PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY Known also as " spirit photography." Many persons have claimed to be able to photograph psychic and astral forms ; hence the name. Psychic photographs are divided into many classes, including (i) Portraits of psychic entities not seen by normal vision. (2) Pictures of objects not seen or thought of by the medium, photographer or sitter, such as flowers, lights and emblems. (3) Pictures having a flat effect and the appearance of having been copied from others. (4) Pictures of materialised forms visible to normal sight. (5) Pictures of the " wraiths " or " doubles " of persons still in the flesh. (6) Portraits on plates which developers have failed to bring into view, but which, it is said, can be seen on the prints by certain persons ; and (7) Portraits that cannot be classed as photographs because no camera is used. The art originated in America in the year i86i, when W. H. Mumler, of Boston, opened a studio specially for the work. The first psychic photo graphs to be taken in England, it is believed, were those produced by Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, in
March, 1872.
Psychic photographs are often called ghost photographs, but the latter term is more often used to describe " faked " or " trick " pictures, which may be produced in many ways, the easiest being to dress up a person in ghostly attire, pose the " ghost," give a very brief and incom plete exposure, cap the lens, and allow the " ghost " to move out of the scene, and then complete the exposure. When the plate is developed a faint image of the ghostly figure is seen, and objects appear through the figure, more or less according to the relations of the exposures.
Another method to adopt is to draw a ghost, or to paste a drawing of a ghost, upon a piece of dead-black card, and to copy this in the camera. The undeveloped plate is then used to take a photograph in the usual way and developed, when the two images will appear together. Much depends on the relations of the two exposures, as experiment will easily show.