Professional Documents
Culture Documents
For 1 Prelim Module
For 1 Prelim Module
Elements of Photography:
1. Light - Natural and artificial
2. Sensitized Materials – Film and Photographic Paper
3. Mechanical- Camera with its accessories and enlarger machine or contact printer
4. Chemical - Developer, Stop bath, and Fixer
Police Photography is the study of the general practices, methods, and steps in taking pictures of the crime
scene, physical things, and other circumstance that can be used as criminal evidence for law enforcement
purposes.
Forensic Photography is a field covering the legal application of photography in criminal jurisprudence and
criminal investigation. It is that branch of forensic science dealing with the:
1. Study of the fundamental but pragmatic principles/concepts of photography.
2. Application of photography in law enforcement; and
3. Preparation of photographic evidence needed by prosecutors and courts of law.
Light is a radiant energy that make things are visible are classified by the wavelength into system known as
the electromagnetic spectrum. A man from Mexico City, said for the first time, a substantial quantity of matter
into light, heat, sound and motion which were called energy. If matter sheds its mass and travels with the
speed of light, it is called radiation. It is the essence of photography. Every change of light holds something for
the photographer. The intensity of sunlight can be strong or weak. It can hit the subject from the front, back or
side. It can come from a high or a low angle. It can be hard, with dark and distinct shadows, or soft and almost
shadow less, or diffused, with shadows that are define but faint.
Camera is a mechanical device that is used to form and record the rays of light (as reflected by the object) on
the film inside the light tight box or the camera. It may also defined as a light tight box (proof) box with a means
of forming the image (lens) with a means of holding sensitized material at one end (film holder), and with a
means of controlling the amount of light needed to affect the film at the other end (shutter).
The Chinese were the first people that we know of to write about the basic idea of the pinhole camera or
“Camera Obscura” (Latin words meaning “dark room”). About 2,500 years ago (5 th century B.C.) they wrote
about how an image was formed upside down on a wall from a pinhole on the opposite wall.
Lens is a disc of transparent glass generally bounded by two spherical surfaces capable of transforming an
image. The eye of the camera is also the heart of the camera. Daniel Barbaro introduced the use of the lens
in a camera.
TYPES OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
1. Forensic – recording crime or any other objects for court presentation.
2. Photomicrography – minute objects when magnified by means of the microscope and enlarge from
10x up.
3. Infrared – photographing or recording unseen objects by means of infra-red light.
4. Ultra-Violet – seen and unseen objects that luminescence by the use of ultra-violet light.
5. X- Ray Photography – recording internal structure of the body.
6. Flash Photography – exposures are made with illumination from one or more photoflash.
7. Microphotography – very small photograph as encountered in microfilming.
8. Macro-Photography – close up photography usually in the range life-size to 10x life size.
9. Streak Photography – traces movement by either the camera or the subject being moved during
exposure.
10. Night- Time Photography – without a flash is now possible with many modern cameras, but the long
exposure time required means that it is advisable to sue fast film (ISO 400-1600).
Coined the word photography, popularizing it in the English speaking world. He was also the
first to describe photographs as either negatives of positives.
Invented the cyanotype, a photographic printing process that later allowed engineers and
architects to produce blueprints of their designs.
He also invented hypo solution to fix photographs.
2. Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
In "Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours" (1663), Professor Boyle stated that light
consists of matter and that its warmth can be measured by
weight.
He also chronicled the complexities of his chemical
experiments with color, which laid the scientific foundation for
photography.
In Experiment XXXVI, He discovered that when silver nitrate
darkens when it is exposed to sunlight.
Professor Boyle confirmed these findings in a series of tests in
which he noted how light changed silver chloride from white to
black. However, he maintained that this blackening was not the
result of light exposure, but rather contributed the color change to the effects of air and
moisture.
3. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833)
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was one of the most important
figures in the invention of photography. Born in France in 1765,
Niépce was an amateur scientist, inventor and artist.
In around 1816 Niépce became interested in the new
technique of lithography and began to explore ways of using
light sensitive materials to produce images directly on to the
printing plate or stone.
He dissolved bitumen of Judea (a kind of asphalt) in a solvent
and coated a pewter plate with the resulting solution. When
exposed to light in a camera obscura, the bitumen became hard and insoluble. After exposure
the plate was washed in lavender oil and turpentine, which removed the soft unexposed
bitumen, leaving a permanent image created by light.
Niépce called his process heliography, from the Greek helios
meaning ‘drawing with the sun’. In 1826, using this process,
Niépce took the earliest surviving ‘photograph’—a view from a
window of his house in Chalons-sur-Saône which required an
exposure of about 8 hours!
In 1829 Niépce went into partnership with another Frenchman,
Louis Daguerre, to continue experimenting with heliography.
He died of a heart attack in 1833, age 69. His pioneering work
in photography was largely overshadowed in 1839 by the announcement of his
partner’s daguerreotype process, for the discovery of which Niépce received no posthumous
credit.
Only 16 heliographic plates by Niépce are known to be still in existence—three of these are now
part of the Royal Photographic Society Collection.
In 1884 the eminent photographer Henry Peach Robinson bought three of the plates which had
formerly belonged to Franz Bauer at auction, and in 1924 his son, Ralph Robinson—also a well-
known photographer—presented them to the Royal Photographic Society.
4. Louis Jacques Mande Dagurre (1789-1857)
He artist and inventor, was born November 18, 1789 in
Cormeilles-en-France. As a young man it became apparent that
Daguerre’s strength was in the field of art. At sixteen he became
an apprentice to the successful scene painter Degotti. Daguerre
became an acceptable painter, painting backdrops for theatrical
stage plays and operas.
In 1822 Daguerre together with Charles Bourton, also a painter,
created a theater scene they named a “diorama”. Several layers of
fabric were painted then layered with real objects and illuminated
to approximate the time of day. The diorama was very popular in
Paris; dioramas were created for several countries in Europe and
America. Daguerre was familiar with the camera obscura as a painting aid and had improved
the lenses for use during production of the diorama.
Nicephore Niepce and Daguerre met and became partners in 1829; Niepce needed Daguerre’s
camera obscura and Daguerre was interested in the heliographic process that Niepce had
developed. Daguerre was an artist, not a chemist, but he was befriended by a leading French
chemist, J. Dumas, who offered funds, a laboratory and advice. Unfortunately Niepce died in
1833 leaving his share of the partnership to his son Isidore.
Two years later Daguerre produced the first daguerreotype. Being placed over a container of
iodine particles thus forming a silver iodide on the surface sensitized a silver plated sheet of
copper. The plate was then exposed in a camera; the silver iodide was reduced to silver in
proportion to the density. The exposed plate was then placed over a container of warm mercury;
the fumes formed an amalgam with the silver producing an image. The plate was washed with a
saline solution to prevent further exposure. Daguerre allowed that his iodized silver plate would
remain in his partnership but it would be called a “daguerreotype”, as it was completely
Daguerre’s invention. The first successful daguerreotype, a still life, was produced in 1837. The
first human image was recorded on a daguerreotype in 1839.
5. William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
He was the father of the negative-positive photographic
process, as it is practiced today.
He was an accomplished mathematician involved in the
research of light and optics; he invented the polarizing
microscope. He was also politically active and a Member of
Parliament.
Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process
introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper
coated with silver iodide. The term calotype comes from the
Greek καλός (kalos), "beautiful", and τύπος (tupos),
"impression".
Calotype process was the first practical negative-positive photographic process, was
patented by him in 1841. A sheet of good quality paper was first treated with light-sensitive
silver compounds before exposure in the camera.
Claudet received many honors, among which was the appointment, in 1853, as "Photographer-
in-ordinary" to Queen Victoria, and the award, ten years later, of an honor from Napoleon III of
France.
He died in London in 1867. Less than a month after his death, his "Temple to photography" was
burnt down, and most of his valuable photographs were lost.
Collodion
process
Ambrotype using the bleached
collodion process
9. Richard Leach Maddox (1816-1902)
He was an English photographer and physician who invented
lightweight gelatin negative plates for photography in 1871.
He suggested in the 8 September 1871 British Journal of
Photography article An Experiment with Gelatino-Bromide that
sensitizing chemicals cadmium bromide and silver
nitrate should be coated on a glass plate in gelatin, a
transparent substance used for making candies.
10. Charles Harper Bennet (1840-1927)
He made the first gelatin dry plates for sale; before long
the emulsion could be coated on celluloid roll film.
He improved the gelatin silver process developed by Richard
Leach Maddox, first in 1873 by a method of hardening the
emulsion, making it more resistant to friction, and later in 1878
Bennett discovered that by prolonged heating the sensitivity of
the emulsion could be greatly increased. This increased
sensitivity resulting enabled shooting at 1/25 second, paving the
way for the snapshot.
A mule keeps standing while its head is blown up with dynamite
to demonstrate the speed of photography based on a new
gelatin dry plate process by Charles Bennett. A photograph taken on 6 June 1881, published
in Scientific American on September 24, 1881.
11. George Eastman (1853-1932)
He was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman
Kodak Company and popularized the use of roll film, helping
to bring photography to the mainstream.
Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion
picture film stock in 1888 by the world's first film-
makers Eadweard Muybridge and Louis Le Prince.
In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove
practicable;
he had been
tinkering at
home to
develop it.
In 1888, he perfected the Kodak Black camera,
which was the first camera designed to use roll
film. In 1889 he first offered film stock, and by
1896 became the leading supplier of film stock
internationally.
He incorporated his company under the name Eastman Kodak, in 1892.As film stock became
standardized, Eastman continued to lead in innovations. Refinements in colored film stock
continued after his death.
12. Oskar Barnack (1879-1936)
He was an inventor and German photographer who built, in
1913, what would later become the first commercially successful
35mm still-camera, subsequently called Ur-Leica at Ernst Leitz
Optische Werke (the Leitz factory) in Wetzlar.
rubber, dyes, resins, pharmaceutics and varnishes. The sensitized plate was called an
“orthochromatic plate” which was sensitive to green light, but not red and deep orange.
14. Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
He was an English-American photographer important for his
pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early
work in motion-picture projection.
He adopted the first name Eadweard as the original Anglo-
Saxon form of Edward, and the surname Muybridge, believing
it to be similarly archaic.
Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal
locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to
capture motion in stop-motion photographs, and his
zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-
dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography.
communication and even our TV’s remote control uses this kind of waves. In addition, chemist and
forensic scientists are infrared spectrometry to identify the characteristics of many molecules.
4. Ultraviolet Radiation. The main source of UV radiation is the sun. it can’t be detected by our eyes but
can cause damage to them. UV light is used to pick up invisible writings in bank notes. It is also used
by scientists to detect traces of blood and to analyze organic compound.
5. X-rays. It has a very short wavelengths, they are able to penetrate many things. X-rays are used to take
photographs of bones of the human body. Likewise, x-rays have security applications such as scanners
at airports.
6. Gamma rays. It is used to kill cancer cells, sterilize equipment, and to increase the shelve life of food.
The rays of light although invisible are important in law enforcement photography because it permits result to
be obtained which are not possible with only visible light present.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHT
Reflection occurs whenever an object changes the direction of a light wave byte does not allow the
wave to pass through it. Reflected light maybe Specular or Diffused. When strikes the surface are
rebound it is used to be reflected, and it is called incident light. The angle at which it strikes is called
incident angle. If the surface is so smooth and polished that the reflected rays are not scattered, the
term is specula reflection.
Note:
Rays are reflected at the same angles as they strike. When reflect light is scattered by rough surface is
called diffused.
Diffraction is a phenomenon that occurs when light rays deviate from a straight course when partially
cut off by a medium light or passing near the edges of an opening; a phenomenon occurring when
waves of light diverge/separate as they pass the edge of opaque material or through a small hole. Or,
it is the bending of light around an object responsible for the partial illumination of object parts not
directly in the path of the light.
Refraction is the bending of light rays when passing obliquely from one medium to another such as
air through a substance of different density is refracted or bent. The Law of Refraction states that:
a. When light strikes a transparent medium (with greater density) at an oblique angle,
refraction is towards the normal.
b. When light hits a transparent medium (with lesser density) at an oblique angle,
c. When light hits a transparent medium at a perpendicular angle, there is no refraction.
LIGHT SOURCES:
1. Natural light is used for outdoor photography
Kinds of Lightning Situations.
a. Direct Lighting. It travels from a point source directly to the subject. Shadows created from this light
are harsh and deep.
b. Diffused Lighting. An example of diffused lighting is an overcast day, when the light appears evenly
and there are no distinct shadows.
c. Moderate Lighting. Produce images that have detail in the shadows and still maintain contrast for
the highlights.
d. Low Light. It creates technical issues that must be overcome. This situation require a fast film (ISO
400 or higher) to capture the limited available light.
Sources of Natural Light
Sunlight. The most important source of light on earth is the sun. The sun is a natural source of light. The light
from the sun travels through space at an incredible speed of 186,000 miles per second and reaches the earth
in 8 minutes and 32 seconds. Sunlight is classified into:
a. Distinct Sun. this is the direct sunlight striking the subject. It is the brightest of all. It is highly
directional. Images taken with distinct sun is characterized by extreme highlights and deep
shadows. It provides the highest contrast in a picture.
b. Hazy sun. when the sun is covered by thin clouds but still clearly visible, it is illuminating the
subject with what we call a hazy sunlight. It produces soft shadows and moderate highlight.
Contrast is also moderated, while rays are directional.
c. Cloudy. The sun is shining bright but covered with thick moving clouds. Other parts of the sky
maybe clear. Lighting is even throughout and not directional. It does not cast practical shadows
on the subject. Contrast is relatively fair.
d. Overcast sky. Sun is bright but not visible. Light is soft and not directional. Skies may be
covered with stationary clouds. It provides no shadows and low contrast.
e. Heavy Overcast. This is practically the same as overcast sky but generally darker and light is
dull. It provides very poor contrast. Static cloud is so thick where one cannot tell the overhead
position of the sun.
Moon and Stars. When the sun sets, day turns into night and it becomes dark. The night sky has the moon
and innumerable stars. However, despite their brightness the moon and the stars can hardly keep the
darkness away. The moon actually has no light of its own. It reflects the light of the sun. The stars on the other
hand give off their own light. But they are too far away from the earth. So very little of their light reaches the
earth.