orbs

arac

What are people's opinions of them here? Do any of you believe that they represent evidence of spiritual activity in a house or area. The reason I ask is because last week I was at my friends house.. and a few of us were playing pool in her extension, well its only a shell really of an extension, not really finished yet..but I was taking some pictures with the digital camera that I had gotten for Christmas..in some of the pictures, there were several "orbs", usually only appearing in certain areas of the room..when I took pictures in other areas, none appeared..the camera was digital and brand new so the chances of there being any other reason for these orbs manifesting themselves might have been very slim..i.e being down to dust on the lens, or the camera faulty.. I will post them here when I get a chance

magnumlady

I had the same thing happen to me when I took photos in Parkes Castle, Leitrim. On some of the photos there were 'orbs' and on others taken in the same room there weren't any at all.

Andrew_M

I took some photos with friends at night-time, out at Kilcrey Friary past ballincollig. We took about 50 photos between us, and in 10 of the photos we caught orbs, some really pronounced and others fairly faint. The orbs only appeared in pictures with people, so dont know what that means really.

Ive heard they signify that ghosts are in the area

What do you think?

mysteria

Re: ORBS,
As usual there are a lot of conflicting theories regarding orbs because frequently there is a rational explanation. Many cases however appear to have no logical explanation. I have only seen them personally less than a dozen times during almost 30 yrs of research, and on those occasions I believed them to be a genuine indication of paranormal energy. On my way to Charleville Castle, Tullamore, a few years ago I was driving very fast (late as usual) when a cluster of orbs caught my eye. I slowed down and reversed to have a better look. They were larger than any I'd seen before and looked like a big cluster of iridescent bubbles ( like the ones we blew as children). Some were the size of large grapefruit, others the size of ping-pong balls. Probably 10 to 20 of them in all, at the left hand side of the entrance to Charleville, which I would have driven past had I not noticed the orbs. I believe they can be an indication of polterkinetic, ghost or spirit energy, only when you have excluded every possible other explanation, in so far as is possible.

stevenmu

Like Mysteria said, there are often rational causes, which can be hard to rule out. For example seeing as they were taken in a half built extension, they could quite likely have been caused by dust in the air (particularly when using a flash).

Google turns up loads of sites with libraries of orb photos, many of which are probably nothing (and on the better sites are stated as such), but there's plenty of convincing ones too. We got some good ones when we were at Charleville ourselves, again most of which were probably dust etc, but iirc there were a few we were genuinely impressed with, that is to say we weren't 100% sure they were ghosts, but we couldn't really figure out anything else they could be either. I had camera problems and lost all the good ones I got but maybe someone else still has some worth posting ?

mysteria

Stevenmu, I've found photo/camera/battery/electrical problems occur in every place I've visited that had polterkinetic/ghost/spirit energy and I believe it is Energy that affects other energy sources in houses. Also arac says he was in a place where building work or structural work of some kind was in progress. My rational (left-brain) side says this is'nt logical, that physical structural work can release dormant psi Energy, but the intuitive right-brain theorizes that this is in fact the case. ( I must say at least 85% of the places I've been asked to investigate showed no signs of paranormal activity at all, and had a rational explanation)

arac

when I showed the pictures to my friend and told her what they might be a sign of , she didn't look surprised..she said her parents have often thought that they have heard people shuffling around in the attic, when there is nothing there...I will post them soon, bit of a techno phobe you see:o ..but there are some good pics of them, usually occuring around people 's heads..the dust in the extension theory is quite probable though
the batteries in that camera were running quite low that night, as soon as I saw the alleged orbs, I got really excited and became snap happy! The batteries soon gave up, but then the camera refused to work, even when I tried new sets of batteries, several sets! Eventually brought it back to the shop yesterday, where of course it worked perfectly for the man behind the counter..but did thinkn it to be a tad odd!

Zombrex

arac wrote:

the dust in the extension theory is quite probable though
the batteries in that camera were running quite low that night, as soon as I saw the alleged orbs, I got really excited and became snap happy!

The most likely cause for "orb" effects in a photography is out of focus light (especially from the flash) reflecting around inside the camera lens. It leads to patches of light on the photograph. A tell tale sign is if they patches of light are a series of small straight lines making a circle shape. That is actually the shape of the apperture inside the lens (it isn't a true circle as it is made up of a number of plates that close in on each other to decrease the apperture).

Another likely cause is camera shake leading to a small patch of light being overexposed and blurred on the photo. You can have one small speck of light, that because the camera shakes a little the speck of light moves around a bit causing it to be exposed on multiple parts of the film (or digital sensor), which makes it look like there was a flash of light somewhere when there really wasn't. This very common in dark areas or at night, as the automatic cameras set shutter speed to be quite slow to capture all the available light, which leads to camera shake as it is hard to hold the camera perfectly still for more than a 20th of a second.

The technical photographic turn for this is "fecking annoying" as it can ruin some very nice shots. It doesn't necessarily mean there is anything wrong with your camera or camera lens, though the effects are more common on cheaper lens such as the ones found on normal point and click film cameras.

When you get a chance to post a sample photo we can probably determine if the "orb" effect was caused by one of these reasons.

stevenmu

mysteria wrote:

Stevenmu, I've found photo/camera/battery/electrical problems occur in every place I've visited that had polterkinetic/ghost/spirit energy and I believe it is Energy that affects other energy sources in houses.

I can relate to that my memord card got corrupted several times and I went through about 4 sets of batteries taking fairly few photos. I've tried the camera out since and didn't have any problems.

arac wrote:

when I showed the pictures to my friend and told her what they might be a sign of , she didn't look surprised..she said her parents have often thought that they have heard people shuffling around in the attic, when there is nothing there...

This could possibly explain this

mysteria wrote:

My rational (left-brain) side says this is'nt logical, that physical structural work can release dormant psi Energy, but the intuitive right-brain theorizes that this is in fact the case.

?
It does seem unlikely to me (altough I wouldn't know a huge amount about these things) that the construction of an extension would be signifigant enough to trigger spirit activity, but if there is already activity present then it makes sense it'd only be noticed since the extension is put up.

arac

ok trying to attach pics of orb, but its telling me the file is too big for upload, can I make them smaller???

Zillah

Go here: http://www.imageshack.us/

Try hosting it there. If its too big you can always use an image editing programme, or you can use an online image editor, like this one: http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/

Its max is 1.2 meg though.


Whatever method you use, its always best to use as high quality an image as possible, especially in matter such as these.

arac

http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/fotka.php?src=143.239.7.2_brightest_orb.jpg&w=800&g=

http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/fotka.php?src=143.239.7.2_bright_orb_over_ferg.jpg&w=800&g=

http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/fotka.php?src=143.239.7.2_orbs_around_george.jpg&w=800&g=

http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/fotka.php?src=143.239.7.2_several_orbs.jpg&w=800&g=

http://online-image-resize.kategorie.cz/fotka.php?src=143.239.7.2_faint_orb.jpg&w=800&g=

So there you are, thanks for directing me to those image websites..
What do you think of the pics?

stormkeeper

The really bright one above your man's (to the right) head in the first picture is an interesting one...

Edit: and that one in the second picture looks interesting too.

As for the others, I'm kind of leaning towards the fact they could be dust particles or moisture, but I'm unsure at the moment...

CodeMonkey

They look like dust particles being highlighted/illuminated by that strong 100w bulb directly above the pool table.

6th

arac wrote:

What do you think of the pics?

This is just opinion but as someone with a fair bit of experience looking at these things and as someone who studied photography for years, I have to think that they may well be caused by the conditions they were taken in. A building under work with obvious causes for dust and alot of moisture in the air. Saying that its just my opinion and I would hate anyone (especially a new poster) to be put off following an active interest in the paranormal, just because everyone isnt instantly amazed by your production.

6th

Zombrex

arac wrote:

What do you think of the pics?

Afraid what you got here is common or garden dust and dirt on the from of the camera lens, which is being illuminated by the strong light source over the pool table (as CodeMonkey said).

The light reflected by the dust is not in focus when it hits the film (or digital sense) so you get round-ish shapes the same shape as the appeture in the lens.

A tell tale sign is that the "orbs" appear in front of everything in the 3D space of the scene. There are no orbs half hidden by an object. This is because the dust in on the lens itself, so it will appear in front of everything.

A good example is this
http://ctho.ath.cx/tmp/rain-night0.jpg
that i got quicky off Google Images. It shows the same effect with rain on the front of the lens.

The front of your camera lens looks very dirty and smudgy. It looks like someone cleaned the carpet with the front of your camera TBH.

arac

thanks for feedback..just for the record, I was never fully convinced of the veracity of these light anomalies, as I know there can be several explantions for them, therefore am not offended to think that they are not genuine evidence of ghosts:o ..but the lens of the camera could not possibly be as dirty as the previous poster thought, as it was brand new and I think that was only my second time using it..anyway thanks again

The Bollox

I have no knowlage of orbs and such, I never paid any attention to them. but the first pic looks really good. the others I would say is just dust or whatever.

Zombrex

arac wrote:

as it was brand new and I think that was only my second time using it

Its possible, but as dublin6th pointed out the room you were in was still under construction. The non-carpeted floor would produce a lot of dust just by people moving around.

Last christmas i was taking shots of my family and I had to stop and clean the lens every few minutes just with people moving around and coming in and out of the rooms. This was a SLR camera so the lens would be a bit bigger, but you get the idea that dust seems to be drawn to an exposed camera lens (an annoying paranormal event in itself )

And to smudge a camera lens you only need some one to put a finger over it by accident, as my brother did when he took my camera from me by putting his finger over the lens first, the bastard

Anyway, as dublin6th also says this shouldn't put you off the idea of the paranormal orbs. It just seems unlikely this is a paranormal event.

arac

it just seems funny because there were more pics, were no "orbs" appeared. If the room were very dusty, surely this would have caused orbs to appear in every photo..nonetheless I accept your logic!

CodeMonkey

arac wrote:

it just seems funny because there were more pics, were no "orbs" appeared. If the room were very dusty, surely this would have caused orbs to appear in every photo..nonetheless I accept your logic!

It has to do with where the light source in the room is and where you are standing and pointing the camera. All the photos you have taken with orbs in them has the following common conditions:
1). camera at or near the top level of the pool table
2). room light source almost directly overhead
Those conditions makes it a lot more likely that any floating dust or particals on the lens gets illuminated causing those orbs.

SkepticOne

I would say that although the dust thing explains most orb phenomena the ones that are not explained by dust are probably not ghosts. imho.

mysteria

SkepticOne wrote:

I would say that although the dust thing explains most orb phenomena the ones that are not explained by dust are probably not ghosts. imho.

I don't believe Orbs are ghosts or spirits, but in the unexplainable cases I feel they are "symptoms"or indications of spirit, ghost or polterkinetic energy in the area.

Zombrex

SkepticOne wrote:

I would say that although the dust thing explains most orb phenomena the ones that are not explained by dust are probably not ghosts. imho.

TBH I agree. There are huge range of photographic errors and mistakes that can explain even the most strange photographic effects without bringing anything paranormal into it.

Most errors on photos are simple things like dust and smudge on the lens, to more exotic and rare events, such as light getting into the back of camera, reflections in the lens, to errors the development process.

A few months ago I produced a photo that seem to have a strange light around the two people in the photo. It looked quite spooky, like something from Ghost or Cocoon. But the effect was caused by turning the main light on by accident in the dark room and exposing the photo to light while it was being developed. It looks very strange, and it would be nearly impossible to reproduce on purpose, but it still was not paranormal in nature.

It seems unlikely that any paranormal form of energy could effect the silver chemical composite on film, or the electromagnetic sensors of a CMOS chip without also being visable to the nake eye, since a photon is a photon.

While some films and digital chips are sensitive to light outside of the visible spectrum, this would not produce the same effects as seen in these "orbs"

GuanYin

Wicknight wrote:

TBH I agree. There are huge range of photographic errors and mistakes that can explain even the most strange photographic effects without bringing anything paranormal into it.

Most errors on photos are simple things like dust and smudge on the lens, to more exotic and rare events, such as light getting into the back of camera, reflections in the lens, to errors the development process.

A few months ago I produced a photo that seem to have a strange light around the two people in the photo. It looked quite spooky, like something from Ghost or Cocoon. But the effect was caused by turning the main light on by accident in the dark room and exposing the photo to light while it was being developed. It looks very strange, and it would be nearly impossible to reproduce on purpose, but it still was not paranormal in nature.

And yet, the discussion here is about orbs, peoples opinion on orbs.

While photographic errors probably account for many incidents, they aren't exclusive - then we factor in visual accounts.

It seems unlikely that any paranormal form of energy could effect the silver chemical composite on film, or the electromagnetic sensors of a CMOS chip without also being visable to the nake eye, since a photon is a photon.

Thats an interesting assertation considering there are a wide and varied range of scientific analytical techniques based around detecting energy/photo emissions, not detetcable by the naked eye, on simple photographic film.

OF course, I'm curious as to how you can make a statement on how likely/unlikely any paranormal phenomenon acts with any degree of certainty.

While some films and digital chips are sensitive to light outside of the visible spectrum, this would not produce the same effects as seen in these "orbs"

Please elaborate.

As an aside, I'm reviewing several threads here an dI'm not happy with how they're going (this is no reflection on you wicknight, I picked your post to reply to merely on your comment about photographing energy).

I'm reviewing the charter with T4TF and there will be total amnesty on all current posts and threads.

I don't really care about whether people are skeptics or not here (I'm a huge skeptic) - the charter most likely will not be condusive to the way alot of threads have gone.


Now, please, back to the discussions on orbs and orb-related issues.

Thats an

Zombrex

psi wrote:

Now, please, back to the discussions on orbs and orb-related issues.

Hey don't bite my ass, I know the purpose of the Paranormal forum

I don't think the OP is going to be offended by post since he has already had the discussion on if his photos are paranormal in nature.

psi wrote:

Please elaborate.

Not if I am going to be banned for breaking the charter for doing so .... :v:

GuanYin

Wicknight wrote:

Hey don't bite my ass, I know the purpose of the Paranormal forum

I don't think the OP is going to be offended by post since he has already had the discussion on if his photos are paranormal in nature.

I agree, however, the discussion is getting sidetracked into an assumption that ALL orb cases are photography based errors.

This is simply not the case.

Not if I am going to be banned for breaking the charter for doing so .... :v:

I don't believe I indicated any such thing.

You're discussing orbs as energy sources and you made two or three comments that you proported as fact (or at least proported to have basis) - I disagree, and I gave you a reason why. I'm curious as to why you have made such definitive statements on these issues.

stormkeeper

psi wrote:

I agree, however, the discussion is getting sidetracked into an assumption that ALL orb cases are photography based errors.

This is simply not the case.

I haven't actually read this thread through properly regarding the past few posts, but I've taken a few interesting pictures... three which stand out would be a picture of an "orb" where I "felt" something was there, and I got something (there were witnesses at the time), then a pair of shots 10-15 seconds apart of an "orb" moving from one side of an area to another, and a pretty strong one too! There was also another one present in the first picture, but it disappears in the second. If anyone is interested, I can upload them for you to look at.

GuanYin

cool, I'd be interested. upload away.

stormkeeper

I'll upload them tomorrow afternoon. I'm still somewhat trying to get myself in order by playing catchup over the past couple of days ^_^;;;