Advanced Digital Crime Scene & Forensic Photography for Law Enforcement




The purpose of this course is to introduce the investigator to more advanced photographic techniques that can allow better evidence documentation, retrieval, and preservation with both film and digital cameras and techniques. The class will be approximately 50% interactive lecture and 50% practical, hands on exercises that will be discussed and evaluated in class. The attending officer will leave the class with an understanding of the following topics and applications:


  • Review of digital camera settings and functions, and image file formats

  • Digital forensic photography and file handling with regard to legal questions

  • Creating an acceptable SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)

  • Lighting overall crime scenes and objects: tungsten, electronic flash,

  • and alternate light sources

  • Photographing scenes and items treated with luminol, fluorescein, and PD chemistry

  • Selective filtration techniques for better images

  • Low light/night photography techniques

  • Close up and latent fingerprint photography

  • Software for image management and enhancement

  • Working with masks and layers

  • Size calibrating [1:1] Images

  • Pattern reduction or removal using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) techniques

  • Selective color replacement for displaying less visible data

  • Image preparation for latent comparison

  • Image management for courtroom use

  • Testimony- practices and pitfalls

  • Use of digital scanners in the crime lab and on the scene

  • Preparation of photographic evidence for courtroom presentation


Instructional material will be provided, and lectures will include Power Point presentations. Students must provide their own cameras, preferably digital; a laptop computer with a working CD-ROM drive and running either Windows XP-SP3 or later, or Macintosh OSX 10.5 or later, with at least 10 GB of available hard drive space is required for full participationin the class exercises. Linux systems are acceptable, subject to instructor approval beforehand. Students should bring the photographic equipment and software with which they will be working, including tripod, flash, and digital SLR camera with lenses. Open source software will be provided for students to use in class exercises as needed.


Course pre-requisite: Basic Digital Photography for Law Enforcement, or individual instructor approval of a student’s digital photography knowledge and appropriate subject related experience.