Rain drops and dust in the immediate visual area of the lense can cause ‘Orbs’ to appear when a flash is used. Dust on the lens can also cause orbs. The brilliant light of the flash illuminates the drops and particles in the photo, and because they are generally out of the focus range they tend to appear as blurred spheres of semi-transparent light floating in the air of the photo. Rain or tiny dust particles in the path of the flash account for most of the Orbs we see in photos.
However, there are times when no flash is used and yet glowing orbs are present in the photo. Take the following photo of a crop circle as an example.
Story short from rense.com: On Sunday (6/12) a local resident drove by the field at about 7-7:30 pm; it was close to dusk and storm clouds were gathering in the distance, but it was not raining and examination of his digital photos seems to indicate that the flash on his camera did not discharge. Multiple small semi-transparent "orbs" and a few brighter and more opaque light balls appeared on several of his photographs. If, in fact, the flash on his camera did NOT go off (look at the bottom of the photo for any evidence of more light on the weeds in the forefront), then these "orbs" cannot be explained as moisture droplets in the air close to the lens reflecting the light from the flash. Photo below by Marc Witson:
Note than storm clouds were gathering and likely producing fine drops of rain and dust particals that perhaps could not be seen or felt yet, but could be seen in a photo with a flash. There is always wind with such storm formations and rain drops, even if small and seemingly undetectable, are blown ahead of the main body of the storm. This is why we can ‘smell’ a rain storm coming.
However, it would still require a bright flash from the camera to produce an glowing ‘Orb' from the dust or rain in this photo. The author of the article claims no flash was used when the photo was taken. This testimony can be verified by the absence of light illuminating the tall plants and fence-wire in the lower foreground.
I have created an example of what the photo should have looked like on this dismal, dark day had a flash actually been used. Note how the forground nearest to the 'Flash' would be lit up, the light then fading into the distance.
There are no indications that the photo was taken through a window, either, as there are no reflections or distortions assosiated with common glass whatsoever.
If this photo were taken with a digital camera - and perhaps it may have been - the orbs could have been faked with image editor. However, it would require some knowledge of the software.
For example, the orb marked 'A' in the image below could be created in about 3 minutes using a layer, brush, white color, gausian, then motion blur. However, the orb marked 'B' would be a bit more complicated to produce for the average person. This is a translucent orb with depth, and while it, too, is blurred as if using a Motion blur, there are characteristics of this orb that require expert knowledge in graphics creation. A rain drop would produce this type of an orb if a flash were used but no flash is apparent. It is possible that a rain drop was captured (B), but a rain drop does not account for the brilliant white orbs (A). These would need be produced using a flash - or having it's own energy!
It is these kinds of photos that make me take notice. As a photographer and graphics designer with good working knowledge of light and shadow and anomalies produced by either, there are still some things - like this - that require alternate explainations than dust, flash light and reflections.
Original Photo and Article snippit copyrights: Nancy Talbott BLT Research Team, Inc. (www.bltresearch.com) em:
t ph: 617/492-0415 Orginal article is found on Rense.com
