HOPPS Ghost Hunters

I get a lot of requests to analyze pictures people send in for my opinion.  Keep in mind, it's an opinion and sometimes people don't hear what they want to hear, although I do use sound science to come up with what I see in the pictures. 

Often people don't even understand their cameras.  How does aperature, ISO (ASA) settings, shutter speed, and number of megapixels affect your shot?  Rather than go too indepth, I found a website that explains it all in laymens terms.   I am not taking credit or blame for any information posted here, but do recommend you do some reading. http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_iso.html

As for analysis, I have been using PIcasa 3.8 available for free, which does an amazing job at letting you bring out detail, changing the colors on your pictures, editing, etc. and you can see the results immediately without having to save the picture with each step in enhancement.  The program is available at  http://download.cnet.com/Picasa/3000-2193_4-10160334.html  The cool thing about this program is when you open a picture, down in the left corner is the picture information -shutter speed, ISO, and aperature.  It also should show the type of camera this picture was taken with if it's a digital camera.  With the camera information you can look it up and see the specs, limitations for heat and cold, and any known flaws that may have been noted by testers.

Another mistake for ghost hunters is thinking "nightshot" settings on digital cameras are true "night vision" type shots.  The first rule of a true night vision camera is it will have an infrared illuminator (IR light) on the front of it.  This will look like a dull red glow if you look at it in the dark.  If you don't have this feature, it's more than likely this is an "enhanced nightshot" device, which uses slower shutter speeds and changes in aperature to allow the camera to take light in for a longer period of time --not true nightvision.  One way this affects your pictures is with a longer exposure time (1/60 second down to about 1/8 second or longer) is you will get a camera movement effect unless it is mounted on a stable tripod.  People often get what looks like a traveling orb on their pictures simply because of this shaking.  Your heartbeat alone is enough to make the camera shake, although you'd swear it was perfectly still.

Now to address dust spots on your lens. Simply put,  dust spots show up as a function of aperture. The smaller the aperture, the more resolved the dust spots will be.  That is why they appear on some pictures and not on others.  It is important when taking multiple shots that you keep everything set manually.  Allowing the camera to keep making adjustments only increases you chances of getting false "orbs".  If it's dark, it's dark, you don't need the camera to continuously keep adjusting itself.  Once you preview a clear picture shot in the dark, keep those settings the entire night.  You'll see less "orbs" and dust in the resulting photos.

Just some helpful hints.  Part of operating a piece of equipment is understanding it.  Especially if you want to make claims of capturing "ghostly" apparitions. 

My experience?  I've had my own photo (film) developing lab since I was 13.  That's 35 years ago.

 Happy picture taking!