Possible ghosting/ 1 year old house

Every room had what appeared to be ghosting were they had applied drywall mud at the seams and screws. When the light shines it looks like it bubbles out but it was completely smooth. What is the cause of this so I can better understand. Thanks.

Not ghosting Looks like a bad installation of the dry wall mud on the seams and nail
pops

I have to go with some form of ghosting because they sure wouldn’t have full length tape on every stud. They would only hit the nails / screws and normally the large drywall seam is horizontal, not vertical.

That’s the ghost of a bad sheetrock finisher.

Was there an access problem where they would have had to cut the sheets down to smaller section. The lines are straight and look like they are the same width as drywall tape.

The raised areas appear to be about 30" long, which would be consistent with the mudding of the screws/nails.

Every professional finisher I’ve seen strikes all the fasteners on each stud with a single swipe, not each individual fastener.

Looks like they put it on too heavy.

I agree and you can also see the bad horizontal joint in the stairwell and two pop nails or screws in one pic that also shows the vertical swipe of joint compound to multiple nails on the same stud.

Of course, shining a light on a wall enhances everything and makes it look worse.
Look at the wall straight on without the light for general acceptance.

Yep!

Agreed, most finishers mud the entire screw line with one swipe. This was applied too heavy and never sanded properly. Not ghosting.

Thermal Tracking, Bridging, Ghosting: How to Diagnose Indoor Wall or Ceiling Ghosting Stains, Building Air Leaks, & Heat Loss

Good one much info there .

It obviously is not as you say “smooth”.
What test did you used to determine smooth?
How does it supersede “contour lighting”?

“Ghosting” is evident with perpendicular lighting. And it is very unlikely you can see it with contour lighting.

Don’t argue with your own documented facts!