..it mentions thanks to those who donated/took the spirit photos that were used in the movie. My question is, are any of those real? There are a lot of hoaxes out there, especially in modern day photography with digital cameras and Photoshop. But I would like to know if any spirit photos actually exist. Why would they thank people in the credits if none of them are real?
------
"...It keeps them drinking that glass of water but never really tasting it"
Well, I'm from Evansville, IN, which is where the photo they show of the ghost in front of the library books was taken...at the Willard Library..go to the library website and watch the ghostcam and see if you see anything! :) They say there's a "woman in gray" that haunts the area...so I DO know that all the photos used in the movie weren't all just made up pictures that the filmmakers had made up just for the film...it was an actual photo supposedly taken from the library cam
shareI'm not sure of any rule that claims that anything put into the credits of a movie automatically makes it true. LOL. I don't have a definitive answer but I would say there's a 99.999999999% chance that any "ghost pictures" are baloney.
But to answer the questiona another way, it could be just to give an extra aura of creepiness to the story. Or the film-makers actually believe that ghost pictures are legitimate. This doesn't, however, prove of their legitimacy though.
as someone with photography experience, i can tell you right now that there is a simple explanation for all of the white "shadowy" streaks that appear across photographs like many of the spirit images shown (and which inspired those first photos in the film from the graduation). it's called a "light leak." especially if you're using an old or crappy camera, teeny tiny holes in the body, particularly where plastic parts join around the boxy frame, can let a certain amount of light in through that crack. as you may know, light = exposure, so anywhere there's a concentrated amount of light, there will be whiteness of some kind. notice how most of the spirits seem to come from the edge of the frame? i have plenty of pictures that look like this, especially when using the cheap plastic holga cameras, famed for the "artistic" quality of smeary light that can occur.
it's funny how in the movie they tried to explain some of the spirit photos via "double exposure," which certainly could explain why whole faces or bodies end up in the middle of the picture. but they don't mention light leaks! this isn't to say it affects my enjoyment of the film at all, because i'm not one of those morons who is obsessed with the factual accuracy of spooky movies. however, a little basic photographic knowledge does allow me to feel quite safe in my dismissal of any actual people who claim spirit photographs exist in "real" life, particularly those of the white streaky kind.
oh yeah, and as to the question of why they would thank them if they're fake, i believe if you use someone else's photo in a movie, they own it, and you really have to credit them. there's such a huge number and they were probably obtained from willing submissions to the national enquirer and such like the magazine in the movie, but still it's what you're supposed to do. i think the way the filmmakers phrased it, with such reverence, is either evidence of their own paranormal sympathies or meant simply to be respectful of those people who do believe.
This reply is months late, but...
According to the extra material in the DVD, the pictures in the magazine editor's office were provided by a college professor (I don't remember the name of the university where he works) who collects and researches that kind of stuff, so they weren't made for the movie. Whether their original owners forged them or they are real, it's another history, but the producers wanted to thank the people who took those pictures in the professor's collection.
Actually one of the extra sections in the DVD I watched was a slide show of the "real" pictures featured in the movie. Several of them were really disturbing... a nice addition to an already scary movie.