Forensic Photography: A Practitioner's Guide

9 Specialist Equipment and Techniques

In the previous chapters, we have used a standard DSLR for the capture of our images. However, there are a number of applications and techniques in which the standard DSLR cannot be used and more bespoke equipment is required.

In this chapter I would like to look at the practical use of:

• Peripheral cameras.
• Object modelling
• Multi-spectral imaging camera
• High speed photography
• UVC photography.

9.1 Peripheral cameras

The photography of latent fingermarks on the curved surfaces of exhibits such tins and cups often offers an interesting photographic challenge. In the chapter on finger mark photography we looked at a number of options available to capture marks on these types of surfaces, such as multiple exposures or painting with light. Although these techniques work well on some surfaces, they have a number of drawbacks, especially when applied to a truly cylindrical surface. This is usually because the mark cannot be clearly seen in one exposure due to the diameter of the object, or because the mark cannot be acceptably captured in ‘focus’, using the effect of depth of field alone.

Peripheral photography allows the outer surface of a cylinder, such as a tin or cup, to be ‘photographically’ rolled flat. Indeed this technique was originally referred to as rollout photography, because of the final prints' appearance, or turntable photography, due to the fact that the object must be placed on a rotating turntable to allow its capture.