Every now and then I get an email from a person who thinks that they have captured a weird image and would like to know what us, the people of GT, think about it. Such is the case when I received an email from Michael.

Michael contacted me in order to get some answers from the GT community as to why there is a ghost-like face in one of his pictures.

Javier,

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v255/88/72/1483350106/n1483350106_30031053_6196.jpg

This is a link to the picture on Facebook.  Let me know if you can’t see the picture.

So, they were at a campfire in a field. The woods were behind the kid in the green shirt but now particularly close. There was no one behind the guy in the green shirt as well. If you imagine that they were sitting in a circle around the fire, the picture was taken from one point in the circle to another. Sort of like a secant line. So, the fire was not behind the picture taker, but was at an angle from both. It was also not foggy or misty out and they could not see their breath (temperature was well above dew point I would assume).

My thoughts on what it could have been:

1. Reflection of the flash off of something – The woods count not reflect any light from the flash, because it was too far away. There was not fog/mist to reflect light off of either. Nor were there any objects in the area that would reflect light well enough.  Also, the “ghost” image is orange and I assume the flash would make a white image.

2. Reflection of the campfire off of something – Similar to all the above reasons, I don’t think it’s this. The fire was at a favorable orientation to cause the image, but there was nothing to reflect the light off of.

3. Double exposure of the picture with another picture- This was taken on a digital camera and there are no pictures close in the sequence that are similar to it from on the camera’s memory.  There is one from significantly far away that looks similar. http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-ash1/v255/88/72/1483350106/n1483350106_30031049_6571.jpg

This is the picture that I’m talking about. The guy’s face might match with the “ghost” image and the girl’s hair can explain the texture in the “ghost” picture. I tried to overlay one picture over the other but I couldn’t get it to work. Maybe you guys can do it with photoshop?

4. The guy moved when the picture was being taken – I JUST thought of this while writing this email, and it looks like it might explain it. The “ghost” image looks just like the kid and the textured part might be the kid’s fist. I think I can also see the motion blur in the picture. I can also see that the camera was set to a slow exposure because it was dark. That seems like a good explanation to me

So, I would like to see what you guys think of it. I don’t think it’s a ghost, but I want to see what you guys think. If you have any trouble with the pictures, I can attach jpeg versions to further emails

Michael

I would assume that the photograph is of a double exposure. Since it was taken with a digital camera, I’m not sure how double exposures work in this circumstance. Anyone out there with more knowledge in cameras/optics/lenses care to chime in?