Paranormal photography can be a fascinating pursuit, offering a unique way to potentially document the unexplainable. Our tour is no exception to some odd photographs taken by guests over the past decade.
Learn about our photography contest held every year.
To increase your chances of capturing something truly anomalous, and to ensure your findings are taken seriously, consider these essential tips:
Setting Up Your Shot
- Stability is Key: Hold your camera as still as possible. Even better, use a tripod if one is available. This minimizes blur and provides a clear base for comparison.
- Embrace the Infrared: Turn your flash off. This allows your camera's infrared spectrum to engage, which can reveal details not visible to the naked eye in your final photograph.
- Shoot in Sets: Take photographs in sets of three and five. This provides multiple frames for comparison, helping to rule out anomalies like dust or insects.
- Systematic Approach: Work around the room in a clockwise formation. This systematic approach ensures you always know your surroundings and what you've already photographed.
- Communicate with the Departed: Talk to The Departed out loud while you photograph. Similar to EVP work, this involves engaging in casual, friendly conversation with whomever may be listening on the other side.
- Trust Your Instincts: When you get a sense to take more than one set of photos, trust that feeling and take as many as you see fit. Intuition can be a powerful tool in paranormal investigations.
- Maximize Quality: Always use the highest quality settings on your camera or phone when recording video or taking photos. This is crucial for analysis; forensic photo and video analyzers quickly discard low-quality images.
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Reviewing Your Data
Once you've captured your photos, the review process is just as important as the capture itself. Careful and methodical analysis can help distinguish true paranormal phenomena from common explanations.
- Beware of Pareidolia: Our brains innately want to make sense of the world, especially when viewing chaotic elements. This tendency to interpret ambiguous patterns as meaningful shapes or faces is known as pareidolia. The longer you review data, the more likely this is to occur. Review in small segments.
Examples of Pareidolia
- Analyze on a Computer: Put your photos on a computer where you can zoom in and out and navigate through various segments of the photo. This allows for close inspection and can reveal clues to what you may truly be seeing. Another awesome feature when viewing on a computer is that you can usually move quickly between your sets of photographs and identify.
Understanding Orbs
Orbs are frequently captured in paranormal photography, but it's important to understand their common origins versus truly anomalous occurrences.
- Common Orb Explanations: In most cases, orbs are simply dust, pollen, or insects. Fast-moving "rods" are usually bugs as they fly through the air.
- Characteristics of True Paranormal Orbs: True paranormal orbs are rare, but they do happen. They will move around corners, become amorphous (changing shape), and you won't be able to make out patterns in them. Often, people see faces in orbs created by more organic causes; again, this is your brain applying pareidolia to make sense of a chaotic world.
Frequent Mistakes in Paranormal Photography
Reflective Surfaces Can Cause Light Refraction
Refraction is when light goes from one thing to another, like from air into water, and it bends a little because it changes speed. Think about how a straw in a glass of water looks broken or bent at the water line – that's refraction!
Watch Out for Long Exposure
A slow shutter speed can cause a blurring of moving objects, people, and animals causing a ghostly effect. This is common when you are shooting in lower light settings.
Camera Straps and Other MisIdentifications
Make sure your strap is properly secured and your hair is tied up.
Often, photography anomalies stem from surprising elements that have entirely reasonable justifications.
Beware of Fogs and Mist
These are common in humid conditions, colder conditions, and are often mistaken vapor or even cigarette smoke not seen with the eye but can be seen through the viewfinder.
This photo appears smokey due to the lighting in the room reflecting off of surfaces. It's a type of light refraction but appears as a smoky mist.
Anyone have a paranormal photo they want to share?