According to Nierman, the process for each aura photograph involves placing your hands on metal plates with sensors. The algorithm in a camera called the AuraCam 6000 then takes biofeedback data like temperature and uses software to construe it into colors. The result is an image printed from the camera, much like a Polaroid instant photograph, through a double-exposure process in which the initial exposure renders the image and the second exposure layers the vibrant shades.

Aura photography isn’t new — its origins come from Kirlian photography, which was invented by Russian electrician Semyon Kirlian in 1939 — but social media, namely Instagram, helped revive the concept in the 2010s. Artists like Radiant Human founder Christina Lonsdale photographed celebrities and patrons at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Stores with aura-capturing cameras, like New York City’s Magic Jewelry, drew crowds eager to share their colors.

Kirlian photography involves setting an item on a photographic plate and adding voltage, which generates electrical discharge around the item. That electrical discharge is what is interpreted as a luminous “aura.” Aura photography has its fair share of critics because the mysterious visualized energies have been boiled down to scientific processes rather than mystical origins. Still, the aura photography’s followers have embraced the experience as a personal journey that happens beyond the art form’s technicalities.

HausWitch — which also sells goods of the spiritual and aesthetically pleasing variety: crystals, oracle decks, and home and self-care goods, like soy candles in the scent, A Secret Spell for Re-Enchanting the World — had been planning for the booth since before the store’s opening in 2015. The appeal of aura photography is its capacity to affirm a person’s sense of self, Nierman said.

Like tarot cards, “aura photography is a mirror where it never really tells you things you don’t know. People already know what’s going on. They already know how they feel. They already know what they think about,” Nierman said.

What do the visualized auras supposedly mean? Auras are commonly described as the body’s invisible electromagnetic field, within which colors and shades correspond to different emotions and dispositions. According to a guide published by Cosmopolitan, red means confidence, yellow means playfulness, and white means sensitivity, to name a few examples. The shape and distribution of the colors are also meaningful. Anything above the head represents your “mental space,” Nierman said.

At HausWitch, visitors receive interpretations to help make sense of their auras. The store offers appointments and welcomes walk-ins for individuals or pairs, who enter the booth together and each simultaneously place a hand on one of the two metal plates. The latter option captures “relationship auras,” Nierman said, which are the energies people create together. HausWitch has photographed friends, married couples, and even a first date.

In March, Stephanie Hall, an Everett resident, celebrated her birthday with a HausWitch aura photo session. Hall said she and her friend “just kept looking at each other with our mouths hanging open” when they received their respective aura interpretations. Hall’s photo predominately featured blue and magenta colors, which reflected her creative energy, she added.

“Having someone that I had never met before just take an aura photograph and then be like, ‘hey, this is some of your personality attributes’ … is pretty mind-blowing,” Hall said.

One Instagram user tagged HausWitch in April in photos of their blue, magenta, and red-hazed portrait and a friend’s portrait, and wrote, “got our auras photographed yesterday!! I’ve been wanting to do this for YEARS. thank you @hauswitch for the amazing experience 🥰.”

The boutique also has a separate pop-up aura photography booth available to book for weddings; the cost depends on the time range and volume of portraits for each event.

Other local aura photography services can be found in holistic wellness and spiritual-related specialty boutiques. Fellow downtown Salem shop ASCEND Get Lifted offers $45-69 individual or couples aura photos and $35-50 aura imaging reports which include face and body imaging. Holistic wellness spot EveryBody in Mind Wellness Center in Sudbury offers $65-110 individual or couples aura photos with energy reports, as well as on-site and off-site group aura readings. New Age store Open Doors in Braintree regularly hosts aura photography and reading and chakra analysis events, including one on May 28 that offers $22-65 sessions.

To see your energy is significant, Nierman said. Aura photography is “a different way of getting to know yourself.”

Abigail Lee can be reached at abigail.lee@globe.com.