THE MYSTERY OF SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY

We're all looking for that one ideal Instagram selfie. You know, that finely filtered one million liked snap on Facebook. I mean, that one-in-a-million posture that you wish Facebook would always remind you. It's also aggravating when people photograph your ideal pose. But have you ever had a photo taken that was ruined by a ghost? Yes, you heard me right, a ghost! It may seem absurd, but ghosts have been appearing in photographs since long before the first selfie was taken. In fact, before the advent of the Internet of Things. I bet you didn't know that. In truth, the practice of capturing ghosts on film, known as spirit photography, dates back to the nineteenth century and was popularised by William Mumler even though deceitfully.

In the 1860s, American photographer William Mumler appeared to take an image of a well-known ghost, the late President Abraham Lincoln, who was standing behind his wife Mary. A great mystery you'll agree with me. Following this, Williams' business expanded as he received a long list of clients eager to create a paranormal connection with their loved ones. However, with this great fame also came lots of skepticism. P.T. Barnum, the businessman who popularised the three-ring circus and who brought William to court, was the most prominent of them. He accused William of taking advantage of bereaved relatives by manufacturing these ghost photos. He knew something was fishy by this new phenomenon by William. He resolved to prove his case against William at law court.

The trial reached a climax when a photograph of P.T. Barnum with none other than the ghost of Abraham Lincoln was shown. This ghost photographer, you see, relied on a smart trick. William would place a previously prepared glass plate with an image of the deceased in front of the camera, in front of an unused glass plate with an image of the customer. The spectral site was created by superimposing a ghostly image of the deceased onto the main shot using the double exposure technique. This came after even more disturbing reports that William had broken into his clients' homes to grab images of their deceased relatives. In other situations, the alleged spirits depicted in these photographs were really previously shot images of people who were still alive. Despite the evidence against him, William was found not guilty of fraud. Although William was discharged and acquitted in the court of law he wasn't that favoured in the court of public opinion.

He did not escape the court of public opinion, and his business was never the same once his reputation was tarnished. Despite the fact that ghosts in antique images have been completely discredited, ghostly beings continue to surface in iPhone photo reels today. The question to ask will be - Is Apple working on a secret streaming deal with the dead? Actually, it's because of the way smartphones shoot images. Unlike analog film, which captures an image in a single flash, cell phones take images in stages, similar to how a scanner runs over the paper. The smartphone's camera sensors require time to record all of the information in the image. This is known as image aliasing. As a result, anything moving within the frame may appear warped in the photograph. So this is a strange riddle that scientists are trying to solve.

What scientists can't figure out is why individuals continue to believe in ghosts despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So, how about you? Do you have faith in ghosts? Do you think that ghosts exist or not. Please let me know in the comments section below.