Wednesday 20 June 2012

Mail fooled by photo of 'ghost' created with iPhone app (again)

The MailOnline reports on a 'ghost sighting' in Gloucestershire:


The article by Graham Smith explains:

A couple claim their house is haunted after capturing what they believe to be an apparition of a baby ghost on camera.

Shocked John Gore, 43, was taking photographs of his pet cats when he noticed the bizarre outline of a small ghostly figure.

The shape - which looks like a toddler or baby - appears to be stand next to an armchair in the living room of the house Mr Gore shares with his girlfriend Sonia Jones in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

The couple have now given the ghost the nickname 'Johnny Junior'.

Neighbours have since told the couple that a baby died from cot death in their home a number of years ago.

Mr Gore and Miss Jones have also noticed the room’s lights turning on and off and the television changing channels on its own in a series of spooky goings-on at the house.

There isn't much scepticism in the report, which is a repackaged version of a Gloucestershire Echo article, which began:

A ghostly figure has been captured on camera in a Cheltenham house.

It has?

Well, no. Yesterday, a follow up report in the Echo revealed it was a fake:

it turns out the image taken at his home...was altered by an application for an iPhone. 

According to some ghost-watching websites (see here and here), the application used to create the picture was GhostCapture (the 'ghost' used is the figure in black on the right-hand side of this image).

If GhostCapture sounds familiar, it's because the Mail (and the Sun) were fooled by an image created using the same app over two years ago.

But will the Mail follow the Echo's lead and now admit it is a fake?

1 comment:

  1. I'm the author of one of the blogs you linked to, and I phoned both the Echo and Daily Mail to tell them the photo was a fake, and showed them how.

    The Echo write a follow up the next day, the Daily Mail just ignored me completely. Speaks volumes...

    ReplyDelete

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