Fall Ghost


creepy girl

What a nice shot of a little girl in the fall colors… Wait that’s not a little girl! It’s a creepy-eyed ghost!

creepy girl close up

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19 Comments

  1. SoniKalien

    Shoulda made her a bit more transparent and blurry 🙂

  2. Wow ~ that is definitely frightening! Just like a horror film! Yikes.
    The autumn colours are nice..lol.

  3. wow.. a picture of a kid wearing halloween make-up aorund halloween..

  4. EyeDocPhotog

    you guys will make fun at anything.

    it’s a girl with glasses that change from light to dark.

    • That’s about right. The least of the problems with this pic is the fact that the photog did not ask the girl to take her glasses off. That would have gotten rid of the ghost eyes but would have done little for the other issue in the pic. Hopefully fauxs out there will actually learn a lesson from this example instead of just poking a little fun at it and realize that glasses can harm a pic unless you alter the way you tackle the issue. Usually the easiest (unless the subject is horribly near or far sighted) is just to remove them. No more ghost eyes or reflections.

      • EyeDocPhotog

        I shoot mostly candid children (75% mine alone and 25% with their friends). My ‘candids’ hobby came about as a result of my daughter’s medical condition whereby she could not look us in the eye until the age of 5 or so and has a precipitous amount of sun glare while outdoors (she always appears to be squinting). Since she never looked at the camera, I decided to just shoot candids of her early on.

        I’ll point out that the girl in this photo ALSO appears to looking away from the camera, in addition to having

      • EyeDocPhotog

        On second thought I will re-type the rest of the reply to Bob…

        As a pediatric eye physician, I can tell by the image of this young girl that her gaze was not at the camera because of either a condition similar to my daughter’s or something caught her attention out of the frame. Either way, to comment that the visage of this child “is definitely frightening!” or “Just like a horror film” or “a kid wearing Halloween make-up” is pejorative, childish, and smacks of unprofessionalism.

        Over the years, my wife and I have hired a freelance pro to take family shots before I decided to take it up as a hobby. NOT ONE TIME did this gentleman ever suggest my daughter’s lack of eye contact or shaded glasses outdoors would “harm the photo.” He knew better, and worked around what he was given. In fact, he took one of my daughters’ “Just like a horror film” photos and put it on his site years back as part of his portfolio. But then again, he was a professional.

        When I wanted to get into the hobby, he suggested I start with a Rebel. When that became too slow for my daughter’s activities, he suggested the 1Dx to capture the action as it happened because my daughter has difficulty sitting still for a ‘regular shoot.’ I’ll shoot 350 images to capture 10 really good ones of her. Other photogs have said “you think you’re a pro because you have a 1Dx – you’re not a pro.” I know. I’m an eye doctor who wants nice photos of his young daughter who is hyperactive, squinting, and has 3 seconds of eye contact before she loses focus. At 12fps, I can capture those images. After years of practice under my belt, I don’t think that I still need a 1Dx to get those same images, but that’s what I have.

        I also shoot my daughter’s friends and their families at holidays and parties so that they are not subjected to someone who yells “look this way!!” or who’ll suggest that the son / daughter will “harm the photo” if they don’t do what the ‘pro’ says.

        You need to think before you type. But then again, a professional would.

      • cameraclicker

        Eye Doc,
        Bob started out stating the glasses are the least of the problems with this photo. True, he did finish by mentioning an easy way of dealing with glasses is to remove them. The drawback to doing that is when your subject is always seen wearing glasses, the photo will look odd to all who know the subject if the glasses are missing. There are other ways of dealing with glasses.
        Perhaps as an eye care professional you have much more experience looking at eyes than I do. I brightened the areas where her eyes should be a couple of stops, and I still can’t find her eyes, unless her right eye is above the socket and looking up while her left eye is looking to the extreme right. It fascinates me that the glasses around the bridge of her nose don’t seem to be symmetric. Light is getting behind the glasses in some places and not others but the result does not seem to be partly illuminated eyes, just white blur. If those are glasses that are supposed to get darker when exposed to UV, they are certainly doing an uneven job of it!
        The girl is very over exposed. Most of the forest looks pretty reasonable and some space between trees is under exposed. The exposure of the girl is the major problem. One might wonder why she has no right arm. Someone mentioned “Hey Jude”, what about “Walk Like An Egyptian”?
        It’s unfortunate the watermark is blacked out. It would be interesting to see if this quality is consistent, or if this photo has been cherry picked as the one terrible example from a good photographer, or if this is from a series around some theme that is not really apparent from a single photo.
        Did anyone suggest “yelling” at the girl to remove her glasses, or to look this way?

      • Eye doc,

        Paediatrician or not, you CANNOT tell by this photo that she has a condition! You can barely tell WHERE HER EYES ARE.
        Furthermore, even if she did have this condition, that doesn’t automatically make this a good photo. I’m not a photographer, but I think this picture looks really awkward. The subject is too small, and the saturated background is making the poor little girl look ghostly. In my very unprofessional opinion, I think if the photographer was closer to the subject (c’mon, when you take a picture.. when you zoom in on the subject it shouldn’t be that blurry..) then the glasses and what not wouldn’t be an issue.
        Every time ANY photographer takes shots, there will be a couple of bad ones. This was a bad one, and shouldn’t have been posted.

  5. EyeDocPhotog

    the rest of my post was cut-off. I’m not re-typing it.

    I’m just glad not one of my daughter’s friends will have to be further subjected to the likes of the ‘pros’ on this board yelling at them to “Take off the glasses!!” or “Look this way!!” Because they’ll harm your beautiful photo if they don’t.

    • I don’t understand your post at all. I think you also misunderstand what I was saying. I said that there are ways of dealing with subjects who wear glasses. I also said the easiest is to remove them when practical. If it isn’t practical, you alter the light, change the angle of the subject in relation to it or your own. There is usually no reason not to be able to get good photos of people wearing glasses and if you don’t, it’s the fault of the photographer. So again, I don’t understand why you think I’m attacking the subject. I’m actually just pointing out to anyone who’s faced this issue that you need to pay extra attention to anyone wearing glasses in order to ensure the photo still comes out great. THAT’S what pros like myself care about, not screaming at the subject to take their glasses off. Please re-read my previous post before jumping off the edge. And you’re right, shooing 12fps is one great way to get that kid shot you need, especially if they are active.

  6. y'all are too funny

    I like turtles.

    yes

  7. prob shud scale back on the oversaturation. I figure the shooter just saw the colors, thought it was the most interesting thing and enhanced.

  8. Looks like the caption got it wrong on both points. If that’s a nice fall colours shot, I’d hate to see a not-nice one. It looks like the camera was WB’d for tungsten. As for the girl….seriously…that’s just effin’ mean. Having been there myself as a kid, it’s an unfortunate fact that glasses make portraits tricky, but the “creepy eyed ghost” remark just isn’t just not-funny. It stings. Whoever writes some of these captions must be a real first-class douche dealing with clients that require a little extra care and empathy to photograph.

    • No one has ever accused the admin of being a thoughtful, competent, well-adjusted human being.

      • Awww crap. Now I find myself in the unlikely position of having to thumbs-up something said by jackd up in here. *shrug* Oh well..it’s been a crazy day so far.

  9. she’s a great big hot spot.

  10. Aww, how sweet! It’s obviously a Halloween pic and the little girl decided to go Trick Or Treating as Courtney Love!

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