1/18/2024 0 Comments Polaroid spectra film paranormalI'm not really interested in debunking or casting doubt on the use of instant photography in paranormal investigation (though I think it's helpful to know any tool's limitations). It just isn't very probable, and it's easy to fake, so my first thought is always that an image probably isn't real. Personally, I absolutely believe that spirit photography is possible (with both film and digital cameras). I'm always ready to be convinced that I'm wrong, so it's very possible that in the future I might come across a compelling reason to trust instant photography as a reliable ghost hunting tool. There are people who I respect who have a lot of faith in instant photography, so I'm not ready to dismiss it as evidence of the paranormal. Well, it turns out there are multiple ways to manipulate instant photos, and there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of them as paranormal evidence, which I'll go into below. After all, where's the room for fakery when an image is immediately output in a physical form? So it makes sense that instant photography has become increasingly popular when trying to photograph ghosts. We know that's trivially easy to fake things in digital photographs. How can you trust a digital photo that you know can be easily modified? Also, in an age when people are heavily filtering images that they post online, and maybe even making cosmetic changes to own their appearance and photographs, we have been trained not to trust pictures. Nowadays, we know how easy it is to Photoshop an image we understand that photographs can be deceptive. (See also: the endearingly fake Cottingley fairy photos.) Back then, people didn't know about how easy it was to doctor photos and shoot double exposures. Much of the early belief in spirit photography seemed to rely on people not understanding the new technology of photography. Mumler and William Hope, whose photographs were debunked in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively. When the subject comes up, my first thought is of hoaxers like William H. Spirit photography has a long and troubled history.
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