Is it possible to photograph a ghost? The answer to that question depends on who you happen to ask.
Attempts at photographing ghosts are nothing new. One of the earliest photographic examples of an unexpected ghostly appearance is a photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of her late husband, Abraham Lincoln, standing behind her shoulder. While skeptics have long denied the authenticity of this particular photo, ghost photography in a different form is enjoying a new surge in popularity.
Over the last few years ghost photography has become a popular pastime with the advent of the digital camera. Adventurous ghost hunters the world over are arming themselves with digital cameras, strobe lights, RF meters and other assorted equipment, and heading toward haunted locations in hopes of capturing an elusive apparition, or two.
What they usually end up with are some seemingly unremarkable photographs, marred by a few glowing spots. But look again. The photographers refer to these spots as orbs. And orbs, they tell us, are genuine photographs of ghosts. Taking the viewpoint a step further, many people hold orb photographs up as scientific evidence and proof positive of life after death existence.
Not so, say critics who insist there is nothing either scientific or remarkable about orb photography. They agree that it may be possible to catch an apparition on film but insist that most orbs are nothing more than easily explained anomalies. Dust particles, pixel displacement, insects and moisture spots, have all been blamed for the majority of orbs that regularly show up on the ghosthunters' photographs.
Charges of fraud and fakery are even lodged from time to time. How can anything that does not reflect light be photographed, the critics ask. Orbs are ghosts and they can be photographed, ghosthunters answer. But since many skeptics are capable of producing fake orb photos that are virtually identical to those purported to be genuine, they suggest that all orb photography be dismissed as anything but ghosts.
One problem with orb photography is the very fact that digital cameras are being used to take the majority of these ghost photographs. In fact some ghost photographers are quick to point out that a digital camera is the only true way to catch a ghost on film.
However, digital cameras produce no negatives. And often the negative will lend more proof of a genuine anomaly than the photograph itself does. Without a negative to authenticate an orb photo and eliminate some of the suspicions surrounding them, the so-called ghost photos will continue to be questionable. And accusations of tampering and enhancement will continued to be lodged.
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