I like to do searches online to look at photos of ghosts, and it seems that the majority of them involve swirling mists on dark nights. These have always facinated me...

...until last night.

My husband has been playing with our digital camera, trying out all the different features. We went out on the porch to smoke and he took a photo of our car with the "night time" flash on. Well, the combination of that flash and my cigarette smoke made an image EXACTLY like the swirling mist photos that people call ghosts. I mean, exactly. You could even almost make out a face in it, just by the way the smoke happened to be sitting when he took the photo.

My trust in photos in blown. Do you beleive in the swirling mist photos, or do you think they are smoke??

Some are obviously smoke - you have proven that.

Others are film-processing errors, lens flares, reflections and hoaxes. And a very common one is the wrist strap flapping in front of the lens.

Camera Clues: A Handbook of Photographic Investigation

I think I might get that book for my husband. He's an amateur photographer and some of his errors have made very interesting "ghostly" photos.

Thanks John!

as the daughter of an expirienced photographer and developer, it's very hard to impress me with "ghostly photos". there is a logical explanation for ALMOST all photos taken of the paranormal. Some are as simple as cigarette smoke, or as complicated as a double-exposure. You can almost always find a way to duplicate creepy photos, albeit there isn't always an explanation for everything, almost everything can be explained.

My son has taken photos in cemeteries that showed mists when there were none present to the naked eye. No fog, no smoke - nothing of that sort.
My favorite one
There probably is an earthly explanation for that phenomena, but as yet, I don't know what that may be...

Hi All,

Try taking slow-sync flash pictures while sitting around a campfire at night. Most digital cameras offer the slow sync option. Smoke and flame trails swirl all over over creating a really cool effect. Slow-sync flash is when your flash fires at the end of an exposure rather than the middle, or beginning, each providing a different effect. The shutter stays open longer with slow sync, so your subjects need to stay still, but the fire will lick and sway, and the smoke will swirl creating a mystical effect around your friends. The fire may even overlap their image, making them look like they are part of the fire. I've freaked out some of my friends when they see the pictures. Of course you don't need to get close to the fire itself, but it works best with a light breeze and a high flame. You have got to try it next time you sitting around a fire in the dark. Digital rocks-Instant gratification. =o)

~V

Personally I know ghosts exist. I've seen them when I was sober 100%. I was 6 years old when I saw the White Lady in the Philippines (ask what that is). I was 9 years old when after my uncle Marks suicide I was eating breakfast and i seen him outside the screen door looking in. Later that day is when my parents pulled me out of school
and told me about what happened.

Don't tell me about ghosts, for some reason they don't scare me no more.

They can't hurt you. they used to scare me, until I understood them...

The weirdest for me was when my friend Tom died. his son discovered him, and i was right behind him.
He'd been dead for over 9 days and the heat was on 80 degrees in his house.
the guy was a decorated Vietnam soldier.
I was his only friend because he was a drunk, his family turned their backs on him.
Never cried that much for a friend before.

One night 2 weeks after the funeral, i was in my living room, i was sober, i felt an ice cold chill, it was ice cold, then that was it, i never saw anything, but i think it was him telling me thanks for the speech i gave at his funeral....and thats my experience