The Orb Controversy

(or What's Wrong With This Picture)

The more and more I've found about "Orbs" (be it digital or film), the more and more I'm finding that the net hoopla is just wrong, and all hype. You can do experiment after experiment, and you'll get the same "orb" with a digi (or film) every time.
The conclusion to "orbs" is airborne particles, period...end of story... i.e. "The Powder Test".

People write to me all the time about "orbs" in their homes, and when I tell them its just dust, they go off on me about the cleanliness of their homes. 

Fact is, there's no such thing as a dust-free environment. It's on your clothes, in your hair, on your pets, furniture, etc...You can clean till the cows come home, but once the furnace kicks on, the stuff that settled in the vents blows out, or someone walks by. (I've done this on purpose too)

About these squiggly things or "moving orbs" as some would call them...Have you ever looked into a sunbeam coming into your window on a bright sunny day, and notice things floating in them? Sometimes you see not only dust, but the stray carpet fiber or lint. These things are longer in size and shape than the regular dust particle. As it flips through drafts and air currents, they'll look like the "moving orbs" or "orbs in motion" that you see all over the net. Its the flash reflecting off these particles that show up as "orbs" just like they shimmer in the sunbeam. See?

Here are a few more examples, using the sunbeam to show you exactly how dust is illuminated by light. This was tricky to do, but it worked pretty well.

In doing this experiment, I used two different digital cameras...an older model 1.3MP and a newer model 6.3MP. In either case, an "orb" is still a dust speck...

I blew smoke into it so the beam would show up better.

After walking back and forth a couple of times, you'll see dust particles floating around in the sunbeam. You'll see them as they move about in air currents, both from your movements, and from the air pressure in the room. Remember, hot air rises, cold air sinks and stir up the air pressure as they collide. This is how "orbs" move.

If you'll notice in the above photo, the circled dust particles are elongated, and appear to be "orbs in motion". When doing this for yourself, you'll just see the specks as they float slowly around...but, the camera caught the movement, with the help of the light reflecting off of the particles. With me so far?

(no flash was used for this photo)

Now here's where it got tricky for me to photograph this...

Without the flash, the "orbs" appeared, but they were tiny...with the flash added, the light entered the camera directly, illuminating the dust particles better. The direct camera flash was greater than the light of the sunbeam coming in from the side. (remember the "light cancels light" experiment)

This is a side view of the particles from the sunbeam.

"But dust isn't round, its all sorts of shapes. Why are "orbs" round then?"

Because they are out of focus to the camera. See?

These photos were taken 12 to 18" away from the particles that were visible to the eye within the sunbeam.

"Why is an "orb" in this photo, but not in the one taken right after?"

Take a look at your camera's lens. That black ring around it is to help eliminate glare, sort of like football players putting black grease paint under their eyes. (simple analogy)

You'll also see how it widens from the lens. This is the camera's field of view.

The typical standard for a point-n-shoot is 60 degrees all around.

This gives a dust particle a narrow area to travel into, at a close range, 12" up to 3 feet away. This is how the varying "sizes of orbs" are determined...distance from the camera.

The magnification and focal blur of the lens combined with the light of the flash, *poof*, instant "orb" as the particle travels through natural air currents.

This narrow field of view close to the camera, is what allows "orbs" to magically appear and disappear.

Your best "orb detector" is your flashlight.

Hold it at eye-level, so you just see above the reflector.

If you see them there, you'll see them in your photo...

The same types of "orb" will show up on film also, but not nearly as often as with digitals. Digital cameras operate by recording light...the more light reflects off of physical objects, the more will show up in the images. These tiny particles show up as being large in the image, because they're close to the lens and flash, and this is why you won't see them with your eye. The camera will pick it up though. The flash unit on your camera has a limited range of 2-13.8 ft. (wideangle) and/or 2-8.2 ft. when using telephoto. Anything within this range WILL be caught in the flash and recorded on the image. THIS IS FACT, NOT A CLAIM. 
(read the instruction booklet that came with your camera)                               

So anywhere between 2 to 13 feet will show up. The various sizes of these "orbs" naturally depends on how far away they were within that particular distance. The larger/brighter ones were closer to the camera than the smaller/dimmer ones.... Is it that difficult to understand? The size and density of an "orb" particle DOES NOT reflect how "powerful" or "evil" the thing is, as some are trying to claim.

The more I'm working with this "phenomena", the more I'm finding that "orbs" are just
a photographic glitch and nothing paranormal in nature. The folks on the net have good intentions I'm sure, but if they'd just do a little work to back up their claims of "orbs", I'm sure they'd feel different about being so quick to post them on websites rather than just assume they've gotten "ghosts". Most are also too quick to assume, because their resident "psychic" of the group "felt something", so they take a digi shot and these "orbs" show up. That's good enough for them!

I'm going to toot my own horn here for a second. We were the first on the net to expose "glitch pictures" for what they really are, i.e., dust, breath, camera straps, light events, etc. Now you see everybody has a "mistakes" page showing various things with explanations in them. That's a good thing, they're on the right track, I'll give them credit...BUT, they also have photos of "orbs" as being dust, yet they post the same photos in their "evidence" or "investigations" galleries. Uummm, folks?...If you've just shown that dust will show up as "orbs", how can you say you've gotten "orbs" then? That would be like submitting something to the "Department of Redundancy Department"...

There is more proof that "orbs" AREN'T ghosts, than there is proving they are. We've shown how dust and other airborne particles reflect the light from the flash unit on your camera...we've done this many many times. However, there is absolutely NOTHING  anywhere PROVING that these spots are in fact ghosts, spirit energy, or anything related to the paranormal other than claims. "But how can they be in this photo, and not in the one taken right afterwards then?"...I know what you're thinking. I've had this happen also while taking Christmas pictures. By the time the digi re-sets, all the excitement stirs up the air, and the dust moves OUT OF THE FLASH RANGE. Photos taken outdoors is pretty much a given if you really really think about it...air currents push particles out of the way, and bugs fly away.

THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES A GHOST WILL SHOW UP ON FILM OR OTHERWISE.

Here's an article sent to me by my buddy Mitch, from Spiritseekers,  from Fuji. It backs up what I've been saying all along, but nobody wants to hear it...they just want to believe they got "ghosts".

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

"Orbs" or "Balls of light", if you want to call them that, have been seen with the naked eye by lots of people ( I have issues with them being eyeball floaters too), but there's an extremely slim chance of getting an actual one on film....Here's why.

A very simple and basic law of physics states that "Light destroys light", meaning that if you see an "orb", and take a picture, the flash from the camera will cancel out the "orb". Its really simple...especially since all these "orb shots" were taken with a flash, (or better yet) the "Daytime Orb" was taken when the sun was bright causing a Lens Flare or other refractory whoops of light bending around the curvature of the lens, or a bug.

Let's go back to the "Light destroys light" thing. Here's a simple experiment you can do to see for yourself.

Shine a flashlight on the wall. Now take a photo of it with the flash unit turned off. You'll see the spot from the flashlight. Now do it again with the flash unit turned on...What do you see now? Just the reflection of the flash soaking up the other light. See?

The same is also true for the flash reflecting off of particles in the air. Only this time its creating the phenomena, not canceling it. (read the above Fuji article)

Here is the experiment to show you the proof. I did the "Powder Test" again, with and without the flash.

See?...No "orbs"....

Another classic, the "Super-charged Orb in Motion", can and is mostly attributed to a stray hair that got in front of the lens.

The whole "Orb Phenomena" thing is another example of we can refer to as "Paranormal Internet Urban Legend".

The same thing applies to video footage of "moving orbs", as they are the reflection of these airborne particles from the IR beam of *Nite-Shot* flowing through air currents. A red LED light attached to your video camera will help eliminate most of the "dust orbs" when using *Nite-Shot*.

You also read about "Colored Orbs" and all their "meanings"...C'mon now, that's a crock too. I noticed while driving one day, with the sun at my back, that the light coming through the back window of my car was reflecting in the rear-view mirror. The light refracted causing a prism effect in the mirror. I was laughing to myself thinking, "OH NO!! I'm being chased by multi-colored evil orbs!!"...Also take notice at your sunglasses on a bright day. If they're dirty, and you tilt your head just right, you'll notice "orbs" right before your eyes. This is the same thing as dust being on your camera lens.

Most film cameras use small  mirrors or reflective polished metal strips (usually placed behind the film strip) to aid in the collection of light to the image. When the shutter opens, light enters the lens, the light reflects off the mirror, and exposes the frame. If you make a habit of keeping this surface clean, you'll reduce the amount of "phenomena" that shows up also.

Take the "rear-view mirror/back window" incident as another lesson learned. There are simple clues everywhere, you just have to take notice of them.

The Mysterious and Magical "Bell Shaped / Shield Shaped Orb"

Once again, the imaginations run wild with theories of other-worldly properties, outlandish claims, and lots of patting ones own back about capturing these "extremely rare" entities of the paranormal without even attempting to find out what it really is.

Here's why they're "extremely rare"...out of 152 controlled test photos, I got 3.

I've seen a few on the net, and their shapes range in size from short and squat (like the ones I got), to medium sized, to elongated ones that looked like a squadron of B-1 Bombers. Guess what they are...still the same ol' dust, but in a different light...literally.

I did the "Powder Test" and got them. I shuffled my feet across the carpet at 2 in the morning and got them. I waited for the furnace to kick on and got them.

Why they're shaped like that, might have something to do with the brand of camera, but I'm only guessing on this one. My experiment showed it could very well be though.

Fortunately, the photos on the net gave the make of camera also. This was a lucky step toward seeing if they might be a contributing ingredient. Some camera models have an extra covering over the lens. I don't know the thought behind that, perhaps to keep the lens clean like a protective window, but this may be a factor.

Canon models seem to "get more" Bell-Shaped Orbs. These cameras have the extra lens covering, and the double bouncing of light, or the reflection of light on the covering, entering the lens could play a role. Like the light experiment with my aperture model.

I looked through a catalog from Ritz Camera, and found the makes and models that have the cover: Canon Powershot: A400, A95, A510, SD Digital Elph, SD400, SD70, and SD300 Elph...Pentax: Optio 50...Sony Cyber-shot: S40, DSC-S90, DSC-L1, DSC-W7, DSC-P200...Kodak Easyshare: C340, C360...Konica-Minolta: DiMage Z-20, Z-5, Z-3, S414, 130 Quartzdate (35mm), 160 (35mm).

I cut a piece of plexi-glass to fit snuggly over my camera lens, and took shot after shot after shot, until the camera got kind of warm. I used powder for my airborne-particles, and a spray bottle to see if moisture had anything to do with it. Since powder and regular ol' house dust might be different shapes, I stirred some up from the carpet and furniture also. It really didn't matter what the airborne stuff was, it still showed up. I'm thinking its the refraction of the light bouncing off of the extra cover that lends to the "bell-shape", and the length would be attributed to the angle of the light...i.e. the flagpole/sun shadow comparison. You'll also notice that when there are "groups" of them, they'll all point the same way.

So we can pretty much scratch "orbs" off of the "evidence" list from now on....
They only exist in the imaginations of the hopeful, not in an image.

Please do not send me photos of your dust, they are NOT evidence of a
"ghostly manifestation" contrary to popular belief.

Here's all the proof you need.

(all experimental controlled test photos were taken in the comfort of my own home)

~~~copyright 2002 revised 2005 Dr. Ken

None of this material may be used without
the written consent of Dr. Ken