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SPIRIT
PHOTO HOAXES
As
a paranormal investigator, I have learned that many people find the entire issue
of the paranormal fascinating and, at times, even "spooky fun". Unfortunately,
some people take this a little too far and enjoy seeing if they can trick investigators
like myself by hoaxing a photo. While I like to have fun as much as the next
person and appreciate that such efforts helps keep my deductive powers sharp,
they are also extremely harmful to the entire paranormal community and hurt
serious study of the subject (especially when a clever hoax achieves national
attention, at which time the harm done to the paranormal world can be extensive
once it is successfully debunked). Often they are efforts by the hoaxer to prove
how clever they consider themselves to be, but all they do is end up cluttering
up my inbox in what is usually a juvenile attempt at humor. As such, I would
ask people to refrain from playing such games and not inundate mine or other
investigator's e-mail with your hoaxed photo(s). It is already difficult to
respond to every photo received without having to wade through mountains of
silly fakes on top of it.(Additionally, I do not seek permission to post hoaxed
pictures so beware that your photo may well appear on my site without your approval.)
Another
problem is that not everyone who has sent me a hoaxed photo knew it was a hoax
themselves. Often they have had tricks played on them by others, which can be
a cruel thing to do, especially when someone decides it's great fun to make
light of another person's beliefs. No one likes to have their most personal
beliefs made fun of, so please take that into account before you decide to frighten
or belittle others.
Finally,
most of the photos in this section belong to my private collection, al though
a few of them are off the internet and are included either because they are
especially well done or because they gained some world-wide recognition and
appear often on line as real ghost pictures. Perhaps one of the most famous
of these is the Wem fire ghost, which is considered one of the best spirit photos
ever shot (see number 2 below). It was through the keen eyes and investigative
prowess of a viewer that I was able to debunk that photo once and for all. (If
you feel a photo included in my real spirit photos gallery
section is faked and you can make a good case for it, please let me know. I'll
even give you credit for it if you wish.)
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Left: Fairly
well known photo off the internet. Dead giveaway here is the "spooky"
melodramatic pose, the cast shadow, and the general composition of the
photo. This person really has a flair for the dramatic.
Right: You
gotta love Photoshop. Here our intrepid photographer took a picture of
a Civil War era wagon and then waited for someone in period costume to
walk by, at which point he shot a second photo. Then it was simply a matter
of cutting the figure out of the one photo, turning the transparency up,
and splicing it into the wagon alone picture. Such fakes are easy to do
and can look pretty authentic to the untrained observer. The biggest giveaway
is the consistency of transparency of the figure; real ghosts tend to
be either very solid in appearance or more solid at some points than at
other points (i.e. the upper torso might appear nearly opaque while the
legs and head may be transparent or even missing). They don't often appear
this evenly transparent.
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Probably
one of the more famous ghost photos is this one taken by a gentlemen named
Tony O'Rahilly in 1995 of what appears to be a young girl looking out
from a raging fire at Wem town hall in Shropshire, England. According
to Mister O'Rahilly, he shot the photo from across the street but didn't
notice the young girl standing in the doorway of the burning building
until he had the film developed later. Firemen found the photo so disturbing
that they sifted through the ashes afterwards searching for the remains
of a body but found nothing, leaving everyone wondering who the girl may
have been. Not surprisingly, there is a bit of local folklore which claims
that a young girl named Jane Churm accidentally burned the town hall to
the ground in 1677 when she dropped a candle, and her ghost has been reputed
to haunt Wem town hall ever since. However, evidence recently uncovered
demonstrates the photo to most likley be a fake. Click here
for more details.
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Speaking
of hoaxes, here are a couple brought to you by the folks at iPhone, who
cleverly introduced a new application called "Ghost Capture".
Now anyone can create their own ghostly image with the click of a button,
thereby filling my e-mail with all manner of garbage. The problem is that
these images are generally of a better quality than one can achieve with
Photoshop, making them especially pernicious. They're so good, in fact,
that recently a noted Australian psychic was fooled by one of these iPhone
photos when he declared it authentic on an Aussie radio program, even managing
to come up with a whole story about the child in the image. It just goes
back to the old adage that if it looks too good to be true, it probably
is. The problem is, of course, if the quality of hoaxing has gotten so good,
how will one ever be able to tell if someone should really manage to get
a really superb "capture"? |
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Left: Here's
that creepy little kid again. (The same one seen in the photo above right.)
Apparently has an affinity for pickup trucks as well as little girls.
Right: Same
ghost girl as in the above left photo. One of the biggest give-aways that
a photo is hoaxed--besides the fact that the same exact spirit is evident
in photos sent to me by different folks--is the rationale for the photo
itself. With the photos above, one could buy that the person wanted to
get a picture of their kid and "something" strange just happened
to appear; in these two examples, however, why would anyone take a photo
of a guy standing on the bumber of his truck digging for something in
the bed (with most of his head cut off to boot) or a mostly empty basement?
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Sometimes
hoaxers fool even the newspapers. The photo at left of a supposed ghost
of what appears to be a medieval farm boy was taken near Evercreech, England
in 2003 by a nice little old lady named Angy D'Arcy. It didn't appear
in an article in the much vaunted Sun Times until 2008, however (that's
when Mrs. D'Arcy finally got around to haveing the roll of film developed)
and when it did, it created something of a sensation--especially since
it was supposedly authenticated by "experts" as being real.
Unfortunately, after a bit of further digging, it was determined that
the figure was other worldy after all, only in this case the world was
Tatooine, as in Star Wars Eposide 1: The Phantom Menace. Obviously either
Mrs. D'Arcy or someone at the Sun photoshopped young Anakin Skywalker
(aka Darth Vadar) into a tranquil meadow scene. Don't believe such a thing
is possible? Just compare the image at right to the badly photoshopped
image at left and see if the tunic, belt, neckline and hair aren't perfect
matches.
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This photo
has been on the internet for quite a while. It supposedly shows the ghost
of a little girl peeking out from between the legs of the two ladies in
the middle (the ones with the hand cuffs) that apparently has made the
little girl on the lower, far right corner cry. (Why the ghost girl is
making the real girl cry is never clearly explained.) In any case, I've
had this photo sent to me by several people who all claimed their neice
or daughter or cousin or somebody shot it and this mysterious yet precoucious
ghost baby showed up, which I found hard to accept, especially as none
of these people knew each other. Remarkable coincidence you say? I'd say
so! Anyway, this bad photoshop job continues to make the rounds on the
internet and continues to be touted by those in the know as the real McCoy.
The only thing really scary about the picture are these ladies.
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Watch
out for The Ring girl! The easiest way to know when someone has sent
you a hoax photo is when you start receiving the same image from different
people, as was the case here. Obviously the image has been either Photoshopped
into an existing image or is an iPhone application like "Ghost Capture"
(see above). The competing posts detailing how the eerie image came about
are often examples of wonderful and, I suspect, largely unappreciated, story-telling
capabilities, and while I enjoy each and everyone of them, enough is enough. |
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Left: Not
everybody has a knack for photoshop. Here is an example sent to me by
a girl from Sweden of an axe-weilding ghost sneaking up on her from the
next room. Not only is the "ghost" obviously taken from a movie
still, poster, or off the internet, but it was cut out with all the finesse
of a chainsaw. Obviously this person has something else awaiting in her
future besides cimematography.
Right: And
you thought hoaxed ghost photos was a recent development. Here is an example
from the prolific William Mumler, taken around 1872, who discovered that
not only did he have a gift for taking photos of dead people, but that
living people were willing to pay a lot of money for them. Using double
exposures and some occasionally heavy-handed negative etchings, he made
quite a tidy little chunk of pocket change until authorities caught up
to him and so besmirched his sterling character as to ruin his livelihood.
Mumler wasn't the only charlatan of the nineteen century, of course, but
he was one of the better known ones.
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WANT TO SEND
ME YOUR GHOST PHOTO? I'd be happy to look at it. However, before you do,
I ask you to first go to the spirit photo tips page and follow the procedures
there (I promise, they're not extensive. Really.) Just click here.
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