Well this article made me realise just how amazingly ignorant some people can actually be, i mean no offense by what i say or how i say it but as a VERY rational thinker, and i have VERY Good knowledge of photography in most aspects (2 qualifications and many photos taken) With what i may add is a QUALITY SLR + DSLR CAMERA, WITHOUT a flash unit mounted on the camera, although i do have one with but i will mostly use a seperate flash unit.
QUOTE(Alisa @ Mar 26 2006, 06:06 AM) [snapback]1121020[/snapback]
TwilightSilver, here is the photo of the farmer outlined in yellow...

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i had to swallow my drink pretty fast before i made a mess of the monitor. what you have here is what looks like a kitchen cabinet door, and maybe a jug on the counter, in probably nightvision which produces a very grainey/noisey image, and when you have a load of noise you start to see whatever you like in it, (try looking at tv static and thinking of numbers or symbols, youll soon see them in the noise)
I love this next quote, it almost does all the explaining for me:-
QUOTE(Alisa @ Mar 27 2006, 10:47 PM) [snapback]1123168[/snapback]
In fact, orbs love rain. This makes it pretty sticky with critics, I know. I capture far more orbs when I take photos in the rain. But, I capture identical looking orbs in the same places (though often in fewer numbers) when it is as dry as a bone. It may be energy from raining, or the atmosphere, or simply the love of rain, I do not know!
Well alisa, this may be hard for you to grasp, but i DO have the ANSWER!!!
you see, when you take photos of RAIN, light from the FLASH on your camera actually HITS These rain drops, and when light hits somthing it is reflected, hence why cameras actually have flash's, so your rain drops falling from the sky are bouncing back out of focus blobs.
Now, the reason these raindrops and orbs look the same is because They Are Both Rain.
As with anything floating through the air it WILL be reflected hard by the flash (most of all by the popular digital cameras with a flash pretty much stuck right next to the lens)
Which causes the reflection to be Even More Stronger because the reflected light is sent almost directly back to the lens.
good examples of different camera behaviour here --
This was a freinds bands gig, where it was fairly dusty in the place, this is a photo taken with a popular COMPACT Digital camera

lots of reflected dust clearly visable and oh look a different coloured one, nothing unusual.
The next one is from a Digital SLR Camera, (Nikon D70 if you wanna look it up) the flash unit built in was used, but is placed a few inches above the lens and pops up away from the body. note that there are no, or if there are then barely visable "Orbs" (dust) in the pic, oh and the reason for more than one arm visable is because it was like a 1/2 second exposure and this was the desired effect, kinda.
larger pic, click to seeso thats that.
QUOTE(Alisa @ Mar 27 2006, 10:47 PM) [snapback]1123168[/snapback]
In fact, in many of my night time photos with orbs in them, when I begin to brighten, and brighten, and brighten the photo, more and more orbs appear far off into the distance, often completely filling the sky. Yet they are not at all visible in the first look at the photo. If anyone is slightly curious, check some of your photos in a photo program by contrasting it a bit at a time to see if there are orbs that are so faint they can't otherwise be seen. To me, the whole idea of orbs, ghosts, etc., is all about exploration. Not even proving or arguing, just looking outward with curiosity and excitement about what else might exist, and what might happen to us when we pass, and who else might be living beside us that we can learn about and befriend.
ok so this just shows How much stuff there is floating around the camera, mostly this will be quite close up to your lens, Next time you go taking photos at night, pay close attention to just in front of your camera when the flash goes, off... e.g peer over the top of the camera looking downward on it. im quite sure you will see small bits of dust, maybe not always but somtimes especially in a dark place or inside you will probably see this a few times.
ALSO When you take photos again, if you can, set your camera to NOT use flash, might be possible in night mode, or under options. I Can pretty much garantee that you wont ever have any "orbs" in these photos, But why would this be? SURELY Orbs are ENERGY As all ghosts are claimed to be, and in order for this energy to be seein it is given off as light.. Right?....
So why do orbs need flash and bright lights in order for them to occur?
Maybe this is what everyone who believes orbs are a form of aparition needs to consider, and experiment for themselves without flash photography to see for themselves. (include foreground so we can see no flash was used!)
so
In a world where Cheaper Compact cameras are widespread and used by nearly everyone, this effect is always going to happen and unfortunately due to websites, tv n stuff who are desperate to produce evidence of paranormal activity that they use this crap as their only evidence and show the world what ghosts look like. sorry if any of this sounded sarcastic etc but it gets me angry!