Anybody know about orbs in pictures?

Look at these pics from Monty___ from Grant Park on election night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7802688

They're not in all of them, but some. What do they look like to you?

And I don't say that lightly! :evilgrin: Those are AMAZING photos!

What do they look like to me? It looks like there were LOTS of entities who joined the party! And funny you should bring this up--yesterday, when I was watching some YouTube videos of the gathering, I wondered if some photos would have orbs in them. And here they are!

That is SO COOL. Thanks for sharing, CFF! You just made my day! :hi:

So glad I could make someone's day by pointing this out! :hi:

Go back to the post with the pictures if you would. I just posted a reply to the poster who thought they were caused by smoke. NOT smoke my dear !!O8)

I answered you in the pic thread--support! Respeck! :hi: (Dang, we really need a fist-bump smilie. Can somebody goose Skinner & crew to get on that?...Like they have nothing better to do, I know! :rofl: )

There were MILLIONS of them!! :) How cool is that? My first feeling was "ancestors" - those who assisted us in getting to this historic place.

Love to hear what others think about it. Great pics.

Does the DUer who took them have another explanation for them?

then, why not dust on all of the pics taken with that camera??????

Due to the size limitations of the modern compact and ultra-compact cameras, especially digital cameras, the distance between the lens and the built-in flash has decreased, thereby decreasing the angle of light reflection to the lens and increasing the likelihood of light reflection off normally sub-visible particles. Hence, the orb artifact is commonplace with small digital or film camera photographs.

The orb artifact can result from reflection of light off solid particles (e.g., dust, pollen), liquid particles (water droplets - especially rain) or other foreign material within the camera lens.

The image artifacts usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though may also occur with whole or partial color spectrums, purple fringing or other chromatic aberration. With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.

Underwater photographers notice the effect also, which occurs for the same reason as above-water photographic artifacts. Sand, small sea life or other particles close to the lens, invisible to the diver, reflect light from the flash causing the orb artifact in the image. A strobe flash, which distances the flash from the lens, eliminates the artifacts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb_(photographic)

http://www.ghoststudy.com/main/fakepageorbs.html
http://www.castleofspirits.com/orbs.html

Don't mean to be the one to dump cold water, but I firmly believe that a healthy dose of skepticism is essential when doing spiritual work.

Ironically, exactly as I was writing these posts, a friend emailed me to point out all the orbs in a few of our photos from the ancestral service we did this weekend, LOL.

I edited an article about this subject recently. There is a difference between real orbs (entities) and dust orbs. One method to identify real orbs as compared to dust is to toss the photo into image manipulation software like Photoshop and use some of the tools...but I'm no Photoshop pro, and I can't recall which tools are the ones that show the difference. Perhaps one of our ASAH friends knows more...?

On edit: Real orbs have a strongly defined perimeter--like the one on the left in the first pic. Will post more details after I dig up the article I edited--it's buried in my documents folder...

takes me to an "unavailable"page.

There are some people in the photo and I realized I shouldn't have posted it in a public forum.

If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll send you a link.

I'd be hard to convince that 'orbs' are anything but light refraction on the digital camera lens. But it was interesting to get photos from our ceremony when this topic was being discussed. There was a *lot* of energy in the room.

In the meantime, here's some more physical explanations:

wiki article w/ examples of how they were created: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_orbs

http://www.prairieghosts.com/trouble.html

<snip>
It should also be noted that "orbs" were actually quite rare (if not nonexistent) before digital cameras became common. In the early days of low-cost, cheap digital cameras, some "ghost hunters" actually proposed that digital cameras are "superior for orb photography". And since they were producing more "orb" photos, this was technically true. But the digital imaging chip is very different than traditional film photography and was far inferior until recent times. Some of the earlier, low-end digital cameras were made with CMOS chips and they would create "noise" in low-light photographs that would be mistaken for "orbs". It seemed that when they were used in darkness, or near darkness, the resulting images were plagued with spots that appeared white, or light colored, and where the digital pixels had not all filled in. In this manner, the cameras were creating "orbs", and they had no paranormal source at all.

The most common “orb” photos are merely refractions of light on the camera lens. This occurs when the camera flash bounces back from something reflective in the range of the camera. When this happens, it creates a perfectly round ball of light that appears to be within the parameters of the photo but is actually just an image on the lens itself. Many people often mistake these "orbs" for genuine evidence of ghosts, although I have never really been quite clear as to why that is. Most “orb” photos occur when the camera flash is used. Some of the photographers will insist that their flash was not on, which means it was and they didn't know it. The automatic exposure control on most any standard 35 mm camera uses fill flash in all but the brightest light.

Even so, “orbs” don’t have to have a camera flash to be created. They can also be caused by bright lights in an area where the photo is being taken, by angles of light and by many types of artificial lighting.

But are lights and camera flashes the only thing that can cause “orbs” to appear? Far from it! Other objects that end up in front of the camera lens and are mistaken for paranormal images are dust, moisture, pollen, insects, snow, rain, hair, ash and scores of other semi-microscopic particles. In almost every case, the camera flash reflects on the surface of one of these particles and seems to “glow”, as one might expect a ghostly image to do.

http://www.newageretailer-digital.com/newageretailer/2008fall/?pg=71

Just wanted to clarify--I do agree with you that some orbs are dust particles and other compromising artifacts in pictures, but I do feel that others are entities appearing around a person for whatever reason...and it is difficult to discern which is which. But as with all things, with practice, it gets easier. :hi:

I didn't see anything in that article that tries to explain why orbs aren't anything but digital camera lens reflection or anything else. No mention of what you were talking about regarding the solid edges and so forth. Did I miss other pages or something?

it got cut down to fit the space in the magazine, so some details were lost. But if you follow the links in the article you can read more about the characteristics of entity-orbs.

I was interested in what you were saying about the differences in sharp edges and using photoshop to examine the images.

I have no idea what caused this, but a huge tree limb had fallen and I was trying to get a picture of it.