The dirty word (No, really: It's probably just dirt.)

Not an orb, just some dust in a house built in the 1860s. (Photo by Katherine Webster)

OK, picture this: You're walking through a dusty, old, deserted, reportedly haunted house. You get the feeling like you're not alone, and on a hunch you snap a picture. Of course, not wanting to wait, you look at the photo on your digital camera and you see an "orb." Getting excited, you take another picture, and another, and another without ever capturing the orb again. It only happened that one time, so it MUST be paranormal, right?

Not by a long shot.

This is some of the most twisted logic used in paranormal investigation. It's one of my pet peeves.

Now, I'm not saying there is no such thing as orbs. But I believe true orbs are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Natural causes

There are several natural causes for the orbs produced in photographs.

1. Dust.

Think about it. As you walk around the house, graveyard, abandoned insane asylum, Grandma's attic, whatever, you kick up dust that has been collecting for a long time. As you first walk into a room, there may be no "orbs" at all. But take another photo after walking around for a few minutes, and you may get several, dozens even, in a single frame. The dust turns and spins and floats around in the air, sometimes catching the light, sometimes not. This can explain how an "orb" can be in one photo but not the next: It simply wasn't catching the light at that time. You can tell a picture has dust in it and not an orb because the dust refracts in a perfect circle with a solid color and with no border.

2. Light reflection

Light reflecting off an object can cause several orbs to appear in a photo, and usually one will be brighter than the rest. These orbs can be followed in a straight line back to the object the light is reflecting off. You can debunk these by determining if the orb has the same gamma signature as the object. (You can do this using Adobe PhotoShop.)

3. Water vapor

Water vapor is also notorious for causing "orbs" to appear in photos. Here in Southeast Missouri, where we have notoriously high humidity, investigators should be especially careful. Water vapor orbs generally have angular sides and appear to fade from solid to transparent. These also have no border.

4. Bugs

Bugs have their own flight pattern, can glow in the beam from an infrared camera, and obviously show movement. Therefore these can be mistaken fairly easily for orbs. But many times if you enhance the photo or slow down the video, you can see wings and specific characteristics of the insect. Also, in many cases, the types of places reputed to be haunted can also be breeding grounds for moths and other insects.

My best advice? Don't jump to conclusions.

Still think you've got a real orb on film?

True orbs caught on film will share several characteristics.

They emit their own light. To me, this means that the orb should be visible to the naked eye before or even after the photo is taken. They will likely also seem to have a trail, showing movement. Also, some say the color of the orb will be on the cool end of the spectrum (blue, green, etc.). It also always helps to have some other piece of evidence backing up your photo or video: an EVP, a weird K2 or EMF reading, something. An orb photo trying to stand on its own as evidence of the paranormal will probably not convince anyone.

Except that guy from the first paragraph.

Further reading

"Orbs debunked"

Orbs and lens flares

"Photographic Analysis: Orbs"