Michigan's Otherside Paranormal Forums

Paranormal Photography
I see hundreds of pictures of supposed paranormal every month and what I see in 99% is the wrong camera settings, pareidolia, matrixing and apophenia.
For night time investigations (unless your shooting off a tripod ) set your ISO to 400 to 800. If your shooting under 9 mega pixel stay around a 400 ISO above that raise it to an 800 ISO.

Camera straps should be removed unless your using a large camera and have on a neck strap. Then by all means use it but keep it on your neck.
Auto focus, if your camera is on auto focus and is constantly trying to focus at night then switch to manual focus. Set it on manual and adjust it for the room sizes your shooting. This will work for most investigations.

Shutter speeds, you can’t expect great shots when your shutter is open 2 seconds or longer.
1/8000 will stop any motion
1/4000 high enough speed to take pictures while walking
1/2000 will stop most motion
1/1000 will stop bicyclists and runners
1/500 will freeze a person jumping in the air
1/250 will stop some motion
1/125 to avoid camera shake
Speeds that blur motion. Use a tripod for these speeds.
1/60 slight blurring of motion
1/30 very good speed to show a bit of blur when photographing dancers
1/15 the blurring of motion becomes clearly evident
1/8 the blurring motion becomes more pronounced
1/4 the blurring of motion becomes extreme
1/2 high speed motion begins to become invisible
This is when you start seeing see-thru figures
1 medium speed motion begins to become invisible
2 all motion begins to become invisible
4 more motion begins to become invisible
8 motion develops a fog like quality
B this one allows you to keep the shutter open as long as you want

Camera movement, this is a huge problem with paranormal photographers. At night when your camera is set wrong you must listen closely to make sure your shutter opens and closes. Just because the flash goes off doesn’t mean the picture is done. Your shutter may remain open and when you move you add shadows and strange blurs to your shot.

Dust or moisture, when dust or moisture is present expect to capture orbs. These aren’t paranormal and have been shown you can eliminate them by moving your flash further from your lens. Or by adding a shroud around the outside of your lens.

EXIF Information, digital cameras have what is called EXIF information on every picture. If you have pictures not turning out then check your EXIF this will give you the settings you are using. Experiment with your camera and when you find EXIF settings that are perfect write them down and use them all the time.

By following a few small suggestions you can take better paranormal shots. Also now if you catch something then we will be more apt to believe it when you have the correct settings.

Nice setting reccomendations. I just use Macro, Infinity, and Auto focus. Macro is good for close up, Infinity is good for far away, and Auto focus, I don't know. It really does not matter when you purposely fake photos.
What does ISO stand for?

ISO stands for "International Organization for Standardization."

Wouldn't that be IOS?

One would think. But that seems to be the definition of it.

Since we are on cameras: I have the hardest time taking photos in the dark, my camera cant focus on automatic because it is too dark to focus on anything, and I cant do it manually because I cant see in the dark!!! I havent been able to figure out what to do about this. I have a Nikon D60 DSLR...

This is what I do, set it on manual, then adjust it in the day light to an average distance. This should work well at that setting then use it, you should have good results.

when i went to Travers City to visit my grandma, we stoped by the mental hospital and i took some pictures of the old, run down area. I can feel spirits and there were many angry apperations there. I sa nothing while i was there, but later that night, back at home, I was going through the pictures on my digital camera and thought i saw something...I zoomed in on one of the windows and found a lighter pigment than the rest of the window. It took the shape of an arm. As I zoomed in more, I noticed that the arm was in the shape that looked as though it was strangling someone who was not present, somone, obviously, who is either still alive or did not die in the hospital.

I zoomed in on other windows and found many figures of apperations standing with a hunch, and staring out the window. My favorites, however, were more than just standing there, they had a story behind them and I could only imagin the oddities that would be inside the pages of their life.

One of my favorites was in a window high above the rest. In the botom left pane was a face. A smiling, happy face. You would think that smiling made that person happy, but as I zoomed in, I noticed that it wasn't just any smile. The eyes were wide and the mouth looked as though it was stretched like putty from ear to ear. Whoever was smiling, was deffinetly insane to an emence level.

The other favorite was not in the building at all. He was outside, near the fence. I had taken a picture of the fence, loving the rust that had gathered on it, and had actually taken a picture of a person trying to escape. It was a man, i could see him much more clearer than the others, but still not perfectly, and he had odd clothes on - most likely a uniform that they were forced to wear in the 50s - and he was gripping the bars o the high fence, as if trying to pull himself up. Though he had nothing on his feet, it looked as though he could not pull himself up and over, as if he had chains on his feet that wayed him down.

I enjoy takin pictures and if you would like to see any of them, I will try to figure out how to put them on my computer and how to post them.

If, as well, you were wondering why I was taking pictures of this building, it was only becasue I am a writter of horror novels and I thought it would be an intersting building to model a haunted house (of some sorts) after. I was never expecting to find anything or anyone in my pictures, but I will deffinetly be taking more of them on my next voyages to haunted areas.

Tuesday, July 20th, I will be heading to a small victorian Bed And breakfast in Harrisville, if anyone would lilke to join me to help me contact the man who died there, you can make reservations on their website. I will take many pictures of my room, because, as it luckily turns out, I am bunking in the room that this particular man died in.