Why Most Single-Color Orbs On This Site Cannot Be Explained By Known Natural Effects

 Note: On 10/10/17 I updated the numerical figures cited in the first paragraph of this post.

One of the most striking aspects of the orbs shown on this site are the very strong colors of the orbs. I have labeled 1129 posts with the label “blue air orb,” although I so often get blue air orbs in my photos that I often fail to use that label because the thing photographed is so typical for me. I have on this site 170 posts labeled “orange air orb,” 171 posts labeled “pink air orb,” 449 posts labeled “purple air orb,” 79 post labeled “red air orb,” 123 posts labeled “yellow air orb,” and 158 posts labeled “green air orb.” I also have on this site 59 posts labeled “orange orb in water drop,” 4 posts labeled “purple orb in water drop,” 10 posts labeled “red orb in water drop,” 30 posts labeled “yellow orb in water drop,” and 14 posts labeled “green orb in water drop.”

But according to known scientific explanations, I should have zero posts labeled “blue air orb,” zero posts labeled “orange air orb,” zero posts labeled “pink air orb,” zero posts labeled “purple air orb,” zero posts labeled “red air orb,” and zero posts labeled “yellow air orb.”  I should also have zero posts showing single colors in water drop orbs. This is because with the exception of “lens flare orbs” produced when pointing a camera at a bright light like the sun (a condition I am very careful to avoid), and with the exception of tangible objects such as balls or berries, science offers no explanation for why single-colored orbs should appear in photographs when such orbs have a color different from any color behind them. (In this post by single-colored I mean some vivid color other than white, brown or gray.)

Let us look at all known explanations that attempt to explain why you might get a color in an orb in a photograph, and see whether any of them are sufficient to explain the colored orbs shown on this site and many other sites.

Lens Flare

One way you can can produce a natural colored orb in your photo is to point your camera at a very bright light like the sun. That can produce some colored orbs, which would often appear in a line stretching away from the bright light source. But it is very easy to recognize lens flare, and lens flare cannot explain the great majority of photos showing colored orbs (most of which were not made when pointing towards a very bright light). Lens flare also cannot explain any photos on this site, as I don't publish photos made pointing towards a very bright light.

Refraction

What about refraction? Refraction can occur when light bends within a water drop. But refraction will not produce what looks like a solid-color orb unless there is an object with a single color behind a water drop. A trick used by macro photographers is to place water drops in front of a flower or some other object, and then to take a flash photo that shows the background object within the water drops. But there are two reasons why refraction cannot explain any of the single-color orbs in my photos of water drops: (1) the type of photo I refer to requires a special macro lens, and I have used no such lens for any of my photos; (2) I never photograph water drops in front of colored objects or colored backgrounds. Ninety percent of my water drop photos have used a solid black background, and the rest have used a mirrored background.

The only way in which you could naturally get a solid-color orb appearing in a water drop photo using refraction would be to make water drop photographs in front of a solid-color object or a solid-color background, and I know of no orb photographer who does that.

As for dust, raindrops, and water vapor particles (fog or mist), it is the same situation as with water drops: refraction should not produce what looks like a solid-color orb unless the orb appeared in front of a background object or surface that had that color. Since 95% of anomalous-looking solid-looking colored orbs on this site and other sites are not cases of an orb with the same color as its background, refraction is not very useful as an explanation for solid-color orbs. 

There is a type of refraction in which light is broken up in a kind of prism effect. The result is something like a spectrum of colors.  This effect can produce a rainbow in the sky or a cloudy area looking like a rainbow of part of a rainbow. But refraction does not produce individual orbs with particular colors such as red, orange, yellow and blue.  To verify this, take a plant sprayer, set it so that makes a mist, and take some flash photos at night while spraying the sprayer. You will not see particles of different colors.   You will see particles like this:

Or if you use a full-spectrum camera you will see particles like this:

Diffraction

Diffraction can produce a kind of kind of prism effect, in which light is broken up into different colors. But diffraction is not useful for explaining why orbs in photos would have solid colors. Diffraction produces a split-up rainbow of colors, not a solid color. If you do a Google image search for “diffraction in water drop,” you will see no examples of water drops that look a solid color because of diffraction.

Reflection

The case of an object in back of a particle being shown in the particle (reflection from behind) has already been covered under “refraction.” What about forward reflection – light coming from in front of a particle, striking the particle, and reflecting back into a camera lens? Such a thing might explain solid-color orbs only if a very bright colored light were to be reflected by such particles.

So, for example, if you had some kind of red filter over your camera flash, and then photographed some water drops, you might get some red-colored water drops. Or if you had behind you a very bright blue light, and photographed some water drops, you might see blue-colored water drops. None of the photos taken on this site have used such conditions, so forward reflection cannot explain the solid colors of orbs in such photos. My photos were all taken with an ordinary flash that never had any type of filter in front of the flash that could have caused the light from the flash to be something other than normal white light. Forward reflection also cannot explain 95% of colored orbs taken by other photographers, since very few of such photos were taken with any bright colored light being projected toward the area photographed (you can notice whenever that's done, as the whole photo will match whatever color was projected). Backward reflection (reflection from an item behind a particle causing an orb) can only explain a solid-color orb in the the rare case when a solid-color orb is in front of a surface or object with the same color.

Particles With Intrinsic Color

Conceivably a person could get color inside water drops by photographing water that had been colored with food coloring. But in such a case all of the drops would look the same color. Such a hypothesis cannot explain what is so often shown on this blog – photos of uncolored water drops in which a few of the orbs in the drops have some particular color, but most of the orbs do not have that color. Every single water drop photo on this blog is a photo of pure, clean, uncolored water. 

Can we explain air orbs with a single color by imagining that the photographer has photographed particular specks of dust that have such a color? Such an explanation is not credible. Take a damp cloth, and go around your house or apartment, cleaning dusty areas. Then examine the damp cloth very closely. You will not see little specks of dust that are different colors. You will see dust that is uniformly gray or brown in color. Pay no attention to that Internet visual that claims to show colored dust particles, as that was done through the unfair process of pouring vacuum cleaner dust in front of the camera, which doesn't correspond to any photo condition that actually occurs when photographing orbs. Dust particles suspended in the air (under any conditions remotely similar to typical photographic conditions) never appear in photographs as orbs with a vivid color. 

Moire Patterns

As we have seen so far, there simply is no general natural explanation for why a photographer would get solid-color orbs mysteriously appearing when the photographer was not photographing a solid sphere-like object, and not photographing a particle that is in front of an object or background with the same solid color. Not having any good explanation for the dramatic colors that appear in orb photos, skeptics have “grasped at straws” by using the desperate explanation of moire patterns. But this is a goofy explanation that does not work.

A moire pattern is an unusual effect that can be produced by the intersection of two surfaces with a recurring pattern. Mostly this just produces an unusual kind of flickering effect, but very rarely it can produce a kind of splitting up of light rather like diffraction. But moire patterns do not produce solid colors. In the very rare case when a moire pattern produces color, it produces a faint rainbow-like effect (some examples can be seen here). There is also no reason to think that even one in 10,000 dust particles or water drops would have the recurring patterns that are needed to produce a moire pattern.

Conclusion

Most of the single-color orbs shown on this site (and similar photos shown on other sites) have colors that are inexplicable. Excluding photos of tangible objects such as cherries and tennis balls, and excluding lens flare for the reasons given above, there is no known natural and general hypothesis that explains why individual orbs in a photo would have a particular color that does not match the color behind such an orb. A skeptic asked to explain the color in such orbs would mention things such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, particle colors, or moire patterns. But as we have seen, none of those explanations works well to explain why solid-color orbs in water drops or in the air might often have a solid color not matching their background color. 

Below is an example of one of my many photos showing inexplicable colors. We simply have no good explanation as to why a green orb and an orange orb are appearing here.

 Photo date: January 23, 2015

Postscript: Below is a flash photo taken on one of the rare days in New York City in which there appeared to be a thick fog or thick mist in the air.  We see some natural particles, and I'm not sure whether you would call them fog particles, mist particles, or rain droplets. Notice the complete lack of color in any of the orbs (the only color being the same color as the background). We do not at all see particular orbs that are different colors. So it was for each of about 20 similar photos I took on this night. Neither reflection nor refraction nor diffraction was producing any color such as green or blue or pink or orange or yellow in any of hundreds of natural orbs I observed on this day.  Such an experience supports my assertion that we currently have no explanation as to what causes the dramatic single-color orbs shown on this site.

Post-Postscript: Be very skeptical about photos you may see on the Internet that claim to show dust orbs that are colored or mist orbs that are colored. Some of these photos are made by photographing vacuum cleaner dust, which is a dense accumulation that is very different from suspended dust particles. Other photos are simply misidentified. A skeptic may get a photo showing unexplained colored orbs, and may label that as "dust orbs," even though he has no good basis for such a claim. Do not believe that any photo is actually a photo of a suspended dust particle or a suspended mist particle unless the photograph is dated, the photographer is identified, and there is a complete description of the photographic process that leaves little doubt that what is being photographed is some natural particle that the photographer claims that it is.