Forensic Photography

Lesson 1

FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY- is defined as the study of the

fundamentals of photography, its application to police work
and the preparation of photographic evidence. It consists of
the legal aspects of photography that covers the following
phases:
a) Fundamental concepts of photography
b) Application to police work
c) Preparation of photographic evidence

According to (Redsicker 2001), Forensic Photography is

the art or science of documenting photographically a crime
scene and evidence for laboratory examination and analysis
for purposes of court trial.
Photography- is from Greek words “Phos” or Photo which
means light and “grapho” which means to “Draw” or graphia
meaning “write”. Therefore photography best translates to
“write with light”. (Herschel 1839). This word is defined as an
art or science that deals with the reproduction of images
through the action of light upon sensitized material (film and
photographic paper) with the aid of the camera and its
accessories and the chemical process involved therein.
(Modern definition)
Modern photography may be defined as any means for
the chemical, thermal, electrical or electronic recording of
the images of scenes, or objects formed by some type of
radiant energy, including gamma rays, X-rays, ultra-violet
rays, visible light and infrared rays. (Technical/Legal
definition) This definition is broad enough to include not only
the conventional methods of photography but almost any
new process that may be developed. (Scott 1975)
Police Photography- is an art or science that deals with the
study of the principles of photography, the preparation of
photographic evidence and its application to police work.
(Aquino 1972).

PHOTOGRAPHY IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION:

Photography is an essential tool for the law-enforcement

investigator. As a tool, it enables him to record the visible and
in any cases, the invisible evidence of crime. Special
techniques employing infra-red, ultra-violet, and x-ray
radiation enable him to record evidence which is not visible.
The photographic evidence can then restored indefinitely
and retrieve when needed. There is no other process which
can be ferret, record, remember, and recall criminal
evidence as well as photography.

Photographs are also means of communication. It is a

language sometimes defined as the “the most universal of
all. Photography has an advantage as languages because
it does not rely upon abstract symbols-words. Photography,
thus, is more direct and less subject to misunderstanding. As
a communication medium-has few, if any, equal.

FUNCTIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN INVESTIGATIVE WORK

1. Identification
A. Criminal
B. Missing person
C. Lost and stolen properties
D. Civilian

2. Communication and microfilm files

A. Transmission of photos (wire or photos)
B. Investigative report file

3. Evidence
A.) Recording and preserving

1. Crime scene
2. Vehicular accidence
3. Homicide or Murder
4. Robbery cases
5. Fires or Arson
6. Object of evidence
7. Evidential traces
B.) Discovering and proving
1. By contrast control (lightning, film and paper, filter)
2. By magnification (photo micrography, photo
macrography)
3. By invisible radiation(infra-red, ultra-violet, X-ray)
4. Action of offenders (recording)

4. Action of offenders (recording)

a) Surveillance
b) Burglary
c) Confessions
d) Reenactment of crime

5. Court Exhibits
a) Demonstration enlargements
b) Individual photos
c) Projection slides
d) Motion pictures

6. Crime prevention
a) Security clearance
 7. Public relations

8. Police training
a) Prepared training films (police tactics,
investigation techniques)
b) Traffic studies
c) Documentaries (Riots and mob control, disasters,
prison disorders)

9. Reproduction and copying

a) Photographs
b) Official records

PRINCIPLES OF PHOTOGRAPHY

A photograph is both the mechanical and chemical

result of photography. To produce a photograph, light is
needed aside from sensitized materials (film or papers). Light
radiated or reflected by the subject must reach the film while
all other lights are excluded. The exclusion of all other lights is
achieved by placing the film inside a light tight box
(camera).
The effect of light on the film is not visible in the formation
of images of objects. To make it visible, we need or require a
chemical processing of the expose film called development.
The visual effect of light on the film after development
varies when the quantity quality of light the reached the
emulsion of the film. To grant in greater amount of light will
produce an opaque or very black shade after development.
Too little produces a transparent or white shade after a
development.
 The amount of light reaching the film is dependent upon
several factors like lighting condition, lens opening, shutter
speed, & filter used.

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Equipment -1700 – Camera Obscura (dark chamber) was

designed by Leonardo da Vinci for accurate perspective
and scale.

Chemicals-1725 – 1777 – Light sensitivity of silver nitrate and

silver chloride solution had been discovered and
investigated.

1800 – Thomas Wedgewood and Humphery Davy –

produced photograms.

True Photography accomplished by:

1. Joseph Nicephore Niepce-1816 – was able to obtain

camera images on papers sensitized with silver
chloride solution.
2. Louis Jacques Daguerre-1839 – “Daguerreotype”- The
first practical photography process. Image was made
permanent by the use of hypo.
3. William Henry Fox Talbot-1841 – he patented
“Calotype” process negatives on paper sensitized with
silver-iodide and silver nitrate. These were contact on
sensitized paper. As you tone and revolving power,
Daguerreo-type was better.

Sir John F.W. Herchel-1839 – he coined the word

“photography”
James Clark Maxwell-1861 – he researched on colors.

a) 1907 – Lumiere color process was introduced, a

panchromatic film was used but with blue, green,
and red filter.
b) 1914 – US Eastman Kodak introduced two (2)
color subtractive processes called Kodachrome.
Twenty one (21) years later, a three (3) color process
came out.
c) 1935 – Electronic flash unit came out.
d) 1947 – Edwin H. Land introduced “POLAROID,” a
one-step photography.
e) 1960 – Laser was invented making possible
holography.

1482- The earliest known form of camera, Camera

OBSCURA, was described by Leonardo da Vinci of Italy.

An Italian, Geronimo Cardano- fitted a biconvex lens to the

Camera Obscura in 1550 and in 1568, Daniel Barbaro
suggested the use of a diaphragm to sharpen the image. By
the end of the 17th century, small portable Camera Obscura
that were equipped with reflex viewing system had been
developed. The camera Obscura was first used successfully
for photography in 1820’s by the French Scientist Joseph
Nicephore Niepce, a French Chemist.

1727- Johann Heinrich Schulze- a German physician was

credited with the discovery of the light sensitivity of silver salt.

1777- Karl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist investigated

the darkening of silver chloride by light and found out that
the salt was reduced to metallic silver.
1816- Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a French chemist,
experimented with silver nitrate. On the same year he
suppossedly produced image on paper from a negative, but
he too was unable to remove the unexposed silver salts and
secure a permanent image. He discovered that bitumen of
Judea an asphaltic material became insoluble when
exposed to light. Between 1824 to 1826, Niepce produce
prints by coating the bitumen on metal plates, exposing it to
light under a drawing or transparency and dissolving the
unexposed bitumen. The plates was then etched with acid,
which did not react with the remaining bitumen. 1829-
Niepce formed a partnership with Louis Jacquis Mande
Dagurre, a French painter, to proceed on bitumen process
but later Niepce died in 1833 and the work was continued
with the partnership of Niepce’s son, Isidore.
Daguerre discarded the bitumen process and worked
on his own procedure with the exposure of a polished silver
plate to the vapor of iodine forming a sensitive layer of silver
iodide after the plate had been exposed in the camera, the
image was developed with mercury vapor. The process is
then called Dagurreotypy.

1835- French Dagurre discovered that mercury fume will

develop an invisible (latent) image on a silver plate that is
sensitized with iodine fumes before exposure.

1835- William Henry Fox Talbot, an English archeologist and

philologist, experimented with various salts of silver and found
that silver chloride was more sensitive to light than was silver
nitrate.

Talbot process or Talbotype process, is a process wherein the

paper was sensitized with silver iodide and after exposure
was developed in Gallic acid.
The modern photography is based on Talbot’s Negative – to
- Positive principle.

1839- Is generally known as the birth of photography. William

Henry Fox Talbot explained a process he had invented
(Calotype) at the Royal Society of London.

The “Calotype” used paper with its surface fibers

impregnated with light sensitive compounds.

Sir John F.W. Herschel coins the word “photography”;

(suggest “negative” and “positive” in the following year) and
point out that image can be made permanent by dissolving
away unexposed silver compounds with a solution of
hyposulfite of soda (hypo or sodium thiosulfate), which he
had discovered in 1819.

1839- Daguerreotype consisted of two wooden boxes

perfected his photographic process. Images are made
permanent by the use of hypo. The precision of details and
exquisite beauty of these direct-positive images on silver
plates make the Daguerreotype an immediate success.

1840- U.S. J. W. Draper is also one to produce photographic

portraits using a lens with a diameter of five inches and a
focus of seven inches.

1840, Australia-Hungary, J.M. Petzval designed the first lens

specifically for photographic use. Its maximum aperture if
f/3.6 makes it possible to take portrait exposure of less than
one minute, launching the most widespread use of the
Daguerreotype. The lens is produced the following year by
Volglander for use in the first all-metal camera.
1843-1848- Major achievements with the paper-negative
process are made by Hill Adamson and by various
photographers on the continent beyond the reach of
Talbot’s legal agents.

1845- F Von Marten, France, Invented the panoramic

camera, wherein the lens is rotated about its optical center
while a curved film is scanned by a slit.

1848- Abel Niepce de Saint Victor introduced a process of

negatives on glass using albumen (egg white) as binding
medium.

1850 – Louis Desirie Blanquart Evard introduced a printing

paper coated with albumen to achieve a glossy surface.

1851- England. Frederick Scott Archer published a method of

using collodion in place of albumen for negative on glass,
“wet plate”.
1853- England. JB Dancer makes the first model of a twin lens
camera for stereo photography, suggested by Sir David
Brewster.

1858- France Nadar takes the first aerial photograph over

Paris from a free balloon.

1861- First single lens reflex camera was patented by Thomas

Sulton.
1861- Scotland. James Clerk Maxwell publishes research in
color perception and the three color separation of light. He
also demonstrates additive color synthesis using hand
colored materials in lantern slide projectors.
1880-The first twin-lens camera was produced by the British
firm, R. & J. Beck.

Eastman George, an American inventor, manufactured a

dry plate process in 1880, the roll film in 1884 and made it
available to market in 1889, and the Kodak camera in 1888,
(6 ½ X 3 ½ X 3 ½) 3 ½ to infinity, 100 exposure.

1880- England. Sir William Abney discovers the use of

hydroquinone as a developing agent.

1882. England Sir William Abney produces silver chloride

gelatin emulsion for printing-out paper; it takes more than ten
years for this and similar materials to supplant albumen
paper.

1884- US. Eastman negative paper is introduced, consisting

of a light sensitive emulsion or paper which after
development is made transparent enough for printing by
treating with hot castor oil.

1888- US John Carbutt begin the manufacture of celluloid

base sheet film.

1890- Full corrected lenses were introduced.

1895- The pocket camera was designed by Frank Brownell &

called it “Brownie”.

1906- A plate was placed on the market that could

reproduce all colors in equivalent shades of gray.
1907- Lummiere color process was introduced, a
panchromatic film was used but with blue, green, and red
filter.

1914- US Eastman Kodak Company introduce a two color

subtractive process called Kodachrome.

1925- The German firm of Ernst Leitz brought out to market

the popular camera, LIECA.

1928-The famous twin-lens reflex camera, the Rolleiflex was

marketed by the German firm of Franke and Heidecke.

1929- Germany. J. Ostermeier produce the first

commercially acceptable self-contained flash bulb; an
aluminum, foil sealed in an oxygen-filled bulb.

1932- The first photoelectric exposure meter is produced by

Weston Electric Instrument Company.

1934- Holland. The first wire-filled bulb was introduced by

Phillips.

1935- A gas discharge tube emitting white light is introduced

for electronic flash photography.

1935- The color process came out together with the

electronic flash.

1936, Germany. Agfa color reversal films is introduced the first

three monopack film in which subtractive dye-formers are
incorporated in each emulsion layer.
1947, US. Edwin H. Land introduce the Polaroid Camera- a
one-step photography with a self-processing black-and-
white film that yields a positive print by the diffusion transfer
reversal method.

1960- Laser was invented making possible holograms (three

dimensional pictures).

1988- The arrival of true digital cameras. The first true digital
camera that recorded the image as a computerized file was
likely the Fuji DS-1P of 1988, which recorded to a 16 MB
internal memory card that used a battery to keep the data
in memory. This camera was never marketed in the USA.

1992-The first commercially available digital camera was the

Kodak DCS-100. It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor and was
priced at 13,000 dollars.

1995 -The first consumer camera with a Liquid Crystal Display

(LCD) on the back was the Casio QV 10.

1996- The first camera to use compact flash was the Kodak
DC-25.

1999- The Nikon D1, a 2.74 mega pixel camera was the first
digital SLR with a price of under 6,000 dollars. This camera
also used Nikon F-mount lenses which means that film based
photographers could use the same lenses they already own.
In 2003, Canon introduced the 300D camera also known as
digital rebel, a six (6) mega pixel and the first DSLR priced
lesser than 1,000 dollars to consumers.