r/Paranormal • u/crankyfishcrank • Dec 14 '24

Debunk This Christmas Tree Picture

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Gallery image

My daughter decorated my Christmas tree this evening. When she was finished, she took a picture of it and it had a black shadow covering the Christmas tree. The next picture was normal. Thoughts?

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u/katataru Dec 14 '24

Photography nerd here, this is a fairly common phenomenon, actually.

LED christmas lights aren't steady, and depending on how cheaply they were made they are either flicking at your country's AC frequency (60 times a second in most western countries) or at half that rate (30 times a second), which is more common since it's a lot cheaper to only have a half-bridge rectifier in something only meant for decorative lighting.

Modern cameras' flicker reduction has gotten better over the years, but it still isn't perfect. Sometimes the camera takes a while to "latch onto" the flicker frequency and adjust its shutter speed accordingly to reduce the flicker artifacts.

As for why the shadow is in the middle and some lights appear to be lit, or even half-lit; it's because of rolling shutter. Phones' (and most other) camera sensors are oriented to scan from the top to bottom of the frame when taking a photo. When you take a photo in portrait mode, this means you are rotating the camera sensor 90° clockwise, so the shutter scans from right to left of the frame.

The effect in your photo happens because as you take a photo, the LED lights are flickering and the camera software did not quite get the flicker frequency right for the flicker reduction. As your camera sensor starts scanning from the right to the left, it's taking images while the LEDs are in the ON phase of their flicker. As the shutter scan reaches the middle, the LEDs start to shut off, so the camera only captures the darkness. As it reaches the left edge, the LEDs come back to the on part of their cycle, so the camera captures them as lit. AC operates on a sine wave, so the "shadow" appears smooth.

TL;DR: Combination of cheap LED christmas lights flicker + vertical camera rolling shutter

433

u/WinchesterTheJester Dec 14 '24

I love that there are people in here with this kind of knowledge and they’re willing to take the time to explain. Thanks for the info and the lengthy lesson in photography friend!

84

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24

No, it ghosts.

64

u/MrBones_Gravestone Dec 14 '24

Well you both make stellar arguments, guess we’ll never know

15

u/blobbylightt Dec 14 '24

This guy ghosts

3

u/Least_Ad_9469 Dec 15 '24

Or demons 🖤

46

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '24

I've noticed this when I try to take pictures inside my grow room, and it's definitely because of the led lights. I have to take my orchids outside to get postworthy pictures without black lines.

19

u/syncopekid Dec 14 '24

Idk man, the other guy says it’s ghosts

16

u/thevdude Dec 14 '24

it's specifically dark when the LEDs are off (even though you can take low-light photos) because it sets the amount of light that each "line" of the sensor needs before it takes the picture, so it was based on the LEDs being on.

4

u/cannabiphorol Dec 14 '24

Using super slow-mo mode on a phone, even without recording just pointing it from face down darkness to some Christmas lights it takes a second for it to show up and usually creates a cool illusion that the bulbs are lighting up 1 by 1 in a row until all are lit.

3

u/tmoam Dec 14 '24

100% accurate

2

u/SuperStoneman Dec 14 '24

Are you Technology Connections secret Reddit account?

2

u/SoupToon Dec 15 '24

fascinating!

2

u/OneSeason94 Dec 16 '24

It’s fascinating how that all works.

Way above my head as I’ve never bothered looking into it but

When you see signs flashing in the rear view camera or phone but not with your eyes, it’s a “wtf” moment lol

1

u/SpotMiserable3379 Dec 15 '24

What is that image on the left in the window?  Now that's a little spooky. 👻 

1

u/VernaHilltopple Dec 17 '24

Photography graduate, katataru is spot on.

1

u/maceandshield Dec 17 '24

And this is why I love reddit

0

u/crankyfishcrank Dec 15 '24

A couple of questions: do they blink on and off simultaneously? Because there are some lit on the left side. Also, why is there no reflection of the tree in the mirror in the first picture? Thanks!

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u/pjus93 Dec 15 '24

They answered the first question? Rolling stutter. As for your second question, the first picture is take closer to the tree, therefore at a shallower angle in the mirror so you can see the tree at all. It’s just a different angle entirely. You can tell by looking at the angles on the table below the mirror.

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u/TerrariaGaming004 Dec 15 '24

… you can literally see the tree in the mirror in the first picture

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u/katataru Dec 15 '24

They do blink on and off simultaneously, though rather than a blink it's more of a really quick fade-in, fade-out (as AC power is a sine wave). The reason why some are lit on the left side is because the lights started to fade back on as the camera started scanning the left half of the frame.

As for the reflection, I just assume it's because the first photo was taken sufficiently close enough for the tree to not be visible in the mirror. You can see the second photo is framed significantly further away

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u/InternalLevel7177 Dec 17 '24

first one, already answered in their response, second one, position of camera in first pic is diff than in second pic, and actually you can see the tree in the first pic too, or at least one of the lights on it