Orbs

Zillah

Before I get into my main point...holy freaking jesus how havn't I seen this forum before!? Sorry, it justed seemed so obvious after watching the last year of Most Haunted on livingtv. Anyway I was messing around with my digital camera a few nights ago and I caught this out my back garden. The only editing I've done is to shrink and zoom.


Here's hoping I attached it properly (Damn fangled modern technology)

If you look closely you can see it has kinda red trails or something about it.
Anyway, thoughts? On Orbs in general aswell as this one.

jessy

was the pic taken from inside or out. might be a reflection of the flash if it was taken through a window. although its a bit to round for that.

OY

Hi i am new here...

That is cool! I have no clue about photography so don't ask me!

It does remind me of hearing about electrical orbs that are like lightning balls that occur in nature and float about the place. People think they are UFOs and they can aparently move through walls!!

There is not much point in me telling you this but that is what it reminds me of...

Zillah

It was taken from outside, duh .

The problem with the electroform idea (thats what they're called; the ball lightning thingys) is that they're quite visible to the naked eye. This wasn't.

briano

It just looks like a torch beam shining on to the hedge.

Zillah

Well it's not, to put it simply. There was no torch anywhere near me.

malico

What were the weather conditions? was it raining? from looking at the grass in the photo, i believe there is moisture in the air (Grass seems to be reflecting light, poss water) and this could be a rain drop very close to the lens. Had them a few times myself

Redshift

I think it's lens flare from the chair. If you look at the back rest you can see the flash reflecting off it. It's almost certainly a flash back orb. Which demonstrates the reason we wear dark clothing and avoid anything that can bounce the flash back to you when taking photos on an investigation.

Zillah

Both valid points. It was not raining, although it had been earlier so I can't rule out a raindrop, but it would have had to be a freak drop. I was wearing a T shirt at the time so i'd have noticed if it was raining, even if lightly. Also, wouldn't a raindrop give a distended shape, as it's falling through the air.


As for the reflection idea, you must understand that this is a zoomed picture and in the full version the angles don't look right for a flashback. Naturally I was surprised after capturing this image, so I immediately took about a dozen more from the same and similar angles and got nothing.


Aside from all this theorising, is there any plausible explaination for an orb that would account for the odd red trails that seem to be around it?

keu

sun glare...

Zillah

Yes I'll admit it, it was just the sun....at three in the morning...


You see we used a secret CIA sattelite with a massive parabolic mirror to redirect a shaft of sunlight from the space above brazil...

keu

oops..sorry phlematic, didn't catch that part.
I just saw what I thought was sunlight glinting on the trees.
If it was raining I spose the raindrop theory is valid? (gives sameresult as sunglare)

keu

although...from a spiritual point of view,it could have been your deceased grandmother popping by for a quick hello...

looked at the pic again, there seems to be a second "orb" directly behind the first, which just reminds me of sunglare, or some sort of light refraction (would also resolve the colour streaking thing)

jessy

I watch Most Haunted as well (Its a Cool Program), I thought Orbs were much much smaller, this one seems to be huge.

Gordon

Yeah it's definately glare, it's obvious without even looking at the second sphere from upper left. It seems to be coming from the middle top-left of the picture. I can only summise that at the end of the black cable there is possibly a lightbulb or some kind of reflective surface that would do that. Mind you I'm not too up on photography to know about this kind of thing. You should really be asking this on the photography board.

I took many pictures last night in a (fairly humid) outdoor wedding and took only one picture with such 'orbs'. attached. Unfortunately due to shrinking the size I have lost clarity in the picture and you can only see one circle of lens flare. If you really want I can zoom in on them.

Gordon

I have put the photo through photoshop and added a typical effect of lens flare for you to see roughly how lens flare looks. As you can see the different colours can exist such as red. This could be due to the white light being split by the lens like what happens when light is put through a prism. The reason for the blurriness of the circle of flare would be due to the fact that the camera is focused in on the distance as opposed to what is actually -touching- the lens.

keu

very nice, it like a micro cosmic reproduction of the solar system in someones back yard

(still thinking about phlematics granny)

Gordon

http://www.castleofspirits.com/orbs.html
http://www.prairieghosts.com/orbs.html

keu

those streaky orbs in the second link are nothing more than stray hairs in front of the lens.
I was thinking that if all "spirit activity" is the result of particular electromagnetic patterns in the atmosphere than they are hardly going to be caught on film which is not designed to capture electromagnetic resonance seeing as its not visible to the naked eye.

thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can now use your computer to record electromagnetic images download tools here

Zillah

Alright, to aid in the lens flare question I'm going to upload the full sized image, although shrunk in resolution so that I can actually upload it.


As you can see there is absolutely no source of light / reflection from the angle you described that could cause a lense flare, it looks very much like a free standing light.

And that's not a black cable, it's a washing line.

Gordon

I suggest again that you ask on the photography board. That looks like classic lens flare, I don't know what the source of it is but it's as clear as day that it's some form of light hitting the glass of the lens on your digital camera. Read the links I posted for some more info.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=27

I know you want it to be an orb but... I personally don't think it is.

Googling I found out that it is actually called lens flash. Or maybe this is what you call "flash back"?
http://www.ohioghs.com/drkenlynne/spiritphotography.html

Heres an interesting link:
http://www.jvision.ca/gallery2/dansghost/

Zillah

Gordon wrote:

I know you want it to be an orb but... I personally don't think it is.

Try to be a little less patronising please.

I'm not arguing that is a ghost or an orb or anything bizarre. But no one yet have given a convincing explaination for it. The chair flashing back is the only one I might buy. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that lens flare can only be caused by a light source within the image, a light source that is not exposed to the lense will not be in the photo, and visa versa. I'll ask that on the photography forum now actually.


And yes those links were quite interesting.

Edit :

From the page you posted;

"Lens Flare--- this will happen when the photo is taken directly into a light source such as the sun or even an indoor lamp." (No)

" Lens Flash--- This happens when the flash bounces off of a highly reflective surface...windows, glossy paint, mirrors, polished marble headstones" (I doubt the dirty plastic chair counts as highly reflective)

And I don't think anyone is claiming a stray hair, or dust(I took several images, dust would be on them all)etc.

Again, I'm not saying this is anything, just that no one has explained it yet.

Gordon

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound (be) patronising. If an orb specialist told you that it was an orb would you be happy about it? If they told you it wasn't - would you be unhappy about it?

Personally the most convincing thing about that circle is the fact that there is another smaller circle slightly above it, reinforcing the flashback theory. There are some glints and speckly things in the trees behind the chair, maybe it is flashing from there.

Zillah

A guy on the photography forum seems to think that the light source needs to be in the picture to cause lens flare, and as you can see there is none in the picture.


But I don't care anymore, case closed, leave it to the x files.

Gordon

phlematic wrote:

A guy on the photography forum seems to think that the light source needs to be in the picture to cause lens flare, and as you can see there is none in the picture.


But I don't care anymore, case closed, leave it to the x files.

You are going to give up that easily? Post the pic up on the photography board. It only goes into the X files if you have searched all possible possibilites.

Hobbes

http://home.fujifilm.com/products/digital/shooting/flash.html

Mantel

phlematic wrote:

A guy on the photography forum seems to think that the light source needs to be in the picture to cause lens flare, and as you can see there is none in the picture.

Flashbacks are light sources too. That plastic chair is quite shiney even though it may look old battered and dirty in the light of day or torch.