Since the 19th century, people have created mysterious images with rudimentary cameras. Today, digital cameras and other modern equipment are used to hunt souls in a " haunted " place to answer people's eternal questions about the afterlife.
Journey to find the souls of ghost hunters
This 1871 photo is by William Mumler , the first " soul " photographer. He uses many exposed lines to get the illusion of a " ghost ". This is the most famous picture Mumler took - the portrait of US President Abraham Lincoln with the shadow of Mary Todd Lincoln behind.
Photo Woman with Daisies and Spirit (The woman with carnations and a soul) was composed around 1875 but the author's name is unknown.
The photo of Mr. Laymarie and Mr. C. with the ghost of Edoward Poiret .Author: Edouard Isidore Buguet (France, about 1840).
Mumler's reputation emerged with the development of spiritualism in the mid-19th century, when the celebration of souls became a popular pastime of wealthy families. But all ghost images and homosexuality are not real or not proven to be real. Currently, " ghost hunters " in the picture no longer follow the old way.
They often go to areas that are rumored to be haunted and take hundreds of pictures there. This image is taken from a pub, showing light flows. Sharon Leong of the Ghost Research Society in San Francisco (USA) said the kernel image in the center of the image is due to the gathering of dust, rain and moist air that appears when the flash light turns off.
Another bright light appeared before " ghost hunter " Annalisa Bastiani when she went to the notorious Alcatraz prison . To avoid this light, she suggested using a bracket for the camera and a wide-angle lens to capture the entire gloomy room.
The photo also has bright moving circles shot by Sharon Leong at the Casa Munras Hotel in Monterey (California, USA) with a 5.1 megapixel Canon camera.
Sharon Leong shows off her " ghost hunting " tools, including a Canon PowerShot , digital recorder, electromagnetic sound meter (EMF), camcorder and an infrared thermometer.
The electromagnetic sound meter can be attached to the ear, to comfortably use other ghost detection tools.
This EMF 30 USD device is labeled as a ghost finder. Online stores like Ghost Mart sell many kits that cost between several hundred and thousands of dollars.
Annalisa Bastiani is using the EMF device to find out about a bar in San Francisco (USA), famous for " haunting " rumors.
" Ghost hunters " often try to converse with spirits while recording but " ghost " often does not respond. When they get home, they use software like Audacity or Adobe Audition to amplify mysterious sounds.
A German man wrote EVP Maker software to extract " ghost " sounds by computer, instead of using a tape recorder.
Brian Jones from Seattle has spent nearly ten years with the devices that deliver legendary sounds that he thinks are the voices of souls.
There are a lot of websites online that share ghost stories like GhostVillage.com.
