OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY

SYLLABUS
I. COURSE TITLE: POLICE PHOTOGRAPHY
II. COURSE NO.: CRIM 2
III. CRSE UNIT/TIME ALLOTMENT: 4 units (3 hrs lec, 2 hrs lab/unit) 5hrs/week
IV. PRE-REQUISITES: None

V. COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course deals with the study on the history of photography, technical photography and
forensic photography and forensic photography. Police photography shall also cover the study of the
Advance Photo System and its application in police work.

VI. GENERAL COURSE OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the course, the student is expected to:

1. summarize the historical development of photography
2. appreciate the significance of photography in the field of law enforcement and criminal
investigation
3. familiarize himself in the basic operation of a camera.
4. discuss and demonstrate the systematic procedure of crime scene photography

VII. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

Specifically, the student should be able to:

1. trace the historical development of photography
2. define and explain key terminologies technically used in the field of photography
3. identify the parts of a camera
4. operate a camera used in crime scene photography
5. demonstrate the general to specific method of taking photographs
6. appreciate the significance of photography in preserving the crime scene and evidence
7. discuss and demonstrate the basic process of developing, printing and enlarging of the film and
photographs to be used in court presentation.

VIII. COURSE OUTLINE:

WEEK LECTURE TOPICS SUB-TOPICS

NO.
1. Introduction a) Vision, Mission and goals of OLFU
b) University policies, rules &
regulations
c) Course Description
d) Course Outline
e) Grading System
2 Photography: Defined a) Photography
Historical Background and Principles b) Police Photography
c) Forensic Photography
d) The Basic Components of Photography
e) True Photography
f) Criminalistics Applications
g) Legal Foundation of Photography
Evidence
h) Principles
3 Photographic Rays – Its Nature and a) Light
Characteristics b) White Light
c) Additive Color mixture
d) Subtractive color mixture
e) Productions of colors
f) Attributes of colors
g) Bending of Lights
h) Kinds of object as how they behave to
 light
i) Sources of light
j) Forensic light sources
4 Photographic Films and papers a) Black and white films
b) Color films
c) Photographic papers
5 Camera a) Camera
b) Camera classification
c) Methods of image formation
d) Lens
e) Inherent lens defects or aberrations
5 Type of lenses a) Focal Length
b) Types of lenses according to focal
length
c) Lens Diaphragm
d) Photographic perspective and correct
viewing distance
6 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
7 Methods of Focusing a) Focusing
b) Depth of focus range
c) Parallax
d) Shutters
8 Exposure a) Exposure with flash
b) On-camera flash
c) Off-camera flash
d) Umbrella flash
e) Ring flash
f) Photographic filters
g) Camera Care
9 Photographic printing a) Contact printing
b) Projection printing
c) Enlarging Procedure
d) Equipments for paper developing
e) Color printing process
f) Color compared to black and white
10 Chemical Processing a) Film Processing procedure
b) Developer formulation
c) Stop-bath
d) Fixing bath formulation
11 Photography of police work applications a) General Application
b) Specific Application
c) Specific crimes
d) Surveillance work
12 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
13 Fingerprint Photography a) Plain black fingerprint on white
background
b) White fingerprints on black or dark
background
c) Black fingerprints in colored background
d) Black fingerprint on multi-colored
background
e) Fingerprint on glass
f) Fingerprints on papers
g) Fingerprints on mirrors
14 Questioned documents Photography a) General use
b) Areas of Photographic concerns
15 Ultra-violet photography a) Reflected method
b) Fluorescence method
c) Light sources
16 Infrared Photography a) Reflected Method
b) Luminescence method
17 Police Photography Workshop a) Practical applications
18 FINAL EXAMINATIONS

IX. TEACHING METHODOLOGIES:

  Lectures, discussions, recitations, assignments
 Quizzes
 Laboratory activities
 Major examinations

X. GRADING SYSTEM:

FINAL GRADE= 20% Prelims + 25% Midterms + 25% Finals + 20% quizzes + 5% attendance +
5% recitation/research works

XI. TEXT BOOKS AND REFERENCES:

PHOTOGRAPHY – DEFINITION, HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PRINCIPLES

DEFINITION OF TERMS

A. Photography
1. Literal definition:
The word photography is derivative of two Greek words phos which means “light” and
graphia meaning “write”. Therefore photography translates to “write with light” (Herschel
1839).

2. Modern Definition
Photography is an art of science which deals with the reproduction of the images
through the action of light, upon sensitized materials, with the aid of a camera and its
accessories, and the chemical processes involved therein. (Aquino 1972).

3. Technical/Legal Definition
Modern photography may be define 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.
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).

B. Police Photography
Police photography is an art or science which deals with the study of the principles of
the photography, the preparation of photographic evidence, and its application to police
work. (Aquino 1972).

C. Forensic Photography
The art or science of photographically documenting a crime scene and evidence for
laboratory examination and analysis for purposes of court trial. (Redsicker 2001).

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

A. The Basic Components of Photography

1. Light – the days of creation
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was
formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God
was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw the light was
good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the
darkness he called “night”. And there was evening and there was morning. The first day
(Genesis, chapter 1 verses 1-3).

2. Equipment (1700)
The portable camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber) was used by artist or
painters to get accurate perspective of natural scene and scale of their subjects.

3. Chemicals (1726-1777)
Light sensitivity of silver nitrate and silver chloride solution was discovered and
investigated. In 1800 Thomas Wedgewood and Humphey Davy producded photograms.

B. True Photography
1839 is generally known as the birth year of photography. William Heny 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.

Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre made a public demonstration in Paris “Daguerreotype” in

collaboration with Joseph Nicephore Niepce.

The “Daguerreotype” formed an image directly on the silver surface of a metal

plate.

With Talbots “calotype”, the fixation was only partial while the Daguerre’s
Daguerreotypes, images were made permanent with the use of hypo.

1848 – Abel Niepce de Saint – Victor introduced a process of negative on glass using
albumen (egg white) as binding medium.

1850 – Louis Desirie Blanquart-Evard introduced a printing paper coated with albumen
(egg white) to achieve a glossy surface.

1851 – Frederick Scott Archer – published a “wet plate” process when collodion – a
viscous liquid that dries to a tough flexible and transparent film-replaced albumen.

1885 – Gelatin emulsion printing paper was commercially introduced based films in 1889.

During this time, the cameras were crude; the lenses could not form a true
image; and the sensitive materials required long exposures and could not reproduce
colors in shades of gray.

It was in 1856 when John F.W. Herschel coined the word “photography”.

1861 – James Clark Maxwell researched on colors.

1890 – full corrected lenses were introduced.

1906 – a plate was placed on the market the 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 – U.S. Eastman Kodak made a color subtractive process called Kodachrome.

1935 – color process came out together with electronic flash.

1947 – Edwin H. Land introduce “Polaroid” the one-step photography.

1960 – LASER was invented making possible Holograms (three dimensional pictures).

1988 – The arrival of true digital cameras.

 The first true digital camera that recorded images 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.

 The fist commercially available digital camera was the 1992 Kodak DCS-100. It
used a 1.3 megapixel sensor and was priced at $13,000.

 The first consumer camera with a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) on the back was
the Casio QV-10 in 1995

 and the first camera to use compact flash was the Kodak DC-25 IN 1996.

 In 1999 the Nikon D1 a 2.74 megapixel camera was the first digital SLR with a
price of under $6,000. This camera also used Nikon F-mount lenses which
meant 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 6
megapixel and the first DSLR priced under $1,000 to consumers.

.C. Criminal Applications

1854 – an Englishman, Maddox, developed a dry plate photography eclipsing Daguerre’s wet
plate on tin method. This made practical the photography of inmates for prison records.

1859 -