The first photographs of ghosts

Found a cool article about spirit photography and its start. It dates it back to the mid to late 1800’s and explains how a well known spiritualists groupknown as the Crewe Circle made false ghost photographs to fool the public.

The most prolific member of this group being William Hope who was a pioneer of so-called "spirit photography".

Hope and his friends—a group of clever crooks who called themselves the Crewe Circle—took advantage of this general ignorance about how the technology worked. They learned that, by double exposing their plates, they could create fake images of the spirits of the dead into photographs of living people.

The article itself shows some really good examples of false spirit photography.

It’s interesting to see how far back this type of false proof actually goes.

Article
The first photographs of ghosts


Information about William Hope

~G

reply to post by ghostryder21


Very cool pics!

I love ghost pictures and people can't cry photoshop or editing on these, that stuff wasn't around. I have pics from when I was little with orbs and light images that were spirits. The house I lived in was haunted. At first it scared me but then I got use to them.

Thanks for sharing!

I’ve seen a brilliant ghost photo, in a friends family photo album. There is no way it was waked, at least no incentive I know of. There are many early ghost photos that were not faked, or at least cannot be explained to this day 9despite our modern technology). paranormal.about.com...
Old film photos are the best, because they all come from film, and film is a direct chemical reaction meaning it can be “zoomed in” many hundreds of times.

Atheists claim to know too much, I prefer the Agnostics because at least their open mindedness makes, their thinking compatible with the scientific method!!!

Real ghosts, beyond hallucinations do exist. Parapsychology has been denied proper funding, mostly because it competes against what all people can agree on. That is a policy issue, not a science one.

reply to post by ghostryder21


I can't believe people were fooled by these. Then again, photography must've been new back then I guess...

Originally posted by ohsnaptruth
reply to post by ghostryder21

 

I can't believe people were fooled by these. Then again, photography must've been new back then I guess...

What's funny is they started the craze that exist's till this day.
Tv shows ghosthunters ect.ect..

All with a few faked picture's that people was to ignorant of the photo process to catch on.

it was a big money making racket back then.
i assure you.

At the time, spiritualism was extremely popular due to the fact of so many men having died badly during the Civil War. People were desperate to have a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, and these fake mediums preyed upon them without shame. The advent of photography was perfectly timed to cash in on it all. I don't know. If someone was ever comforted by anything that one of these predators gave them, then that was some good that came out of the whole sorry episode.

That's interesting, obviously all fake (in my personal opinion anyway) but back then nobody would have known better.

All of these are fakes, there are very few authentic ghost photos of a full recognizable human form. Unfortunately fakes are a dime a dozen and throw a wrench into the works for anyone who tries to bring serious attention to this subject.

@mblahnikluver

I didn’t say they were real I stated this is how some were faked back in the day and these people were notorious for producing fake pictures.

@Liberal1984
I’m neither Atheist nor Agnostic. I did not state I believe nor disprove this method of capturing ghosts. I myself have seen a ghost one time in my life and know they exist. I also agree with you that it does require more funding to study this subject.



It’s interesting to see that not many read the full article where I stated they are faked and not real.


I’m pretty sure some real ones exist. I would not know how to distinguish from the real and fake modern ones. That’s why I stick to mainly photoshopped work.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
reply to post by ghostryder21

 

Very cool pics!

I love ghost pictures and people can't cry photoshop or editing on these, that stuff wasn't around.
Thanks for sharing!

Actually that is not true. The first recorded photo manipulations took place in 1860."Before computers, photo manipulation was achieved by retouching with ink, paint, double-exposure, piecing photos or negatives together in the darkroom, or scratching Polaroids. Airbrushes were also used, whence the term "airbrushing" for manipulation."

Note that the first recorded photo manipulations was in 1860. I would venture to bet that other photographers figured out those tricks earlier as well, though.


History of photo manipulation

That said, clearly the photos in that article have been manipulated. Well, it is clear to me. They were the first attempts at photo manipulation so they were not all that well done. Hell, photography as a whole was new.... So I guess it is only natural that the first attempts at photo manipulations would be weak. Those photos appear to be a combining of two negatives to make one picture.

Cool find. I always found it weird and kinda creepy when people used to take pictures of the dead at the funeral.

reply to post by gimme_some_truth


Hey Gimme Thanks for the info. I didn't know that...and honestly I don't even remember posting in this thread! I had to look at my post and then the pics lol I think that was one of those nights I posted after work lol