What Makes A Great Ghost Photo?

From Stephen Wagner,
Your Guide to Paranormal Phenomena.

They are few are far between. Here are the elements of convincing pictures
The existence of ghosts is a difficult thing to prove. Tangible evidence is hard to come by. The greatest amount of data we have comes from eyewitness testimony. For millennia, people from every walk of life have reported seeing, hearing, feeling and even smelling entities we call ghosts. In recent years, the enigma of EVPs – electronic voice phenomena – in which a voice from an unknown source is captured by a recording device, has become one of the most fascinating and compelling areas of ghost research.

But people love ghost photos. My series of articles on The Best Ghost Photographs Ever Taken is consistently among the most popular on the site. Why? If ghosts exist, people want to see photographic proof. Really good, convincing ghost photos are rare, however (and video even rarer), simply because spirits don’t pose on demand.

Clarity
The very best ghost photos capture what is clearly a human form – a body or face that is instantly recognizable as such. Although they may not always look as solid as a flesh-and-blood living person, the form is clearly discernable. The famous photo of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England is a good example of this. Taken in 1936 by a photographer for Country Life magazine, the photo shows the distinct shape of what appears to be a female form descending the old staircase. The ghost had been seen on several other occasions going back decades.

As you can see in the Best Ghost Photos Ever Taken series, some ghost photos show figures that are even clearer than this – some, much clearer. But they do show the spectrum of ghost encounters themselves, which range from misty or smoky shapes to fully formed apparitions that look as real and solid as you or me.

This kind of clarity in a photograph is extremely rare. It’s so rare, in fact, that when this kind of clarity shows up in a photo today, it immediately becomes suspect as a hoax. And with today’s digital cameras and computers, fakes are easy to create. (In fact, since the invention of photography, spirit photos have been faked through double exposure and darkroom trickery.)

In the absence of this kind of clarity, snapshot takers and ghost hunters alike search for ghostly evidence of other kinds in their photos. Nowadays, the predominance of ghost photos depict “orbs,” “ectoplasm” (a kind of strange mist) and “vortexes”. Many of these kinds of photos can be found in the various ghost picture collections on the web and even in our own Paranormal Gallery.

The truth is, we’re not 100 percent sure what these orbs, ecto and vortexes really are. It is becoming more widely believed that most of these orbs are nothing more than dust, pollen, raindrops, snow or insects caught in the camera flash. Ecto could be only moisture, fog, cigarette smoke or the vapor from the photographer’s own mouth illuminated by the flash. Vortexes are very often the camera strap in front of the lens. I’m not saying that all instances of these anomalies can be explained so easily. Some could be evidence of spirit energy of some kind. We must admit, however, that we just don’t know and we must err on the side of skepticism.

Recognition

One very convincing clue in a genuine ghost photo is that the figure is recognizable as a known person who is no longer living and therefore has no business showing up there. Some great examples of this include the ghost of Freddy Jackson. In this case, R.A.F. Officer Jackson, who had been accidentally killed two days before the photo was taken, was easily identified by his squadron mates.

Another eerie example is that of a ghost that shows up in the back seat of a car. Of course, no living person was in that back seat when the photo was snapped, but when it was developed, Mrs. Mabel Chinnery, who took it, instantly recognized the image of her own mother. Mother, of course, was dead.

In fact, the photo was taken at the cemetery where she was buried.

Honesty and intention

Because ghost photos are easily faked in any number of ways, we have to rely on the honesty and intention of the photographer. Honesty is a difficult if not impossible thing to determine, unfortunately, and a person might have any number of reasons for wanting to create a hoax: exposure, minor fame… he might even try to profit from it. None of these motives automatically spell hoax, but they must be considered carefully.

The Tulip Staircase Ghost was taken by a retired clergyman named Rev. Ralph Hardy. And although clergy are certainly not above reproach, we might be more inclined to believe them. When it comes to paranormal photos, it’s a wise idea to consider the source.

Intention is another factor. Most of the best ghost photos were taken unintentionally. In other words, they weren’t taken by people who were out to get a ghost on film (or chip in the case of digital cameras). The accidental nature of these photos lends them credibility because the photographers didn’t have an agenda – it wasn’t their intention to capture a ghost image, it just happened, and they are just as surprised as anyone else to discover it. An excellent example is Grandpa’s Ghost, taken by Denise Russell and which originally appeared in our Paranormal Gallery. She had taken the photo of her grandmother at her retirement home. It actually wasn’t until years later that they noticed the man standing in the background staring into the camera. She and her sisters recognized him as grandpa, who had died many years before.

Corroborating Experiences

Another factor that lends credence to any paranormal photograph is that there have also been paranormal experiences in the home or location where the photo was taken. For example, if someone has taken a photograph and orbs, ecto or some other anomaly appears, it can be taken more seriously if the person has experienced some other signs of a haunting. Perhaps they’ve actually seen an apparition with their own eyes, or anomalous noises or EVPs have been recorded, or objects that have been disappearing around the house – things of that nature. This is also true of a location that has a longstanding history of ghost or haunting activity.

These experiences and history are corroborating evidence that something paranormal may be taking place at the location and therefore gives weight to any strange forms that might appear in the photo, even if they are just orbs or ecto. This is not proof positive that the photos are legitimately paranormal, but perhaps we can take them more seriously and they can provide evidence for further investigation.

What to do with your photos

If you take a photo and something strange appears in it, don’t automatically assume that it’s a ghost, spirit or something paranormal. Be skeptical. Show the photo around. Show it to someone who has a lot of experience with photography; he or she may be able to explain the anomaly as a camera strap, dust in the air, a light flare on the lens, or a reflection — something natural and explainable.

If the photo expert cannot explain the anomaly, show it to a paranormal research organization in your area. Of course, there are many websites that feature ghost and paranormal photos; consider e-mailing your picture to them for evaluation. I would be happy to examine any photo you have. If I think other readers will find it unusual or interesting – and possibly even showing ghost energy – I might add it to the Paranormal Gallery.