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Advanced photography for Law Enforcement.
The purpose of this course is to introduce the investigator to advanced photographic techniques that can allow better evidence documentation, retrieval, and preservation with both film and digital cameras and techniques. The class will be approximately 50% interactive lecture and 50% practical, hands on exercises that will be discussed and evaluated in class. The attending officer will leave the class with a thorough understanding of the following topics and applications.
- Digital versus traditional film based photography for the investigator
- Digital camera features, definitions
- Digital camera settings and functions- image file formats and more
- Digital forensic photography with regard to legal questions
- Creating an acceptable SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for handling evidentiary images to preserve the chain of custody
- Overall approach to crime scene photography- setting the scene, telling the story, documenting the evidence
- Lighting overall scenes and objects with tungsten, electronic flash, and alternate light sources
- Digital Photography at a crime scene
- Photographing scenes and items treated with luminol, fluorescein, and PD chemistry
- Selective filtration techniques for better images
- Low light/night photography techniques
- Software for image management and enhancement
- Downloading Images
- Working with masks and layers
- Creating diagrams
- Size calibrating [1:1] Images
- Pattern reduction or removal
- Selective color replacement for displaying less visible data
- Image preparation for latent comparison
- Image management for courtroom
- Testimony- practices and pitfalls
- Use of digital scanners in the crime lab and on the scene
- Flatbed scanners
- Film scanners
- Preparation of photographic evidence for courtroom presentation
Course instructional material (text) will be provided, and lectures will include PowerPoint presentations. Students must provide their own cameras, preferably digital; a laptop computer with 10MB of available hard drive space is required for full participation in the class exercises.
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