Photographic Analysis

Photography as Evidence of the paranormal


Photography has long been the staple technique used in paranormal research almost as long as photography has been around. To date, it is still used regularly to try and capture evidence of paranormal activity. The hard part is that current techniques and technology makes it a fairly simple matter to alter possible photographic evidence. Another difficulty is that a photograph is a freeze frame of a single moment. What happened before and after that moment is not preserved so trying to determine the cause of something appearing in a photograph is extremely difficult. That being said, photography does have some benefits in paranormal research. Let's look at the pros and cons of the situation.

Photographic Pros


- Digital cameras today are fairly cheap and produce high resolution images that are extremely easy to handle. Having to develop film is no longer necessary and most image formats transfer and display easily to todays computers. Most of the inexpensive cameras are simple point and shoot. Not requiring the photographer to worry about focus, light level, flash, etc.
- Digital cameras preserve crucial data to all images by default. This data is embedded within the JPEG image itself and most people don't even know it's there. This embedded data is called EXIF data. EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. This data give a myriad of information about the image including most of the cameras settings when the picture was taken. Here is an example of EXIF data present in a JPEG image file.



The camera itself records this data so EXIF data varies slightly from camera to camera. The areas that usually come in most useful are camera make and model, the date and time of the image, the exposure time, and settings concerning the flash. This information can either help bolster the validity of possible paranormal activity present in an image, or it can help explain what is being seen in the image. There are some downsides to the EXIF data and I'll cover those in a bit.
- Photographs taken on an investigation are vital sources of information to help validate or invalidate other forms of data recording whether it be audio, video, etc. Having a set of pre-investigation photographs can help in determining where things were before the investigation started. If something appears to have moved, you have a photograph showing it's exact position beforehand. It's less capturing paranormal activity on camera, and more covering yourself on how things were when you first entered a location.

Photographic Cons


- A photograph is usually a split second of time that is captured. Typical photographs taken at normal light levels is usually around 1/60 of a second. This extremely limited time frame gives us no information on what happened before the photo was taken or what possibly happened afterward. If something interesting shows up in a photograph, we do not have the crucial information needed to determine what is causing the apparent phenomena.
- A photograph shows a very limited spacial area. You can only see what was in the visible frame of the lens. Many times, apparent phenomena is not witnessed at the moment the photo was taken but rather afterward upon review of the photograph. This means that the photographer was lucky enough to capture the phenomena without seeing it. Usually the phenomena is not centered or even completely captured in the frame as a result. Also, possible causes for the apparent phenomena could easily be just out of frame making it more difficult to explain what is seen in the photo.
- With the availability of current software and computer technology, photos are extremely easy to manipulate. There are plenty of free programs out there today that make creating "ghost photos" a fairly easy task. This software can not only allow someone to create visual anomalies in the image, but savvy individuals can modify the EXIF data to mislead anyone trying to explain what is seen in the image.
- Pareidolia, or "Matrixing" is a very common occurrence when dealing with photography and the paranormal. I could rehash the many sources describing this effect, but I'll let Grant Wilson from TAPS explain it for me at THIS link.

Basic Photographic Analysis Examples

Example #1

The following images are actual photographs taken on one of ParaFPI's investigations. The location is confidential and the images are used with full permission by the client. ParaFPI is NOT saying what is seen below is evidence of paranormal activity. It's just an interesting example of what can be captured on an investigation.

This first image does not show anything out of the ordinary and was taken approximately 4 minutes before the 2nd image. Having both images helps add some validity to the second image, as I will explain below.





First off, don't bother with the EXIF data on these two images as I have obviously resized and added a watermark to both. Doing even basic modifications like this can alter or even delete the EXIF data.

As can be seen, there is some sort of shadow present in the second image. There are many possible explanations for this shadow and it's our job to plausibly explain away these possibilities leaving us with only one option, that the shadow is paranormal. To help explain away many of the possibilities, here are a list of known facts about the situation that the images do not show due to the limitations described above. I can only say that these are facts because I took the pictures!

1. Everyone in the room was remaining perfectly still and quiet.
2. There were no windows in this basement room so there could be no light contamination from outside the home.
3. The room was pitch dark. The one single source of light came from the flash on my camera.
4. No other pictures were taken at that moment.
5. At the time the picture was taken, we had a 7 degree drop in temperature. Keep in mind that this home had no air conditioning, there were 5 people in this one small room, there were no windows, and the door was closed. With 5 bodies in that room, the temperature should only have gone up.
6. This was not a discoloration in the wood of the closet door. The first picture shows that the closet door had no discoloration.
7. After extensive testing, I could not recreate this type of shadow by using my finger to partially block either the flash or the lens itself.

As stated above, we cannot say with 100% certainty that this shadow is paranormal in nature but as of right now I cannot logically explain this image to my satisfaction.

Example #2

The following images were taken at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park by a ParaFPI member. They show the elevator in the main lobby area. Please disregard the dust orb visible in the image as that is not what we're looking at. Again, ParaFPI is NOT claiming that these images show anything paranormal.





The second image is just a zoomed in clip of the original image. If you look directly behind the dust orb, there appears to be a small child in a sitting position with their knees up. Something similar to this image:



There are many aspects to consider when analyzing an image like this. The inside of the elevator is made up of highly reflective metal that is not smooth but rather warped in areas. This very well could be simply a case of Matrixing but some aspects of the image are difficult to use that explanation on.
The main area that stands out is the bright area to the lower left of the dust orb or the "legs". The metallic braiding behind the bright area is reflective to a certain extent but not nearly as reflective as the square metal backing of the elevator. This bright area extends down past the metallic braid and seems to touch the carpet. The uniformity of the bright area over this uneven and highly contrasting surface makes this image interesting and worthy of further analysis.

These examples hopefully give you a glimpse into what it takes to deal with photographs in the field of paranormal research and the difficulties encountered when photographs are submitted to you from others. It should be noted that this page provides a small window into the realm of photographic analysis and should not be considered complete by any means.