Ghost photos...

[AccuKen]

I am new here, so , I apologize of this is not an appropriate post - or the appropriate place for this post.

Occasionally, during lunch, I visit the ghost study website and check out their "Amazing ghost photo gallery" www.ghoststudy.com/gallery.html (http://www.ghoststudy.com/gallery.html). They have the usual - orbs, motion blur, double exposure, patterns in trees - all purported to be photos of ghosts. While I chuckle at the stories of these photos and the claims that they are authentic photos - and thus proof - of ghosts, I am also disturbed that people believe this nonsense.

I do find the pictures of "faces in the TV screen" type to be intriguing...and that brings me to the point of this post. To me, the simplest, and thus likely correct explanation for these, is that they are hoaxes (what better place to alter a photo than on a dark TV screen?), or simple reflections of objects in the room. However, I also wonder if there is a possibility these are "authentic" photos. Could the image be a result of residual static charge built up on the TV screen that is somehow excited, or otherwise enticed into producing an image of a face (one the screen recently displayed)?

Does anyone else have a theory or know of one?

Sorry for the long post - rookie mistake, I guess.

K.

[Nyarlathotep]

Welcome to the forum. Your post isn't over long at all so don't worry about it.

As for your theory about faces in TV screens, I don't know if what you say is possible but I do know that a picture can be "burnt" into a screen if it held for too long. Not ahving ever seen it happen I don't know if it would look like any of the "ghost photos" you mention, though. I would be willing to bet, though, that faces in TV screens can be produced in all sorts of ways and that all of those ways were used in different pictures.

[Ed]

The phospher on a screen has some persistance so it can glow for a bit. Are these TV's on?

[Zombified]

At least in some of these pictures, I'd have to guess that the TV was in fact turned on at the time. The ghostliness of the image may be due to ambient lighting conditions, so that the image on the TV appears darker in a photo than the eye might percieve. I've noticed this in pictures I've taken in rooms with TVs in them on one or two occasions.

[Soapy Sam]

I had a green Hercules monitor (recently binned). Despite not being switched on in about eight years, , a C:> dosprompt and several words were clearly readable on the screen when switched off.

It wasn't much on graphics I'm afraid. Neither are most of those photos.

Welcome to JREF, Ken.

[c0rbin]

Don't forget that that not only is there noise in the photo, but there is usually more noise when an image is transmitted across the web due to a huge loss of quality. Even "high" quality jpegs lose some detail (or gain wierd shapes from pixels approximating the a color).

We had a poster here a while ago who would go down into his/her basement, turn off the lights, take poor quality pictures, post them online, and demand that we agree they were the faces of demons.

Good times...

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by c0rbin
We had a poster here a while ago who would go down into his/her basement, turn off the lights, take poor quality pictures, post them online, and demand that we agree they were the faces of demons.

Good times... What do you mean, a while ago (http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=1870269790#post1870269790)? (Note date on post.)

Rolfe.

[AccuKen]

When taking pictures of my new home back in October I "captured" several orbs doing their "thing" in my bedroom. I thought about submitting them, with a phoney story like "our house was home to an axe murder victim" and see if they would post it or claim my photos were "fake".

I have tried to reproduce the TV screen "ghosts" under different lighting conditions, angles, etc. but can only get good images when the TV is on. Maybe the ghosts don't like me :)

Thanks for all the input on this issue...I'm gonna go take some pictures in my basement tonight and catch some of those demons :)

K.

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

When something like this comes up you have to ask yourself: What would Mr. James Randi of the James Randi Educational Foundation do? If you ask this you will know that the paranormal subject in question is always nonsense! A short way to remember it is memorize these letters WWMJROTJREFD!

[SquishyDave]

Hiya AccuKen, your post wasn't even close to long.

I don't think you can really get burn in's on modern TV's, you would have to leave the same picture up on the TV screen for months before you see it, and this never happens. You can get milder burn in's that appear faintly when the TV is on, but I think that's only for rear projection TV's, my rear projection TV has a faint burn in of the FOX8 logo in the botton corner (thanks very much cable) but it's only noticable on a blank screen while the TV is on.

Tv's do glow in the dark just after you turn them off, but it seems to me to be a consistant glow across the screen, with no pattern.

I am not sure if the following will work, but try it if you want, and let me know if it does work.

Leave the TV off in a dark room for a while, then place your hand on the TV, then shine as bright a light source as you can get on the TV, the parts covered won't glow, but the uncovered parts will absorb some of the light and glow when you turn off all the lights and take away your hand. You should see the outline of your hand in the dark.

If you stuck some paper to the TV in the shape of a demonic face, then left the TV off, and shone a light on it then turned off the lights and took off the paper, you would have the TV glowing except for a dark face in the middle, or make a reverse image to make the face glow. I am not sure if you could photograph this, because the glow is very faint, and it must be pretty dark before we can notice the glow, but give it a go.

[FFed]

Ghost fetus (http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/nov03/fetus.html)

:confused:

c'mon. no one can be that stupid.

[Ed]

Thinking about it....speakers with hefty magnets located near a TV will cause distortion of the picture.

In pre-cable days I can recall, very occasionally, picking up stations from Fla in NY. Generally the picture would be "ghostly" and would not match anything on adjacent channels. If you were not aware of what was going on it certainly looked odd.

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Ed
In pre-cable days I can recall, very occasionally, picking up stations from Fla in NY. Generally the picture would be "ghostly" and would not match anything on adjacent channels. If you were not aware of what was going on it certainly looked odd. Know what you mean. If the weather is good, I can get a ghost of French TV on top of BBC1. Not half spooky.

Rolfe.

[SteveGrenard]

This one claims to show a group feeling a real ghost. It looks like a bunch of people stealing flowers in a public park. I won't comment on the foreground.

http://www.ghoststudy.com/psychic_Tour.html


This photo is labeled a church dinner anomaly. This certainly is anomalous. Everyone has a napkin over their face.

http://www.ghoststudy.com/church_vortex.html

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

The cameras must have hallucinated!

[plindboe]

Having spent some time on a ghost beliver board and seen plenty of evidence, I have come to believe that frauds are actually quite rare. The reason for this, is because 98% of the evidence is so extraordinarily weak and easily dismissable. There are a few that's difficult to explain, but I see no reason to jump to any conclusions, since there could be numerous explanations for each. Sometimes it's difficult not to laugh when you watch some of their evidence. Several pictures on that site perfectly show how self delusional many believers are when they can even consider it evidence. These for instance:

http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/indian.html

Sunshine on a shed. It looks like a face. And?


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/guardian.html

A picture of nothing. Ghost believers often see something where there isn't anything.


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/window.html

Again, a picture of nothing. For some reason they say they see a devilish face.


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/sunset.html

Better clean that car window. The "ghosts" will probably mysteriously vanish after that.


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/driver.html

Where's that ghost?


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/mayer.html

Stuff out of focus often become "ghosts" too. In this case it looks more like an martian though.


http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/dec03/baby.html

Bad photo. Why don't these people simply throw the pictures out, like normal people do, when they come out bad?


Why would anyone think that this is fraud? It's so extraordinarily weak evidence.

PS.I know that site had better pictures that the ones I posted. I just wanted to make the point that believers see evidence in almost anything. ;)

[c0rbin]

What do you mean, a while ago? (Note date on post.)

Holy crap!

Wow, these moments of ignorant bliss are the benefots of being a Provinical JREF lurker. I have never been to that section of the forum.

[Marvel Frozen]

I particularly think this one is funny:
http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/oct03/grandpa.html

Apparently, if I take a picture of someone it's not big deal. But, if I take a far away picture of someone while they're not looking at the camera, and claim no one was there when I took the photo, suddenly it's a ghost!! It's amazing what these people will believe.

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by SteveGrenard


This photo is labeled a church dinner anomaly. This certainly is anomalous. Everyone has a napkin over their face.

http://www.ghoststudy.com/church_vortex.html

What a riot...


This red and white anomaly make this a rare but not completely uncommon catch. It seemed to be following me around as I snapped my pictures.

Following him(?) around?

Why is that little speck of dust on my camera lens following me around? Oh, it is on the lens? Guess that explains it...



Not to mention ' rare ' but ' not uncommon '.... :rolleyes:


Thanks Steve, that was a treat....

[Starrman]

This photo is labeled a church dinner anomaly. This certainly is anomalous. Everyone has a napkin over their face.

Amazing how the same photographer keeps catching the red and white ghost that looks just like a blurry camera strap.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Plindboe said:
Bad photo. Why don't these people simply throw the pictures out, like normal people do, when they come out bad?
I believe if we could answer the general question of which this is a specific variant, we would have the answer to the paranormalist mentality.

~~ Paul

[ceptimus]

It's a defect in their brains. You or I can look at a cloud and say, "That cloud looks a bit like a face".

A paranormalist sees the same cloud and says, "Look a face!" Then they go on to explain how it is God / an alien / a ghost / a premonition / etc., depending on the flavour of their particular mental defect.

This bit of Shakespeare has nothing to do with that, but it's one of the few bits I actually find funny. :)

HAMLET Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
LORD POLONIUS By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel.
LORD POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET Or like a whale?
LORD POLONIUS Very like a whale.

[Darwin'sGoat]

http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/oct03/clock.html

The heavens above know that no TV could show a picture of a clock at 5:30 when it was 9:00 in the morning!!!

That TV was so plugged in. That's what happens when you take a picture of a television with a shuttered camera at a high enough speed that you capture the scan lines.

Why they have a mannequin unwrapping Christmas gifts is the thing that I think is strange.

(Also for those of you who missed it here's my first and last attempt at faking a ghost picture http://www.haunteddiary.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000045)

[Fake Rudy]

Originally posted by Darwin'sGoat
http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/oct03/clock.html

Why they have a mannequin unwrapping Christmas gifts is the thing that I think is strange.

[

Thanks for making me spit soda all over my monitor! :D
I thought that he was the scariest thing in the picture.

I have some photos from a trip to Alcatraz at the scene of a fatal prison riot, with a "ghostly" streak through several pictures. The streak reveals itself as my camera strap in 2 out of the 5 pictures. I've considered sending the "ghostly" strap pictures to this site, then a few weeks later sending the strap photos. Somehow I think that the strap photos wouldn't make it on the site....

[Todd H]

Read some of the comments under the pictures. Funny stuff.

[Hannibal]

It's now grown to quite a large size and has discarded it's red colors.

Oh so it is not a completely different trick of the light then?

I was LMAO when I read this. Cheers Steve! You made my day!:D