Ghost Pictures: Crypt Ghost Pictures

Crypt Ghost Pictures Back to Ghost Pictures

Veck of Louisville, Kentucky sent us this series pictures taken at a crypt. Was this mist a ghost or did sunlight
create this mist by interacting with a cool spot. You decide...

"I have attached several photographs taken last summer of a crypt door in a graveyard in central Kentucky.
It was afternoon, raining lightly, heavy overcast, hot, and there had been a recent downpour (30 minutes
earlier). I used a tripod, Olympus slr, zoom lens, and Fuji 100 ISO color negative film. Exposures were about
1/15 to 1/60 sec long. Total time span was about ten minutes (there were several more photos). These
images were scanned directly from film with an Epson 1650 flatbed/film scanner. No changes were made to
any of the photos except to place comments, lines, and my e-mail address on them. NO IMAGE
ENHANCEMENTS OF ANY KIND, including contrast, brightness, color, etc. Comments on the photos are
self-explanatory. I offer no explanation as to what it is - it's just weird. People have told me it looks like a
ghost forming from a mist. The "head" does seem to have some facial features. If you wish to put them on
your web page, you are welcome to do so."

"...there was no sun - heavy overcast, still raining, a little. My first thought
was cooler air from the crypt door mixing with the warmer, moist outside air
might have made a tiny fog bank. You can't tell it by the photos, but it was
actually quite dark that day--my exposure times were running between 1/60
and 1/15 second (some of them were as long as 1/4 sec), and I had to use a
tripod.

I had planned to take a few shots to convert to b&w so as to get an idea what
kind of photo I might get with an old wooden Kodak 8 x10 field camera in b&w
(still haven't got around to doing that). I thought the b&w 8 x 10's would be
really creepy, but unless the "ghost" wants to make an encore appearance,
I'll never top what I got that day.

The purplish knot that formed the "head" does cause me to think there's just
enough light from the overcast sky to make some lens flare, as the
predominate color of the lens coatings is purple, but there's a slight "arc" to
the larger mist area, which should have been concentric with the center of
the lens, had lens flare been the culprit.

Then there are the "facial features." Maybe just a combination of
background surface texture against brighter area of possible lens flare.
Maybe. Lotta maybes there. It looks like you can see eyes and eyebrows.
What's a ghost need eyebrows for? Does a ghost even need eyes?

One thing I can rule out - cheating. I did nothing to add to the image, or to
enhance what was already there. The film was scanned with an Epson 1650
flatbed/film scanner, controls set to "auto." All I added were the text and
lines that I drew. Whatever it is, the longer I stare at it, the weirder it looks. It
will be interesting to see what others think of it."

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