A Grain Of Salt, And Orbs

Let's talk about the much debated phenomenon in paranormal photography.....orbs.

My profession is photography, and as I learn more about cameras, especially digital cameras, I am coming more and more to the position of dismissing outright at least ninety nine percent of orb pictures.

What people do not understand about cameras, more importantly digital cameras, is that the setup for the flash with personal cameras has changed from the way flash was set up for film, and it has led to this controversy.

It is all about the positioning of the light. Think about the pictures you have had taken at a professional photographer's studio...how many orbs have you seen in them? none? do you know why?

Because the light is not only diffused through a softbox, it is also offset from the camera at a large angle, to provide a more thorough generalized lighting of the area being photographed. The film cameras we grew up with had this same sort of setup on a smaller scale, with a large flash unit that either sat high above or far to the side of the camera, or was attached via a cord and held in the other hand.
Not so with today's digital cameras.  The flash unit is contained within the camera body, typically right above the camera lens. This projects a hard, undiffused light straight at the target of your picture, and with any dust or pollen or lint or even bugs that may lie between you and the target area being illuminated from only one side, you are left with a nebulous circular form that the camera cannot focus on and resolve into a clear picture. The focus remains on the more distant object, while the dust or whatever nearer the lens is unfocused.
This holds true even for infrared nightshot conditions, and is another reason I am not a fan of conducting an entire investigation in the dark. You are still left with a camera struggling to focus in a poorly lit environment, and it will go to the larger mass object further removed from it, leaving any airborne particles closer to the lens unresolved, unfocused, blurry, and giving a false sense of something ghostly.

In fact, unless you have a specific lens for close up shots, it is nearly impossible for most cameras to clearly focus that close in. It's just the way they are made. And just as your eyes struggle to make sense of things in the dark, it's even worse for your poor camera lens, trying to find something to focus on.
There is still that one percent out there that may well be a real ghostly orb, but with the flood of dustandmore orbs, it is going to be hard to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that it truly is a good piece of evidence. 

The debate will continue for some time, I am sure, but for myself, having learned what I have about cameras and photography, I will hold onto a grain of salt when reviewing orb photos.