the ORB and the fact that it is under a shawl can be easily explained as a particle falling from the shawl.

The orb next to the shawl is hard to define since if it is on the fore ground its difference runs along the folds and bits of the spotlit shawl making it appear to be non-visual hence appearing to actually be behind the shawl although it's almost impossible to tell. The other orb being of a similiar size to the shawl orb is just too faint to make any solid decision on whether close range dust/lint or spirits.

Alisia: local equalization causes bleeding of colours and adds an artificial dimension to the pic. Nicely done though, makes great art. It does look pretty, almost christmasy

Please don't be offended by our opinions, they are after all just opinions.

Interesting photo none the less and thank you very much for submitting it!

?



Thanks DR. But the "local equalization filter lets you enhance the contrast near image edges and reveals details in both light and dark regions". No bleeding. If you are so inclined, here's a link (see halfway down the page point 3.A.1) that shows how local equalization reveals tiny chisel marks on a piece of metal/coin, or brings out a fingerprint.


No offence taken by your opinion. I'm not a fan of personal attacks, but I relish differing viewpoints.

its another dust dust dust dust dust photo. its size is due to the focal lenght of the lens, i presume it was zoomed in from afar and with a flash.

the other day i noticed a slightly larger than normal bit of dust floating round the room and used it as an opertunity to take some shots to show how orbs are confused with dust, i can show how it looks with a zoom and with a wider angle:

here it is at a wider angle http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/dea.../dustnozoom.jpg

and zoomed
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/dea...it/dustzoom.jpg

this is it focused on the dust:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/dea...dustfocused.jpg

excuse the dodgy focusing but it was moving around quite a bit.

i know yours has what you might call insides, but this is usually attributed to the lens, the coating or whatever small amount of dirt is on there, also it changes from lens to lens.

as for it looking like it goes behind the person on stage yea it does look like that, especially when you change the levels of the photo. this is because the 'orb' isnt really emitting a strong level of brightness, and can only really be seen against the black backdrop. the signal level of the actors is a lot stronger and overpowers that of the dust making it look as though it dissapears.. if that makes sense



over equalising an image Definately can over-do an image creating new images, you can see the background has become digital noise where you made the adjustments alisa.
you say its a one click process, but i think you may have one clicked it a few too many times

it wouldnt be lens flare either as there is no strong source of light coming at the camera hrgfffgg

Sorry but that can not apply to this. Cameras are made for taking pictures. They are not meant to capture things that are not there, but if so, it is due to a camera malfunction or human error. It's that straight foward. As for the other elements you just metioned such as natural gas, a lens made to detect gases has been made just for that. It's that simple, so a normal digital camera will not capture x-eays....It's that simple. There's always a source.

Every time someone posts an orb photo I hope that you are around to see it because you give the best examples and explain them in the most understandable terms!

haha thanks, i just wish there were other photos to try and explain other than orrbbbbss allllllllllll the time. makes me even more skeptical which is a shame

Ok Jon I have another piccie for you - again I'm not claiming anything about it, If i did feel sure about them I would have posted these pics long ago! but still may be interesting for where the conversation is going.

Attached is two images, one using your effect other is without effect, i see white (red green and blue) bleeding over detail everywhere and also in grey does this mean the light haze shown in origional pic is actually fog?

The filter you use is quite nice but I wouldn't use it for enhancement, each to thier own i suppose.

This is a spirit orb that I photographed in my kitchen after the council removed the tiles that were 60+ years old and were becoming dangerous.

The other night I sat on my setee and beside me I heard somebody heavy sighing into my ear.[attachmentid=26363]

it just looks like it is a black curtain or backdrop behind them and a light sorce like a torch is shining behind it. Also it could just be the lense or the way cameras or the glass of the lens catches the light and reflects it creating a orb when the photo is taken.