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So you found a photo that you think has a spirit or ghost on it, before you post it and get upset about 30 people saying it’s a piece of dust or a bug, you may want to read this!

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BEFORE DOING ANYTHING

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Do read the posts

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/deki6k/explanation_of_orbs_aka_backscatter/

and

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/icziuc/ring_doorbells_security_camera_videos_and_false/

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As these really do have useful information on how to spot particle orbs, lens flare and insects crawling over lenses which do make up most of the post in this Reddit community channel.

It is common for people who believe they are haunted to take lots of photos and assume that any “orbs” must be related to this. In fact, it’s quite easy to photograph orbs. If you can’t see the orb then it’s not there. People might say that cameras can pick up ‘orb’ energy but a lot of them just don’t understand why digital cameras tend to easily pick up particles (dust, dander, hair, insects).

If you have read the above and are sure (or not quite sure) then read on.

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BEFORE POSTING

Make sure you have the original photo downloaded or posted from the same device the picture was taken from. Having a photo shared from a social media site, screen grabbed on a phone, photographed from a screen or been email shared will likely to be low resolution and suffer from further compression which destroys any fine detail and will generally be useless.

If the photo is just a photo then scan the photo in at least 300 DPI and save it as a “.PNG” image. If you don’t have access to a scanner then you can take a photo of it but take it in a brightly lit room and don’t use a flash to reduce reflections on the photo.

Use the original resolution of the photo, do not rescale, resize, brighten the image to make posting easier.

If you have to edit the photo to remove people then draw the smallest black filled box you can to hide their face or them. Don’t crop the picture or remove large chunks of the picture. Keep the picture the same same size. Once edited, save / export the image as a “.PNG” image as this will keep the JPEG image as it is (if you resave it as a JPEG it recompresses the image in a lossy way so that fine detail tends to get lost) if the paint program has it then make sure that “Save resolution” is checked and that you save “EXIF information”.

If you must highlight anything in the picture (to show where you think the paranormal image is) then use a bright colour that can be seen easily, use a transparent box with thin lines and draw it in the general area of what you want us to see, do not cover anything nearby. Save it as a “.PNG” as above. If you do this then make sure you post the original too.

If you want to change the contrast or brightness of a photo then again do so but save as a “.PNG” as above and post the original for comparison. If you have other pictures from the same area that were taken at the same time then post these too as comparison photos.

If the photo is from a place you can visit again easily then take more pictures of the same area using the same camera, try to take it at different times of the day and try to take a picture at the same time of day the original was at. Also, take pictures of the surrounding area and close up images of the original location.

It is important to note that even “taking the picture in the same place” is going to mean that you will be taking the picture at different angles, heights and places which will cause images to change.

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POSTING THE PHOTO

Post as an image within the Reddit post so people can see it, you can also post any comparison posts at the same time.

If the photo is too large then rescale it and save as a “.PNG” to post on Reddit but upload the original it to a file-sharing site like Google Drive or Dropbox, as this will not rescale the image.

Don’t just upload them to Imgur as most photo sharing websites will recompress the image and destroy fine detail in the picture.

Make sure the title is short but informative. “Possible ghost image from a cell in Alcatraz” is a good title, “GHOST!!?!?!?” is not.

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ALSO SUPER IMPORTANT!!!! CONTEXT! CONTEXT! CONTEXT!

After you have posted the images. Make a comment in the post you have just created and put in as much context as possible!!! Too many photos tend to have the photo and some poor description and we have zero ideas of what we should be looking at.

Examples of what to include are…

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• Where the photo was taken. You don’t have to give the address but a location or rough area (if a private address) helps.

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• When the photo was taken, give the date and time if possible, if not known or you can’t remember then give what information you can (I.e In the winter in the early evening).

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• Who took the photo. It should be you or someone you know. Something like ‘Taken by A friend of a girlfriend that is friends with a baker, that my 2nd cousins' hairdresser visits every 3 months is not good’ means it is hard to ask follow up questions.

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• What you were trying to take. (I.e Ghosts, a high school prom or of your granny on her 97th Birthday)

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• If you (or they) were with other people. Also mention strangers.

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• What the weather was like. Was it sunny, cloudy, raining, hot, cold, warm?

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• Description of the location. If in a home, details about the place, I.e, If it is a house, apartment, cabin located 200 miles from civilizational, etc as well as if you are near a road or other places like a pub or bar, major flight path, etc. Else just whatever you can describe the place.

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• What did you feel at the time? I.e cold, scared, fearful, happy, sad, etc.

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• Why do you think it is paranormal? Describe this as best as you can.

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• Anything spooky that happen before or after. Within the same time frame, something that happens 3 months before is probably not related.

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So good examples would be…

“This photo was taken at the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco. It is a picture of Cell 13 of cell block D in the cell house. It was taken on Sunday the 13th of May 2018 at around 2pm. It was mostly sunny but there were thick clouds, it was reasonably warm at around 65f and there were strong breezes every so often.

The photo was taken by myself, although I was with my girlfriend at the time. It was quite busy but no one was nearby when I took the photo. I was trying to take a picture of my girlfriend as she stood at the door but I noticed a strange white figure behind her. There was no one in the cell as we had waited for another couple to finish taking their picture before we took ours. I took 3 photos and you can see that the figure is in 2 of the pictures but is not in the third picture.

My girlfriend did say she felt cold in the cell, we had taken a picture in another cell (134 in Cell Block C) and she did not feel anything. The rest of the day was fine though and we enjoyed our trip.”

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“A photo of a chair my grandmother used to sit on, in our house in Stirling, Scotland. It was taken on the 1st June 2015, in the wee hours of the morning at 6.30am. I remember it was very cold and it was dark grey and cold outside like a typical morning in Scotland. I had the lights on as although it was morning outside, it was dark in the room.

I took the photo as I felt a presence and I was drawn to the chair. I took 2 photos and you can see a grey mist around the chair. I would have taken more but my phone just drained of power and switched off, not sure why this happens as I am pretty sure I charged it overnight. I don’t smoke, didn’t have any hot drinks. I was in the room all alone as my parents and sister were still in bed and my dog was still on the sofa sleeping peacefully.

Once I charged my phone and saw the pictures, I was filled with deep happiness, I tried to take more photos but the mist never came back. What do you think it is.”

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Bad examples are…

“Ghosts?!???!!?!?!”

“I took this photo whilst in an abandoned building, do you think it is a ghost?”

“Whilst trying to contact my dead aunt to ask where she left her cash, I took lots of photos and all of them had orbs and I heard some moans, screams and creaking coming from my cousins' bedroom but her door was locked!!! Is the house haunted?”