If you’re interested in the paranormal, you’ve undoubtedly come across various photos that claim to be paranormal.  The problem is how to determine a picture that is truly paranormal from one that just looks spooky.  Out of the hundreds or even thousands of spooky looking pictures, I can guarantee you that very, very few are actually paranormal.

When I am looking at a purportedly paranormal picture the first thing I try to determine is what about the picture is the person or group claiming to be paranormal?  Is it an orb, a shadow, or maybe even a ghostly looking figure?

The most popular type of paranormal pictures are those that contain orbs.  While some orb photos might look spooky, the vast majority (if not all) are most definitely not paranormal.  In order for NUPS to deem an orb paranormal it must be visible by the naked eye.  We have been actively investigating for over 2 years and we have only experienced this phenomena once.  During a recent investigation two of our investigators witnessed small, colorful balls of light moving through the air inside a building at separate times.  These most certainly would’ve qualified to us as paranormal orbs, but unfortunately there weren’t captured on film.

Smudges on the camera lens can also cause spooky pictures.  Most often smudges cause a smoky or mist like effect.  While this may or may not be easily discernible by someone who is simply looking at the pictures on the Internet, it is easily caught by the person taking the pictures.  When taking pictures while investigating a location, you should always take a series of three or more shots.  This serves as a type of control.  If you have an anomaly show up in all of the pictures it is most likely something explainable like a lens smudge.  However, if out of four shots the anomaly only shows up in one or two, it could possibly be paranormal.  Another way to tell if your anomaly is caused by something on your lens is to see if it is in the same location in every shot.  You would be surprised how a tiny hair or speck of dust on a lens can make a picture look creepy.

Another explainable cause of smoky/misty forms are obvious.  Was someone smoking nearby when the picture was taken or was it cold outside and you’re seeing their breath?  Whether done to purposefully try and fool people, or not, most smoke and mist in spooky pictures have normal explanations.  This is one reason why it is very important to make sure that no one is smoking during an investigation, and that you make sure to note the weather conditions.  If you capture a mist outside in the middle of August on a clear night, you might have something paranormal.  But if it’s January and five below, it is most likely the photographer’s breath.

That leaves us with pictures that contain ghostly looking people or shapes.  Shadows are often captured in paranormal pictures, as seen in the image below.  This picture was captured while NUPS conducted an investigation of an old medical clinic that was being used as a store.  We were down in the basement where a lot of activity was reported holding an EVP session when one of our investigators reported feeling suddenly sick to her stomach and feeling as if something touched her neck.  Another investigator took a series of three shots directly above her.  While all three contained the dark shape, this shape changed with each shot.  We have ruled out the possibility of a lens smudge because the investigator took approximately 200 shots that night and there were no anomalies in the other shots.   We have ruled out the possibility of this being a shadow because there was nothing else in that area that could have cast such a shadow and the density of the shadow itself is just odd.

Dark black mass located in upper left hand corner of picture.

One of the tools used by a lot of paranormal investigators is EXIF data.  EXIF data is “Exchangeable Image File” data, and tells you a lot about the photograph.  You can view the EXIF data by right clicking on the photograph and choosing “properties”, you can also use an EXIF viewer, Firefox has a great one.

Here is what the EXIF data looks like for the above photograph:

Exif Sub IFD

* Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/30 second ===> 0.03333 second
* Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 45/10 ===> Æ’/4.5
* Exposure Program = normal program (2)
* ISO Speed Ratings = 800
* Exif Version = 0221
* Original Date/Time = 2006:02:09 12:04:22
* Digitization Date/Time = 2006:02:09 12:04:22
* Shutter Speed Value (APEX) = 4906891/1000000
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) = 1/30 second
* Aperture Value (APEX) = 433985/100000
Aperture = Æ’/4.5
* Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/10 ===> 0
* Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
* Flash = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
* Focal Length = 18/1 mm ===> 18 mm
* Colour Space = 65535
* Image Width = 3008 pixels
* Image Height = 2008 pixels
* Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
* Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
* Scene Type = directly photographed image
* Colour Filter Array (CFA) Geometric Pattern = 0×02,0×00,0×02,0×00,0×00,0×01,0×01,0×02
* Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
* Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
* White Balance = manual (1)
* Focal Length in 35mm Film = 27
* Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
* Contrast = normal (0)
* Saturation = normal (0)
* Sharpness = normal (0)
* Subject Distance Range = distant view (3)

The reason that EXIF data is so useful is because it can tell you things such as the time and date of the shot, what type of camera was used (point and click vs. 35mm), how long the shutter was left open, etc.  If you have a photograph of a light anomaly, using EXIF will be able to tell you if there is a possible natural cause to the anomaly such as a slow shutter speed.

As you can now see there are quite a few ways to logically think about possible paranormal photographs.  NUPS would much rather try to come up with a reasonable, non-paranormal explanation for things than to just immediately declare something paranormal.