THE SOLUTION

The first place to go looking for ghosts is, of course, the very places where ghosts love to hang out: old Victorian-style homes, basements, and your bedroom closet. Ghosts usually come out only at night, or at the very least when light levels are low, so that means long exposures. You’ll need to bring your tripod. Ghosts are shy by nature, and I have found that it takes about 8 seconds for them to reveal themselves. It’s also important that you stand very still, since any disturbance to the air can cause the ghost to flee.

Your ghost needs to move in coordination with your exposure time. In some ghost images, you may want your subject to stand still for a portion of the exposure and then move quickly out of the frame for the remainder of the exposure. This will record the person’s image in a translucent form, because the space in which the subject was standing will record as blank scenery once he or she has moved on. I often have my ghost subjects stand still for the first half of the exposure and then move during the second half.