False
Orb Experiment
By Rich
Purpose
The false orb experiment is intended
to offer a large selection of non-paranormal orb
pictures, descriptions, and production methods.
A large array of reference images will be very
helpful for determining potential authentic paranormal
orb images. The experiment will give information
on what caused the false orb. Descriptions of
how the orbs were produced is also available for
people who want to repeat the experiment themselves
to see if their results match.
Camera Set-up:
used a Cannon PowerShot A520 digital camera for
the photographic false orb experiment. The camera
settings are as follows:
Shooting mode -
aperture priority with full open aperture of f2.6
Zoom - full wide
angle of 35mm (35mm camera equivalent)
Lens - manually
focused to infinity (auto focus does not work
in darkness)
Film (CCD) speed
- ISO 400
Flash - on
Self timer - set
to take a set of ten pictures in succession
I placed the tripod mounted camera
on the back steps to face the open field. This
arrangement provided an elevated location for
an increased camera to ground distance to minimize
reflected light from the flash. I wanted to keep
the background black without any nearby objects
or ground showing up. This will provide maximum
contrast for the resulting false orb images. I
leveled the camera and then took a few test shots
to determine background darkness. It was dark
enough to proceed. For the dust orbs, I shook
a mass of dust/lint above the front of the camera
to form a cloud of dust while the camera was shooting
is succession. For the insect photos, I mounted
a black light with a reflector just below the
camera in order to attract enough insects for
good pictures.
Panoramic daytime view
of my back yard showing the open field using
described setup |
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My back yard at night
taken 1 ½
hours after sunset (Long exposure without
flash) |
Same view with flash
using described setup |
Enhanced view of flash
photo showing background |
Dust Orb Experiment
I shook clumps of lint above the
front of the camera while it was taking pictures
in succession. I first used lint from the drier
and then the vacuum cleaner. Noticing some colored
dust orbs in the photos, I decided to try shaking
some red colored shirts to produce red lint to
see if the colored dust orbs would be predominately
red. Red dust orbs were very scarce. Moving back
to using dust from the vacuum, I took some more
pictures with the aperture stopped down to f6.3
to see its effects.
Results
Drier lint produced a general mix
of white, grey and some colored orbs. Although
the lint strands were generally around a thirty-second
to an eighth inch long the resulting orbs were
mostly round. The dust from the vacuum tended
to have very few white orbs and the grey orbs
were usually darker. The vacuum dust has a large
proportion of fine silt particles which have a
tendency to produce a greater abundance of grey
orbs due to their small size and darker shade.
The number of colored orbs was about the same
for both. The red lint produced only two red orbs
but it made mostly tan and cream colored orbs
suggesting that lint color has a slight effect
on orb color. No other colors were produced from
the red lint.
I suspect most of the color comes
from light diffraction. Colored orbs came from
the vacuum dust which has almost no colored lint
or silt in it. The drier lint only had a few colors
but orbs of other colors showed up. The red lint
has a smooth surface which does not produce diffraction
effects which resulted in no atypical colored
orbs. The variety of colors was similar to the
diffraction colors as seen on a CD or DVD. I consider
very little of the colors coming from refractive
dispersion, like a rainbow or from a gem, because
the color magenta shows up which cannot be produced
by refraction. Nearly all of the particles in
the drier lint and vacuum dust lacked the transparency
needed to produce such vivid color in this manner.
The reduced aperture had a strong
effect on the dust orbs, making them smaller and
hexagonal in shape. All but the brightest orbs
show the hexagonal shape. The most heavily overexposed
orbs have lost some of the hex shape but generally
show up when the image is darkened a great deal.
These effects are very repeatable and easy to
identify.
Dust orbs from drier lint –
There is a general mix of white, grey and some
colored orbs. Observe that most of the orbs are
round despite the fact that the majority of the
lint strands were around 1/32 to 1/8 inch long
(0.7mm to 3mm long).
Drier lint strands - Field of
view (FOV)1.73mm x 1.30mm
Dust orbs from vacuum
cleaner dust – Notice that there
are almost no white orbs and the grey orbs are
generally darker. This is from the lower amount
of lint to the higher proportion of the finer
silt particles
Dust orbs from vacuum cleaner
dust - continued
Vacuum cleaner dust – This
dust has a lot of silt
particles as compared to lint strands. (FOV 1.73mm
x 1.30mm)
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Dust orbs from
red lint – Examine the tan
and cream colored orbs that indicate the
weak effect of lint color |
Red lint –
Notice the red color and smooth surface
on the strands. (FOV 1.73mm x 1.30mm) |
Dust orbs from vacuum cleaner dust with stopped
down aperture
– Notice the obvious hexagonal shape and
smaller size.
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Composite image of white
and gray dust orbs (Image sizes
have been scaled to a similar size for easer
comparison) |
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Composite image of colored
dust orbs (Image sizes have been scaled
to a similar size for easer comparison) |
Flying Insect False Orb Experimen
I placed a black light underneath the camera.
Checked the camera settings and then turned on
the light. I waited about five to ten minutes.
Then I took about fifty pictures.
Results
The insect orbs are mostly irregular in shape
often resembling the insect especially the larger
closer ones. Round insect orbs are rare. Insect
orbs are also very brilliantly white frequently
overexposing the image. There extreme brilliancy
is due to the insect’s relative large physical
size as compared to dust or lint. This larger
size provides more area to reflect the light from
the flash to the camera lens. There images are
typically smaller then other orb types due to
the fact that further out insects will show up
in the picture.
Raw images of insect orbs and
insect orbs with dust orbs
– Observe the irregular shape, brilliancy,
and average size as compared
to the dust orbs
Composite picture showing the
typical irregular shape and high brilliancy of
insect orbs. Image sizes have been scaled to a
similar size for easer comparison of shape and
brightness.
Composite picture showing the typical image overexposure
associated with insect orbs. Originals are to
the left, pictures showing overexposure are to
the right. Slight overexposure shows up as colored
regions. Black central regions show heavy overexposure.
Conclusions
Dust Orb Experiment
The particle that produced an orb image can generally
be identified by the brightness. Bright orbs usually
come from lint, while darker orbs come from smaller
silt particles. Monitoring the ambient suspended
dust will be worthwhile during an investigation
that uses flash photography.
Orb color probably comes from light diffraction.
The smooth surfaced lint strands produced no atypical
colored orbs. Lint strand color has only a small
effect on the resulting orb color
A reduced aperture makes all of the dust orbs
small and hexagonal. This technique would be highly
useful for paranormal orb photography if your
camera has the aperture priority mode feature.
One should test their camera out to see if the
“hexagon” effect occurs and at what
f-stops. All of the hexagonal orbs are fakes making
the potential paranormal orbs stand out. Only
the most overexposed dust orbs will be difficult
to identify
Flying Insect False Orb Experiment
Insect orbs can be easily identified by their
key features of “irregular shape”
frequently resembling the insect and “very
high brilliancy” often overexposing the
image. Another useful identifying feature is the
typical small size.
In conclusion this experiment had no intension
to disprove the existence of real paranormal orbs.
Its intention was to supply pictures of false
orbs for comparing an unknown orb image in determining
its authenticity
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