In the past few years the photography of Orbs has come under great scrutiny. They appear in countless pictures and are by far the most common anomaly in ghost hunting. Anything that becomes this common must be investigated and often scrutinized thoughly.
No one can completely deny Orbs. Many pictures exist as well as video tape which clearly show these Orbs passing through solid objects and coming out the other side, as well as some Orbs showing personal attachment by becoming interactive with others. That, compounded by other evidence during a hunt seems that Orbs are very much real and are the true manifestation of spiritual energy.
Of all the Orb pictures I have seen the most discrediting evidence are the pictures themselves. Pictures can often be tainted or susceptable to natural problems. Most of these problems are made manifest in the air in the form of airborne particles such as dust, pollen, insects, snow, rain, dirty lenses, and condensation. Because of the multitudes of natural causes that can produce Orbs in photographs, they can often be hard to classify as genuine.
Many often wonder how these airborne particles would show up in pictures and the answer is quite simple. Given the fact that Orbs are round and distorted in most pictures you need to assume that these small particles are not focused by the camera. The camera usually focuses on the subject or thing we are aiming at and the smaller particles being closer to the lens becomes distorted when the picture is snapped. They exhibit a larger shape beinging near to the camera lens giving the appearance of something round, distorted, and much larger. When these particles are that close to the camera lens and your camera flash goes off it can produce a glowing or almost reflective image on these particles. thus when you see these in photographs they look like Orbs like the picture below..
There is alot of talking about .35mm camera's being much better than digital camera's. Personally I use both but in the area of Orbs I tend to trust my .35mm camera more with new good film.. (I) do not have proof of this although I have read countless reports stating that digital camera's are more likely to produce digital errors. Whatever suits your needs the best -- is the route you need to take.
Know your camera as well. A good photographer will (should) know what these things look like on film. If you are a serious ghost researcher you need to know what dust looks like including, pollen, snow, rain, sand, condensation, and other weather anomalies. Always keep your camera lens clean and free from condensation. Be aware of your surroundings, glares, stream rising, someone smoking nearby, flashlights, headlights, etc. By being alert to these issues your picture taking will improve. Keep these samples and refer to them often. Take pictures at night when the field is full of bugs and you will see what I mean. Above all, use common sense. If you have doubt about the authenticity of a picture then chances are, everyone else will believe it to be false and discredit the photograph..
You be the judge..