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What are 'Orbs'?

Since the era of digital photography (and before in fact), orbs have been appearing on photographs. They usually appear as white circles, which appear to have an internal structure; almost like a spider's web. Explanations range from spirits to processing errors, but one thing is clear, orbs are everywhere!

The most common explanation is certainly dust particles, but it sounds strange, how could tiny specks of dust create large and detailed balls of light on our photos? Albeit, it's possible; as I discovered tonight.

One thing that I have noticed is that better digital cameras do not seem to capture orbs, I do not really know why, but can guess it might have something to do with the size of the camera's CCD sensor (Coupled Charge Device) or the quality of the lens. For example, you are more likely to capture an orb on a cell phone camera than an expensive digital SLR camera. This theory certainly applies to me, I have captured very few orbs on my new camera, but they seemed to appear on most photos where a flash was used on my older digital camera. My new camera is a much better model than my old digital camera.

Is the dust theory correct? It seems so, and I will show you why. First, you must think what a dust particle which has been flooded with light would look like to you or a camera; a pin-hole of light, a bright little dot. What else looks like a tiny dot of light? A star, obviously.

Although orbs do not look like tiny dots of light, they look like glowing disks. This happens because the little particles of dust are very close to the camera, and the camera is already focused on a subject a few metres away, for example, so when the image is taken the dust becomes out of focus, and is also illuminated the camera's flash (if used).
My idea was to take photos of stars, while being focused at different levels. In theory, the photos taken on infinite focus should be clear (because the stars are very far away), the ones taken on close focus would be blurred (because the stars are not 10ft away).

I fixed my camera to a tripod, and pointed it at the Plough constellation. Using manual focus, I chose infinite zoom. This should ensure that the photo is clear, as well as the stars. Click on any one of the images below to enlarge them. The first two images were both taken using a shutter speed of 1/15 (of a second).

The stars appear to have doubled-up on this image, and there a few trails. It seems that the camera was knocked while on the tripod. This does not affect the experiment.

For further proof, I snapped a set of pictures of one star taking each one even further out of focus. Here is a large GIF animation showing the set of pictures. It is 280kb and may take a minute to load.

Method 1

1. Secure your camera on a tripod.
2. Make sure you can clearly see the stars.
3. If you have a high powered zoom lens, choose any star. If not, choose a bright star.
4. Point the camera at the star, zoom in as much as possible (avoid using 'digital zoom'.)
5. Use Manual settings instead. If your camera will only operate automatically you may have difficulty.
6. Choose a long shutter speed (anything longer than 1/6 should be OK). Use manual focus to focus to an infinite distance. Take a photo. Your star should appear crisp and clear.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 while slightly decreasing the manual focus value. For example, infinite > 20ft > 15ft > 10ft etc.

Method 2 This is a bit easier, but you must really look hard to make it work correctly.

1. Turn on the flash on your digital camera. Hold the camera in your hand pointing away from your face.
2. Most people have dust in their houses, you don't need much for this to work, but it's still necessary.
3. Take a photo while looking a few inches infront of the camera.
4. You should have seen tiny little dots of light appear in midair as you took the photo. They also might appear on the photo which you have just taken as large silver plates. Although you have just seen them as tiny specs - which proves that is all they are; dust particles.

Conclusion
In view of the information I have presented to you on this page, it should become clear that if 'orbs' can be recreated by taking out-of-focus shots of stars it certainly eliminates the theory that there is a paranormal explanation. I know that when a camera flash is used the light illuminates specks of dust in the atmosphere, causing them to look like silver plates (I have explained why this happens above).

The camera can not see the individual dust particles, so it does not focus on them - instead it focuses on something larger - probably the background. When the photo is taken, the background (for example) will be in focus, but the glowing dust particles will NOT be in focus - as the camera did not realise they were there.

Orbs certainly exist, but they are nothing more than dust!