I have commented on the methodology of crime scene photography elsewhere in this blog, however I feel it will be useful to revisit this aspect for reasons that will become clear. The reason for photographing crime scene and evidence is sothat members of a Jury can see the scene without having to visit it - which may not be possible as scenes are cleaned up. It can also show where evidence was found and what state it was in when found. To that end scenes and evidence must be portrayed as accurately as possible without enhancement or manipulation of the image. Having said that qualities such as brightness or contrast may be altered if it enables a clearer view of the scene/item. On no account however must anything be added or taken away from the original image.
Crime Scene Investigators can very often find themselves working in harsh and hazrdous environments such as building sites, fields, lofts etc. Sometimes this can involve having to carry fingerprinting kit, photography kit quite a distance from the vehicle. To this end the equipment carried cannot be too extensive for practical reasons. This is the main reason why crime scene photographs, very often, are lit only from one side which casts shadows on the other. This is a characteristic of crime scene photographs due to the limited equipment used. Naturally small apertures are always used for maximum depth of field, resulting in long exposures necessitating the use of a tripod. Off camera flash units are always used, held off to one side, hence the shadows on the other. These days a scale (ruler) is always included in the image alongside the evidence so that, if need be, it can be enlarged to actual size. A label is also always included giving basic details such as address, date etc. In Weegee's day the images are purely a result of the equipment available rather than any practical reason. Also, that was before any actual protocols were laid down relating to crime scene photography.
Project Methodology
It would be very easy to duplicate Weegee's harsh, one sided, black and white lighting in my images. In fact initially this is exactly the approach I took, as they do give the 'feel' , 'atmosphere' of a crime scene. However I was also aware that this is work that will be assessed, and so as well as keeping 'in line' with a traditional approach, I also needed to ensure that the images were of high a standard as possible. So, initially I used the same equipment that a CSI would use, DLSR camera, one off-camera flash unit held to the side. I decided I could do better and where circumstances allowed used two extra flash heads on tripods - Canon Speedlight 580ex's, wirelessly triggered by my camera. This gave much more even lighting while still mantaining the originality of a crime image. I have maintained the use of black and white images though, as I believe colour would detract too much from the atmosphere of a crime scene expected of the public. I also did not include rulers or labels. The reason for this is that viewers are not meant to readily relate the images with crime until they read the plate captions at the rear of the book.
The images below show the initial results with one off-camera flash unit compared to the results I got when using the two remote Speedlights I borrowed from Darren.
The images taken using the speedlights are much better exposed and give more even lighting. This took some time to set up and perfect - a luxury that CSI's do not have.
No comments:
Post a Comment