MODULE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF FORENSIC

2 PHOTOGRAPHY

Introduction

The history of photography is a matter of technical growth and of simultaneous

communication growth.

Photography is a technological invention that has become the most universal

means of communication and artistic expression the word has known. It overcomes the
barrier of language difference.

SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the module the students must have:

• discuss and traced the historical evolution of forensic photography;

• identify and recognized the important VIP in the field of Photography;
• explain the importance of light in photography;
• recognize and discussed the behavior of lights and state the speed of
lights;
• explain transparent, translucent, and opaque materials;
• distinguish law of reflection and law of refraction;
• identify the sources of lights;
• distinguish the classification of daylight according to intensity.
 EXPLAIN: Task 2.3

I. The Basic Components of Photography

1. Light (900 A.D.)

❖ Aristotle– in 4th century BC, described observing a partial solar eclipse in 330 BC
by seeing the image of the sun projected through the small spaces between the
leaves of the tree.

❖ Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen)-an Egyptian scientist, observed sometimes in 10th

century that light passing through a small round hole, perhaps in a tent flap or wall,
would create an image of the outdoor scene on an interior wall or screen. He wrote
about observing a solar eclipse through a pin hole and he described how a sharper
image could be produced by making the opening of the pin hole smaller.

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, from this we got our word camera was designed by Leonardo da
Vinci for accurate perspective and scale.

3. Chemicals (1726- 1777)

❖ Light sensitivity of silver nitrate and silver chloride solution were discovered
and investigated. In 1800- Thomas Wedgewood and Humphrey Davy
produced photograms” no camera was used but still can photograph by
placing an opaque object such as shell or a leaf on paper with silver nitrate
solution and exposing it to sunlight (but none of this work was permanent.)

II: True Photography

1839- is generally known as the birth year 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.
 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 Daguerreotypes,
image were made permanent with the use of hypo.

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

1856- When John F.W. Herschel coined the word “photography”

1861- James Clark Maxwell research on colors.

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

1890- full corrected lenses were introduced.

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- U.S. Eastman Kodak made a color subtractive process called Kodachrome.

1935- color process came out together with electronic flash.

1947- Edwin H. Land introduced “Polariod” the one-step photography.

1960- Laser was invented making possible Holograms (three dimensional pictures)

1988- the arrival of true digital cameras.

III: 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- In the US., one of the earliest applied forensic science was in photography. It was
used to demonstrate evidence in a California case. Enlarged photographs of signature
was presented in a court case involving forgery.

1864- Odelbercht first advocate the use of photography for the identification of criminals
and the documentation of evidence and crime scene. (Rogues Gallery)

1882- Alphonse Bertillion who initiated antropometric measurements for personal

identification was also involved in various means of documentation by photography which
developed into a fine science for criminalistics when he photographed crime scenes and
formulated a technique of contact photography to demonstrate erasures on documents.

1902- Dr. R.A. Reis, a German scientist trained in Chemistry and Physics at Lausanne
University in Switzerland. He contributed heavily to the use of photography in forensic
science and established the world’s earliest crime laboratory that serviced the academic
community and the Swiss police.

1910- Victor Baltazard developed a method of photographic comparison of bullets and

cartridge cases which act as an early foundation of the field of ballistics.

Victor Baltazard, professor of forensic medicine at Sorborne, used photographic

enlargements of bullets and cartridge cases to determine weapon type and was among
the first to attempt to individualize a bullet to a weapon.

IV: Legal Foundation of Photographic Evidence

1. For Black and White Photographs

1859- Daguerreotype was used in a civil case, Lueo vs. Inited States, 23 Howard 515 to
decide on the authenticity of photograph in comparing signatures.

1874- In a criminal case introducing photograph as identification evidence, Underzook vs.

Commonwealth, 76 Pa. 340.

2. For Color Photography

1943- Civil Litigations Green vs. City and country of Denver, 3 Colo. 390 142 P.2 D.277
involving color photography of spoiled meat in violation of a health ordinance prohibiting
the sale of putrid meat to the public.

1960- In criminal case, State vs. Conte 157 Comm. 251 A.2d 81 showing the graphic
wound of the victim.