FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PHOTOGRAPHY

This chapter presents the history of photography that discloses the important personalities that
contribute significantly in the field of photography and those important dates. Enclosed also is the
discussion of the principle of photography.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the chapter, the students will have to:

1. explain the origin of photography;

2. rationalize the objectives of photography and its significance to crime scene investigation and law
enforcement agencies;

3. discuss the principles of photography; and

4. summarize the historical development of photography.

Module 1: Overview on Photography

What is Photography?

The word "photography" literally means "drawing with light". The word was supposedly first coined
by the British scientist Sir John Herschel in 1839 from the Greek words phos, (genitive: photos)
meaning "light", and graphe meaning "drawing or writing". The technology which led to the
invention of photography essentially combines two distinct sciences: optics - the convergence of
light rays to form an image inside a camera and chemistry, to enable that image to be captured and
recorded permanently onto a photosensitive (light-sensitive) surface.

1 - Joseph Nicephore Niepce

The first permanent photograph was captured in 1826 (some sources say 1827) by Joseph Nicephore
Niepce in France. It shows the roof of a building lit by the sun.

What is Police Photography?

It is the science which deals with the study of the principles of photography and the preparatio n of
photographic evidence and its application to police work.

Importance and Objectives of Photography

One of the main goals of crime scene investigation is to understand exactly what happened at the
scene. Photography helps to make this clear. Good pictures of the whole crime scene and of the
individual pieces of evidence preserve the crime scene in a sense so that investigators can go over it
again and again in ways that they could not do with the actual physical scene. Photographs allow
investigators to look at exactly where each object was found and what was around it. This allows
them a much more complete understanding of the events that happened than they would have if
they only had the evidence separate from its context.

What are the Objectives of the Photography in Crime Scene Investigation?

1. To record the condition of the scene before alterations occur.

2. To record the location of the scene.

3. To record the position and condition of evidence.

4. To document the point of view of the persons involved and witnesses.

5. To document the spatial relationships of pertinent items.

6. To convey the look of the scene to investigators, attorneys, and jurors who will not have the
opportunity to view the scene firsthand.

7. To be used as a tool for crime scene reconstruction efforts.

8. To assist in portraying an accurate picture of the crime scene during courtroom testimony.

9. To refresh the memory of those involved in the investigation.

What is the Basic Importance of Crime Scene Photography?

• Refresh memory.

• Preserve time and event.

• Save money and effort.

What is the Importance of Photography in Law Enforcement?

1. The utmost use of it is a record purpose. Photography will record the scene of the crime
permanently.

2. Photography can preserve all perishable evidence like contusion in the cases.

3. Photography can be used not only in the identification of physical evidence.

4. Photography is necessary in the interrogation of suspects at the time he made a confession.

5. Photography can provide a system or technique in making visible things that cannot be seen by
the naked eye.

6. Photography can be useful in court in the determination of the truth respecting a matter of fact.
Evidence that cannot be brought inside the court room can be presented by means of photographs.

What are the Uses of Photography in Police Work?

1. Identification Files

This is the very first use of photography in police work. Criminals, missing persons, lo st property,
licenses, anonymous letters, bad checks, laundry marks, and civilian or personnel fingerprint
identification files. In the case of a catastrophe such as an airplane crash, the fingerprints from a
civilian file prove helpful in making positive identification.
2. Communications and Microfilm Files

Investigative report files, accident files, transmission of photos (wire photo, fax, and e -mail), and
photographic supplements to reports.

3. Evidence

Crime scenes, traffic accidents, homicides, suicides, fires, objects of evidence, latent fingerprints,
and evidential traces. Evidence can frequently be improved by contrast control (lighting, film, paper,
and filters), by magnification (photomicrography, photomacrography), and by invisible radiation
(infrared, UV, soft X-rays and hard X-rays).

4. Offender Detection

Surveillance, burglar traps, confessions, reenactment of crimes, and intoxicated driver tests. One of
the newest applications of police photography is to video record arrests in which the su spect offers
resistance. This practice has been instituted by many law enforcement agencies to counter charges
of police brutality.
5. Court Exhibits

Demonstration enlargements, individual photos, projection slides, and videotapes and computer
presentations (i.e. PowerPoint presentations).

6. Reproduction and Copying

Questionable checks and documents, evidential papers, photographs, and official records and
notices.

7. Personnel Training

Photographs, films, computer presentations, and videotapes relating to police tactics, investigation
techniques, mob control, and catastrophe are made.
8. Crime and Fire Prevention

Hazard lectures, security clearance, detector devices, and photos of hazardous fire conditions made
when fore prevention inspections are made.

9. Public Relations

Slides, computer presentations, and videotapes that pertain to safety programs, juvenile
delinquency, traffic education, and public cooperation and homeland security.

Basic Photography Principles

1. Light

The essence of photography is all about light and this is the primary ingredient for image
documentation. Photography is the act of creating images on an imaging sensor by capturing the
reflected light off an object or scene. Image capture includes both visible and invisible spectrums.

2. Exposure
Exposure is the total amount of light that hits the sensor of a camera. It is controlled by the amount
of light entering the camera and the duration or how long the light hits the sensor. Exposure is
ultimately responsible for the formation of the image. Essentially, light and its effect on exposure
creates the picture.

3. Light Metering

Inside most cameras is a device called the light meter. The light meter is responsible for reading the
amount of light entering the camera and determining or making suggestions for what settings
should be used for that exposure situation.

4. Shutter Speed

The shutter controls the duration of the exposure. The shutter is usually built inside the camera;
however, some cameras have a mechanical shutter contained in the lens or can be an electronic
shutter.
5. Aperture

The opening in the lens that controls the light entering the camera is called the aperture. The
aperture is controlled by an iris, which is composed of several blades that increase and decrease the
diameter of the opening to control the light. Apertures are in the camera's lens and control the
amount of light transmitted by the lens that will enter the camera used to expose on the imaging
sensor.

6. Exposure Compensation or Exposure Value (EV)

Exposure compensation on cameras adjusts the camera's automati c exposure setting as metered by
the camera. The exposure compensation feature will increase or decrease the actual exposure of the
final image.
7. Exposure Bracketing

Bracketing is a method of taking multiple images of a scene or object using different exposures
ranging from overexposed to normal to underexposed. This process is done with difficult subject
matter or lighting conditions, because at times the internal camera light meter may be fooled or
unable to determine an accurate normal exposure.

8. Exposure Modes

The exposure modes are commonly found located on a dial on top of the camera or can be changed
in the camera's menus. Exposure modes allow the photographer to take control over how the
exposures are made. Some modes offer more control than others and each has its pros and cons.

9. ISO (International Organization of Standardization)

ISO (International Organization of Standardization) is the sensitivity rating of the camera's sensor.
You may recognize the abbreviation from film, as it was used to rate the sensitivity of film. The
higher the number the more sensitive to light the film was, and therefore it was more desirable to
use in low-light situations.

11. White Balance

White balance (also called color balance) is a very important setting on a digital camera. It allows the
photographer to adjust the camera for different sources of light. White balance is essential because
each source of light has its own color temperature. The basic principles of photography as explained
are the cornerstone to complete and accurate forensic imaging.

The basic principles of photography as explained are the cornerstone to complete and accurate
forensic imaging.
Module 2: Important Personalities in Photography
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Discovered that by passing sunlight through a pinhole, it could create a
reversed image of the Sun on the ground. He used this device as a means for viewing an eclipse
without having to stare directly into the Sun.

Ali Al-Hazen ibn Al-Haytham (956-1038) He invented the first pinhole camera, also known as the
Camera Obscura. He concluded the rule of magnification using concave and convex lenses and
mirrors. He is the person who first found the relationship between light source, lens and resultant
image. That is why it was called as "Al-Hazen Theorem". He also explained how an eye can see. He
said that we can only see when light falls on that object and reflect to our eyes.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1490) Wrote the earliest surviving description of a camera obscura. One
scientific concept that most intrigued Leonardo was optics, the science behind how the human eye
works. He was first to notice the similarity between the ways a camera obscura worked and the way
the human eye functioned.
Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1538-1615) The first to be able to manipulate the image, using a
camera obscura fitted with convex lenses and mirrors. A concave mirror would enable the device to
reflect an image right side up. He suggested that artists could project scenes from nature on a piece
of paper to assist in the rendering of their works.

Daniel Barbaro (1568) Developed a lens with the instructions one was to filter out all light entering
the room except that passing through the lens. This would project the image onto a piece of paper
and enable the artist to trace the image, complete with color, motion, water twinkling and birds
flying. The development of this lens turned the camera obscura into an optical instrument.

Angelo Sala (1576-1637) Self-educated chemist who experimented with silver salts. In 1614 , he
published that the paper containing silver nitrate reacted with sunlight causing it to darken. Silver
nitrate at the time was known as lapis lunearis, and Sala discovered that paper would also turn black
when wrapped around it.

Johann Zahn (1680s) A German monk who invented a camera obscura that was just 9 inches (22.86
cm) high and 24 inches (61 cm) long. Inside the box was a mirror placed at a 45-degree angle to the
lens. The mirror reflected the image to the top of the box, where he had placed a sheet of frosted
glass. The glass was covered with tracing paper, allowing images to be easily copied by an artist.

Johann Heinrich Schulze (1687-1744) German professor at the University of Altdorf. With
experiments, proved that silver nitrate becomes dark due to sunlight and not by temperature. He
was the first who created photograms with paper masks, which unfortunately could not last due to
lack of paper fixer. This event becomes the accidental creation of the first photo-sensitive
compound.

Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833) French multi-talented inventor. In 1826, (after trying since
1814), invented the "heliogram" and became the first man ever to fix a print. The "heliogram" as a
method was extremely time consuming, since it required long time exposures (his first photograph
needed eight hours of exposure time). He called his pictures "Heliographs" or "sun drawing".

He experimented with silver chloride, salt that was known to darken when exposed to light using a
camera obscura. Later, it would be used as a tool for creating drawings because the image could be
reflected onto a piece of paper, making it easier to work with. However, around 1816, Niepce used it
to create negative images. Essentially, a negative image is one in which light and dark are reversed,
and it's also upside down from the way the lens in the camera obscura works.

Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805) Son of a well-known pottery maker called Josef Wedgwood.
Despite his health problems and the interruption of his studies, continued to experiment with silver
nitrate, in order to record photograms and images from camera obscura. He finally made it with the
help of his friend Davy, one of the most important chemists of all times. Unfortunately, he had no
way to fix the prints, so he was destined to view them under very dimmed light in order to prevent
them from darkening. Although he made remarkable progress, he failed in keeping the image
permanent, he called the images "sun prints".

Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) Chemistry genius, friend and assistant of Wedgwood in his
experiments whose results were published at Royal Society, in 1802 by Davy. The problem of "fixing"
the images remained despite Davy's breakthroughs in chemistry.

Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1787-1851) He used camera obscura as a helping tool for his
painting and became persistent on finding a chemical, easy - way to record images. In 1826, he
became aware Niepce's experiments and signed a contractual agreement with him. After Niepce
died, he continued alone and created a method of his own called Daguerreotype. This method was
announced in August 1839 by Arago at the French Academy of Sciences. The French government
adopted Daguerreotype and donated the method to the whole world and Daguerre became famous
and rich. He invented the Daguerreotype (first commercial photographic material) in France in 1839.
Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871) In 1819 he had already discovered the ability that
"hypo" had to fix the photographic images and he was the one who solved the "fixing" problem of
pictures that his friend Talbot had. He was the one who first used the terms "photography"
"negative" positive" and "snapshot". He was the first to photograph glass negatives and, in the end,
he discovered a different photographic method called cyanotype.

Aloys Senefelder (Germany) (1796) Invented lithography (from Greeklithos, 'stone' + grapho, 'to
write'). Lithography was the first planographic printing process, and the first radically new method of
printing since Gutenberg's invention of printing by movable type.
Anna Atkins (1799-1871) Can be considered as the first woman photographer. 1841 she met Talbot
who was a friend of her father's. She worked with the procedure of cyanotype a technique which
was just discovered by Herschel and seemed much easier to her. In October 1843 she published the
first book containing photographs which was named "British Algae -Cyanotype impressions "which
was completed in a period of 10 years and came before Talbot's publication "The pencil of nature".

Cyanotypes, also known as blueprints and commonly used by the engineering industry, were made
using chemically photosensitive paper. Relatively cheap and easy to produce, cyanotypes became
very popular in 19th century amateur photographic circles.

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) He invented the photographic processes and established the
basic principle of photography as a negative/positive process. Talbot developed a process which
produced a negative image on sensitized paper. In September 1840, Talbot made a further vital
breakthrough when he discovered that invisible, or 'latent', images were formed on sensitized paper
even after relatively short exposure times. These images could be made visible, or 'developed', if
treated with chemicals. He succeeded quite early, in 1835 by creating the first negative. His greatest
discovery of the negative process minimizes exposure time considerably compared to p assed
methods. With the help and guidance of his friend Herschel, he achieved extraordinary results,
which was announced on January 1839 at the Royal Society. Since then, the English and French
argued on who first announced the discovery of photography. He published a paper to the Royal
Society on his invented process that created permanent paper negatives. He called it "Calotype"
process, which allowed for multiple printings, based on a paper negative.

Hippolyte Bayard (1807-1887) The most unfortunate from the pioneers of photography. He
discovered one direct positive photographic method. He was the first person to hold a photographic
exhibition (for humanitarian reasons) and the first who combined two negatives to create one print
(called Combination Printing).

William Hyde Wollaston (England) (1807). Invented the "camera lucida." The device looks like a spy
glass and peering through it combines the subject and the drawing surface in the same view.

Adolphe Alexandre Martin (1824-1896) Introduced the American tintype, also known in Great
Britain as a ferrotype. It produces affordable images on cheap metal sheet, not tin, instead of glass,
using the wet collodion positive process to the masses.

James Clerk-Maxwell (1831) A Scottish physicist, he first demonstrated a color photography system
involving three black and white photographs, each taken through a red, green, or blue filter. The
photos were turned into lantern slides and projected in registration with the same color filters. This
is the "color separation" method.

Sir William De Wiveleslie Abney (1834-1920) A specialist in the chemistry of photography, especially
noted for his development of a photographic emulsion that he used to map the solar spectrum far
into the infrared. In 1874 Abney made the first quantitative measurements of the action of light on
photographic materials. In 1880 he discovered the photographic developing properties of
hydroquinone.

Frederick Scott Archer (1851) He invented the collodion process. It was the process used by Lewis
Carroll. Collodion. It is a thick and syrupy liquid, that is made by dissolving nitrated cotton in a
mixture of alcohol and ether. This wet plate method proved to be a faster process, reducing
exposure times to two or three seconds, but it required a considerable amount of equipment on
location. The next year, Archer introduced Ambrotypes based on collodion. Ambrotypes produced
high quality and much cheaper image than the Daguerreotypes but the process was very different.

George Eastman (1854-1932) In 1880, he began to commercially manufacture dry plates following
his emulsion-coating machine invention in 1879 enabling the mass-production of photographic dry
plates. In 1884, the Eastman Kodak Co. introduced nitrocellulose based flexible film, which produced
a film with the same clarity as glass plates. The following year they introduced "Eastman American
Film" as the first transparent darkroom film.

Dr. Richard Maddox (1871) Discovered the use of Gelatin instead of glass as the basis for the
photographic plate which led to the development of the dry plate process. For the time, this was the
best and preferred process.

Thomas Edison and W. K. L. Dickson (1893) Invented a motion-picture camera in 1887, and in 1893
Dickson produced the Kinetograph camera. This device ensured intermittent but regular motion of
the film strip with a regularly perforated celluloid film strip to ensure precise synchronization
between the film strip and the shutter.
Wilhelm Roentgen (1895) Professor of Physics in Worzburg, Bavaria, was the first person to discover
the possibility of using electromagnetic radiation to create what we now know as the x -ray.