Bored Panda
37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail

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It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but that’s not always the case. Some photographs leave us speechless. No matter how long we look at them, we can’t find any words to explain what exactly is going on. Maybe they’re creepy, mysterious or just seem totally untrue. Whatever the case, they have us baffled.
Bored Panda has gone on the hunt for some of the most unexplainable photographs ever taken, and there’s certainly no shortage of them online. There’s one of an unidentified woman in a brown coat filming the entire JFK assassination, and another depicting what looks like a 7-foot vampire hiding in the bushes. Then there are a few where people or figures appear that the photographer swore weren’t there when they snapped the pic. We've put together an intriguing compilation of pics for you to scroll through. Let us know which ones boggle your mind the most by upvoting them.

#1

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Not really unexplained, but makes no sense until it is explained (at least to me).

Chamero:
NASA confirmed that it was a frog, that was (literally) blown-away by the rocket engines.
71points

So you swear you saw a ghost in a photo? Highly unlikely, say many photography experts. There are loads of photos out there that appear to depict the paranormal but for the most part, there’s a perfectly logical explanation for whatever weird or creepy thing has appeared in a pic. 

Let’s start with those eerie-looking faces that are sometimes seemingly hidden between rocks or behind bushes. As much as you might believe it’s a demon, a vampire, or your aunt’s great, great, great grandmother coming to haunt you, chances are it’s not.

What it is - most likely - is your brain playing tricks on you, and here’s why…

#2

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
A nail perforates this man’s head and he’s okay.
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70points

#3

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
The above image is of a kid who is commonly reffered to as the “Cat-boy" by his friends.

Nong Youhui, was born in Dahua province in China with a rare condition known as leukoderma. Because of leukoderma, his eyes glow in the dark, and the boy is also believed to see early in the dark, as a cat can.

The problem arose when the boy's father realized that his son's eyes glow in the dark like dim lights. He became worried and took his son to the hospital, doctors recommended that this condition will go away with age and that his eyes will turn to normal black colour.

The normal colour of Nong's eyes is blue, but they reflect Neon Green when light is shone into his eyes.

It was also found that in order to test his abilities, a Chinese journalist prepared a questionnaire and gave it to the boy to be answered in a pitch black room. The boy was able to answer the questions without any light. Animals can see in the dark with the presence of thin layer of cells known as Tapetum Lucidum.
65points

“The phenomenon of seeing a familiar shape or form in random combinations of shadows and light is known as pareidolia or matrixing, and the thing itself is called a simulacrum,” explains Liveabout.com. It's very common to see what looks like a face in jagged rocks (like this photo), grass, dirt, water, clouds, flames, clouds of dust, visible gas—even a pile of crumpled clothing on the couch.”

Our brains are wired to recognize faces. And sometimes it sees them when they aren’t even there.

#4

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Spider Web Trees
56points

#5

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
As posted by thfrbiddn1 a year ago...

Picture of my friends when they were younger, we've been trying to figure out who's hand is making the thumbs up behind the kid on the right.
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55points

#6

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
The spiral phenomenon over Norway.
43points

Photos of a “ghost” peering through a window aren’t uncommon but again, there’s probably a more boring explanation for what appears to be paranormal activity.

Most times, all you're seeing is a reflection. Perhaps it’s a tree, clouds, part of a building, or some other object or person. It’s basically just another example of pareidolia or matrixing—seeing faces and other familiar objects in random patterns.

#7

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
A friend of mine took this picture in the attic of an abandoned house where she lives, nobody had noticed until she showed me the pictures of the house. Look at the bench on the left.
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40points

#8

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Who's the woman in the brown coat? She filmed the whole JFK assassination from very close and from an angle that might solve many questions.
37points

#9

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
The Dyatlov Pass Incident.

9 experienced mountaineers succumb to mysterious deaths on 'D**d Mountain'. The picture above was taken by the rescue crew. The tent had been ripped open from the inside, and the hikers had run barefoot out into heavy snow. A search operation found most of the victims between 300 and 600 meters of a nearby cedar, dying in poses that suggest they were attempting to return to the tent.

6 of the hikers died of hypothermia, but three died of fatal injuries; two with major chest fractures and one with major skull damage and a missing tongue. There was no sign of a struggle and no unexplained footprints. The strangest part of all this is that items of clothing worn by the hikers that were examined in the investigation were found to be highly radioactive. The official investigation wrote that 'A compelling natural force' was the cause of deaths.
35points

In really old photos you might clearly see a person who definitely wasn’t present when the photo was taken. This is not Casper at work. More likely, it’s the result of a double exposure, something very common with film cameras from back in the day.

Double exposure happens when a photographer doesn’t advance the film after exposing a frame and then exposes another picture on top of it. The result is a ‘ghosted’ image, it is not the work of ghosts.

#10

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Always found this painting quite curious:

The Madonna With Saint Giovannino. Close-up of object in sky.
33points

#11

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
This photo which used to be at the top of the Wikipedia page about the Skunk ape.

In the article you'll read that some lady sent these photos to the police claiming an ape was stealing apples from her back porch at night.

I live in central Florida, so I've heard of this guy a few times. I guess he's our bigfoot.
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31points

#12

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
WWI Airman ghost.

This intriguing photo, taken in 1919, was first published in 1975 by Sir Victor Goddard, a retired R.A.F. officer. The photo is a group portrait of Goddard's squadron, which had served in World War I at the HMS Daedalus training facility. An extra ghostly face appears in the photo. In back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can clearly be seen the face of another man. It is said to be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally k****d by an airplane propeller two days earlier. His funeral had taken place on the day this photograph was snapped. Members of the squadron easily recognized the face as Jackson's.
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30points

Some photographers have even deliberately placed “ghosts” in their pics using this technique.

“In the late 19th century, spirit photography became popular amongst individuals who believed spirits could be caught on camera. These images were created through double-exposure photography and experimentation, often using uncleaned photographic plates and preexposed images to have the appearance of ghostly figures,” reveals the New York Film School’s site.

William Mumler was notorious for creating hoax ghost photographs, sometimes even faking the 'spirits' of famous people.

#13

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
The photo of the two kids about to be struck by lightning. It's sort of explainable, but gives a lot of insight into what happens right before lightning strikes. It opens a lot of questions though, and is creepy as f**k.
30points

#14

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Battle of LA.

Sussers:
I was a kid growing up in Hollywood when this happened. All I remember is waking up really late at night to sirens and b*mb alarms. I went and woke up my parents and they went pale and said to turn off all the lights and hide. I hid under my bed and heard loud booms and I thought. "Holy sh*t were being b*mbed". Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up I was alive and my house wasn't broken so that was good. My dad then told me that it was a false alarm and so I just went about my normal routine. I'm 82 years old now and have great grandkids.
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27points

#15

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
I'm 3800 comments too late! This is a genuinely unexplained photo and phenomenon that happens every day at sunrise on a mountain in Sri Lanka called Adams Peak. The mountain forms a PERFECTLY traingular shadow even though the shape of the mountain itself isn't. I climbed this mountain myself and saw the shadow form with my own eyes. It's truly amazing!
26points

If you've ever seen a strange mist, almost resembling some creepy spirit, chances are a rebounding flash was to blame. "Sometimes called an 'ectoplasmic mist,' after ectoplasm, an imagined spirit substance," explains the Skeptical Enquirer. "The mist typically turns out to be flash-lighted cigarette smoke, someone’s frosty breath, or an incoming fog.”

#16

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
McMinnville UFO photographs
High Res 1 & 2

update below
From Wiki:

"Today, the McMinnville UFO photographs remain among the best-publicized in UFO history; and are among the most-discussed and debated. To many ufologists, the two photos rate as being among the most reliable and persuasive in arguing for the existence of UFOs as a "real," physical phenomenon."

Edit: formatting, added wiki link, fixed link, added second photo, updated & max probability = 70`year fake

update TIL from f**key

In 2013, three researchers with IPACO posted two studies to their website entitled "Back to McMinnville pictures" and "Evidence of a suspension thread."[7] They used proprietary software designed to look at UFO photos by François Louange, who previously has done image analysis for NASA, the European Space Agency, and GEIPAN. They concluded the geometry of the photographs is most consistent with a small model with a hollow bottom hanging from a wire, though no thread was detected. Further investigation, however, detected the presence of a thread, and the study concluded: "the clear result of this study was that the McMinnville UFO was a model hanging from a thread.
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25points

#17

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
This one always creeps me out.
19points

#18

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Steven Michalak's burns from a supposed UFO encounter
Here is the full story if anyone wants to see it.

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tacosknows:
He didn't want to admit that he slipped and fell on the grill.
17points

#19

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
Atacama Humanoid.
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17points

#20

37 Creepy Photos That Seem Completely Normal Until You Notice One Detail
I'm going to have to go with the Demon Dog wedding photo. Without having been the one to take the picture I can't say it's real, but it is creepy as hell when you think about it. Here's a story about it.
17points
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