Crime Scene Photography- Basics

Every photography tells a story. We are all familiar with photography and save our memories with it. Even when it comes to a crime scene , photography provides an aid in documenting the whole crime scene. The word ‘photography’ has originated from a Greek work ‘photos’ which means light and ‘graphos’ means to write. So, basically photography is an art & science of creating images by recording light, on a light sensitive material such as photographic film, or electronically by means of an image sensor.

Photography on a crime scene

When an investigating officer visits a crime scene, it his his/her duty to record or document all the present conditions of a crime scene. We can record the whole crime scene by the methods of documentation which includes – note making, sketching, photography & videography. Note-making means recording each finest detail by writing it down in the form of notes like the date & time of murder, or weather conditions, and all other details in a writing format whereas photography allows to store every detail of a crime scene in the form of photographs or digital images. Sketching of the crime scene gives an idea about the dimensions of the place, the position of evidences in relative to each other in the form of a sketch. Videography just like photography gives a 360 degree view of the whole crime scene recorded on a video camera.

An important element while performing crime scene photography is the usage of a scale. This scale is known as ‘ABFO’ scale which stands for American Board of Forensic Odontology. It is always ensured that the whole photography of the crime scene is done by putting this scale with the evidences. It is an L-shaped scale. The use of this scale gives an idea about the dimensions of the evidences. It gives a fair idea about the length, breadth and height of the evidences because a photograph can be done from any angle but the scale shows the correct dimensions of the evidence.

The crime scene photography is done in three ways mainly-

1. Overall photography – it gives an overall look on the crime scene highlighting the location, its surroundings. It takes the whole scene as together.
2. Mid-range photography – it focusses on taking the photographs of the evidences and taking the spatial arrangement between them in record.
3. Close -up photography – as the name suggest close ups are taken to enhance the specific detail of evidences like the wounds on a body.

Purpose of Crime scene Photography

• It is to document the crime scene so that one can get a complete view of the place, to see the position of evidences relative to each other. One might lose a fine detail on the crime scene but having a photograph helps us to not to neglect those details.

• The images present can enhance the details of the evidences which might not be visible through a naked eye.

• The images captured can be presented to the judge or jury during a trial to get a look of the whole crime scene.

• It helps us to record the initial appearance of the crime scene, the exact location of the evidences on a crime scene.

• It remains as a permanent record of the crime scene.

• To record the point of entry and exit.