New Year, New Ghosts!

To kick off the new year, Ghost Capture is launching a creepy new campaign to advertise the highly-anticipated enhanced version of its hit iPhone app, which allows users to create their own "paranormal" photos by inserting ghostly images into their own pictures—which they can adjust the size, positioning, and transparency of for surprisingly startling effects. They can then email the photos to friends, as well as upload to the official gallery at ghostsdontexist.com.

The new version will retail for 99 cents, and includes thirty ghosts to choose from (the original ten, plus twenty brand new ghouls!) Free future updates will continue to add to the spectral population, as well as categorizing images (males, females, shadow figures, orbs, faces, etc.). All earnings go towards supporting the film. The original version will remain available as a free app—Ghost Capture Lite.

The current edition has been a mainstay in the Top 20 Free Photography apps on iTunes for months now, going as high as #4 and topping the likes of Flickr and TwitPic! In fact, in Italy, it not only reached the #1 spot, but cracked the Top 10 of ALL free apps, regardless of genre!

The new ad campaign features some of the new "ghosts," and puts an even eerier spin on the concept by suggesting a "personal history" of sorts for each—alluding to how and when they entered the spirit world.

One of the characteristics that has helped Ghost Capture stand out from the pack is the use of more subtle, psychologically disturbing imagery... rather than the expected cliches of vampires, demons, blood, and gore. Users responded overwhelmingly to the image of a small Victorian girl with no eyes, consistently ranking it as a freaky favorite. This idea of a "regular person" from long ago (who's just slightly... irregular...) materializing in a contemporary photo... it struck a chord. Crafting a fictional history only enhances that effect, allowing the user's imagination to run wild as they add these ghostly figures to their own photos.

That's right—we said fictional history. ;)

In reality, all of the images used are custom creations from model-released stock photos and vintage family albums. Not only did these folks not meet tragic, gruesome ends—most are actually alive and well. And posing for other stock photos. :)

The process of creating a new ghoul for Ghost Capture often comes from unlikely images, which are usually anything but ominous.



Removing a few limbs, adding a ghostly pallor, and deadening the eyes of a photogenic little model... sometimes that's all it takes to create the mystique of a tragic 19th-century ghost—one your friends would be shocked to see materializing in the background of that New Year's Eve picture you just took! Gaaaah!!! :)

The enhanced version of Ghost Capture has a little something for everyone—including those who requested the more modern, distorted spectres one might find in a Japanese horror film, shadowy figures, faceless entities, and jilted decaying brides. The new app will be available early this year.