SAE Class on Automotive Forensic Photography, 09/17-19/24, Anaheim, CA

What’s the one thing you do on EVERY scene, vehicle, or vehicle component inspection? Photography, of course. If your photographs are accurate and of good quality, they will be important pieces of evidence in depositions or trials. After all, you can’t cut out a giant section of the highway with all the tire marks and gouges to bring into court. Nor can you bring a couple of wrecked tractor trailers up the elevator to the courtroom. But if your photos are good, you can have them entered into evidence in place of the physical evidence, and make them even more useful to the trier of facts (judge or jury) than the actual physical evidence itself would have been.

Tire marks without polarizer: (Click on image to enlarge, then click on arrow to return to this post):

Tire marks without polarizer. (Nikon 24-70 mm lens on Nikon D3s.)

Tire marks with polarizer: (Click on image to enlarge, then click on arrow to return to this post):

Tire marks with polarizer. (Nikon 24-70 mm lens on Nikon D3s.)

By good, I mean your photographs need to be consistently accurate, well focused, have good depth of field, and be well exposed and well lit with good shadow detail. And we don’t get to choose or change the lighting and weather conditions we face during our inspections. We have to adapt and still create quality, useful images.

Through SAE International, I’ll be teaching another three-day class called Photography for Accident Reconstruction, Product Liability, and Testing (SAE C1729). This class qualifies for SAE’s Accident Reconstruction Certification and for ACTAR credits.

We’ll get hands-on practice with the three most important tools (besides your camera and lens): a tripod, a polarizing filter, and one or more flashes. Flash is typically the tool most folks are afraid of, but you’ll learn the difference between full and fill flash, and how straight forward flash really is. We’ll even practice with two flashes, which let you capture details you can’t otherwise get.

You’ll receive a ton of information, and be able to apply what you’ve learned and practiced during your very next inspection and onward for the rest of your career.

If you’d like (need?) to make better automotive forensic photographs, please join me September 17 through 19, 2024, at the Anaheim Hills Business Center in Anaheim, CO. For more information or to register, please click here: https://www.sae.org/learn/content/c1729/.

SAE C1729 Automotive Forensic Photography Class – Anaheim, CA – 09/17-19/24

SAE International has scheduled my next Photography for Accident Reconstruction, Product Liability, and Testing class (SAE C1729) for September 17-19, 2024 at Anaheim Hills Business Center, 5140 La Palma Avenue, Anaheim, California 92807.

Here’s a link with more details and for registration: https://www.sae.org/learn/content/c1729/.

We’ll include such topics as: how to consistently expose image; what gear really works; using flash, polarizers, and a tripod—the three most important tools; the importance of proper perspective; and night photography.

We’ll see many before-and after images demonstrating what to do and what not to do. We’ll also spend time practicing with tripods, polarizers, and single and multiple flashes, so you’ll be comfortable applying them right away.

Here are some examples of what we’ll discuss:

•Using manual exposure and creating accurate night photos. (Click on image to enlarge, then click on arrow to return to this post):

Manual exposure mode with ISO set at 100. Made with Nikon Z 5 with Nikkor Z 24-70 mm f/4 lens at 49 mm in raw mode. f/4, 1/3 sec, ISO 100.

• Using a tripod, using follow focus, and setting proper exposure to capture moving vehicles during inspections or testing (Click on image to enlarge, then click on arrow to return to this post):

Photo made by panning with vehicle moving at 55 mph during tire testing. (Made with Nikon 300 mm f/2.8 lens on Nikon D800E at f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO 400.)

• Using a tripod (for composition, leveling, and stability), a polarizer (to control glare), and a fill flash (to bring out details in the shadows) like in these before and after images (Click on image to enlarge, then click on arrow to return to this post):

Front end damage with no flash used. (ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro lens on Nikon D850. Exposure: f/11, 1/160 sec, ISO 100.)
Front end damage with fill flash used. (ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro lens on Nikon D850 with Nikon SB-910 flash. Exposure: f/11, 1/60 sec, ISO 100.)

Please call or e-mail me if you have any questions or would like more details.

I hope to see you there!

Why Tires Need to Be Demounted for Analysis – Part One

While a tire expert can glean a bit of information from examining a tire that is still mounted on its rim, a tire analysis is rarely considered complete without a thorough inspection of its beads and its interior. Of course to do this, the tire has to be demounted from its rim.

It is common practice for the first tire expert who receives an assembled tire and wheel to photograph both sides of it. Next, that expert will mark the valve stem position on the outside sidewall with a tire crayon or silver ink pen (unless both beads are unseated and the tire freely rotates around its rim). Finally, the expert will have the tire demounted from its rim by an experienced tire tech.  Most of the time, there is no need for other tire experts to be present during the tire demounting.

While this example is not from a case, this happened to me, and illustrates why it would have been essential to demount the tire to figure out why it failed.

I was driving my old Ford F-150 pickup to retrieve a truck tire and wheel for analysis when I heard a popping then a flopping noise from the rear. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I pulled over and saw the right rear tire had gone flat. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Made with iPhone 11 Pro Max at f/1.8, 1/120 sec, ISO 32.

I saw this fairly long radial split or cut, but couldn’t tell what had caused it. Being a tire engineer, I regularly inspect my tires while keeping them properly inflated, but I hadn’t noticed any pending issue.

At the tire store, they demounted the tire and called me over to see. Somehow, this blade from a pair of shears cleanly penetrated the sidewall, carcass, and innerliner, and ended up inside the tire. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Made with iPhone 11 Pro Max at f/1.8, 1/105 sec, ISO 125.

I would never have guessed that this long blade could have so cleanly and completely passed through the sidewall of a tire rotating at 45 mph. And without removing the tire from its rim, I would never have known what caused that radial cut.

Fortunately, in this case I knew the prior condition of the tire and about how suddenly the failure occurred.

In actual cases, it’s extremely rare to have such clean cut evidence (pun intended).  In Part Two, I will show several examples of tire conditions that could only have been determined after the tire was demounted.

Takeaways:

-1- While a tire expert can gather information about a failed tire while it is still mounted, a thorough analysis cannot be completed until the tire is demounted from its rim.

-2- Demounting a tire from its rim is essential so the tire beads, the inside of the tire, and the condition of the wheel can all be analyzed. This includes examining for cracks, punctures, mounting/demounting damages, and repairs.

-3- On rare occasions like the one described, the actual cause of the failure is immediately obvious when the tire is demounted.

-4- It is common practice for the first tire expert to receive the tire and wheel assembly to photograph it as mounted, mark the valve position on the outside sidewall (if the beads are still seated), and have the tire professionally demounted. Typically, other tire experts do not need to be present for the demounting.

How Aperture Controls Sun Stars—and Exposure and DOF

(Note: This post incorporates several important fundamentals along with the discussion of controlling sun stars. As always, it’s all summarized in the Takeaways at the end.)

A previous post illustrated how the number of aperture blades affected the number of rays produced in a sun star. As discussed, sun stars are created from bright spots of light in an image when the lens aperture is stopped down. While prominent sun stars might be desirable for landscape or creative photographs, they are usually unwanted in forensic photos. In fact, there have been instances where photographs with distinctive sun stars have been limited or disallowed. Here’s how to control—or even eliminate—their prominence.

There were three small, distinct bright light sources in the following night scene. A series of images was made at every whole aperture from f/16 through f/2. (As a reminder, there are six stops up from f/16: f/11, f/8, f/5.6, f/4, f/2.8, f/2.) Only four of the seven total images—each two stops apart—will be shown below. The other three intermittent images fit in the progression as you’d expect from what you’ll see below.

This first image was made with the aperture stopped down to f/16. As expected, the sun star rays were most distinct at this aperture. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Sun Stars at f/16 made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens at f/16, 2.5 sec, ISO 64.

Opening up two stops to f/8 noticeably reduced the sun star effect. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Sun Stars at f/8 made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens at f/8, 0.6 sec, ISO 64.

Opening up two more stops to f/4 almost completely eliminated the sun star effect. This should be acceptable for any foreseeable use. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Sun Stars at f/4 made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens at f/4, 1/6 sec, ISO 64.

Finally, opening up yet two more stops to f/2 eliminated any trace of sun star rays. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Sun Stars at f/2 made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens at f/2, 1/25 sec, ISO 64.

As you can see, the wider open the aperture (which means the lower the f-number), the less pronounced are the sun stars. But you can’t just adjust your aperture to either intensify or to eliminate sun stars. Whether it is daytime or nighttime photography, changing your aperture affects your image in two main ways: exposure and depth of field (DOF). 

Recall that the smaller the f-number, the larger the lens opening. Just like 1/2 of a pie is twice as large as a 1/4 of a pie, a lens aperture of f/2 is twice the diameter of f/4. Here’s how changing aperture changes exposure and DOF:

Exposure: Opening the lens aperture lets in more light, which brightens the exposure. To keep the overall exposure the same, you must compensate by the same number of stops by using a faster shutter speed, lowering your ISO, or using a combination of both. Since all the above images were already at my Nikon Z 8’s lowest ISO of 64, my only option was to select a correspondingly faster shutter speed every time I opened up the aperture.

This means that for this series of four images, every time I opened up the lens aperture by two stops, I had to use a shutter speed that was two stops faster. As you can see from the captions under the images, at a constant ISO 64, the f/16 image required a 2.5 second exposure. Opening the aperture two stops to f/8 required a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds, which is two stops faster. Likewise, f/4 required 1/6 second and f/2 needed 1/25 second to keep the same overall exposure. Each were two stop increments of aperture and shutter speed.

As a side note, since the camera remained on a tripod throughout all the photographs, the shutter speed had no effect on the sharpness of the images. But changing shutter speeds will definitely affect the appearance of any moving elements in the image frame.

Depth of Field (DOF): DOF is how much of the scene—from near to far—is in acceptable focus for a given focus point. DOF is controlled by aperture. The more open the aperture, the less DOF. Conversely, stopping down the lens aperture increases DOF.

A deeper DOF is more critical in daytime photographs where almost everything is visible and, in most forensic photography, should be acceptably sharp. At night, a more shallow DOF can be perfectly acceptable, especially if the background and foreground are mostly black, as in the photos above.

As you can see on the enlargements by clicking on the photos above, f/4 would likely produce acceptable DOF. Depending on your case, even f/2 (or an aperture between f/2 and f/4) might give you all the DOF you need. As the photographer, you need to (and you get to!) decide on the tradeoff between DOF and sun star prominence.

Takeaways:

-1- You can control the prominence of sun stars from small, bright light sources (day or night)  by your choice of aperture. The more stopped down your aperture, the longer and more prominent the rays. Opening up the aperture will shrink the rays until they essentially disappear at the most open apertures.

-2- Opening up or stopping down your aperture will also affect the DOF in your image. You must decide how much DOF you will need. That amount would likely be different for daylight versus night photos—even of the exact same scene.

-3- Just like with any other photography, opening up or stopping down the aperture will require that you correspondingly adjust your shutter speed, ISO, or a combination of both, to maintain the same overall exposure. Make sure your shutter speed is sufficient for your image, especially if there are moving objects in your frame. Also, setting your ISO as low as possible minimizes noise and maximizes dynamic range, both of which are even more important in night photography.

SAE C1729 Automotive Forensic Photography Class – May 2024 in Orlando!

It’s been a few years since my SAE automotive forensic photography class has been offered in the Southeast—or even in the East, for that matter! Now it will be offered May 14-16, 2024 in Orlando, FL.

Anyone working in accident reconstruction, product liability cases, vehicle testing, or other forensic, evaluation, or testing investigations knows the importance of creating consistent, quality, and useful photographs. You’ll be glad to know that you can (probably) do that with the camera you already have! Just think of how much money you’ve already saved! You just need to understand and use that camera and just a few essentials such as a tripod, flash(es), and a polarizer.

In the classroom, we will learn the fundamentals of making good, consistent photographs with lots and lots of good and bad examples. We will do hands-on sessions—both indoors and out—with tripods, polarizers, night scenes, and the big one—using one or more flashes. While it will be most useful to bring your own camera gear—including flash(es) and tripod—I will bring various tripods, tripod heads, flashes, polarizers, and neutral density (ND) filters for you to evaluate during the hands-on sessions. Those will help you determine if your gear is what will serve you best, or if you need to upgrade a piece or two.

Here’s a link to the class description and registration: https://www.sae.org/learn/content/c1729/

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like more information about what to expect from the class.

Hope to see you in Orlando!

Sun Stars with Even or Odd Number Aperture Blades

Many lenses have an odd number of aperture blades, but several have an even number. For most photography, there is little to no noticeable effect.

There is, however, a noticeable difference if you have a “sun star” in your image. A “sun star” is the name given to noticeable rays—day or night—emanating from the sun or from an artificial light source.  A sun star is created when the lens is stopped down. The more the lens is stopped down, the larger the rays of the sun star.

An even number of aperture blades results in the same number of sun star rays. As the image below shows, a lens with ten blades (the TTArtisan 50 mm f/2 lens), stopped down to f/16, resulted in ten pronounced rays from a street light at night. [Click on image to enlarge, then click back arrow to return to this post.]

Made with Nikon Z 8 with TTArtisan 50 mm lens at f/16, 3.0 sec, ISO 64.

An odd number of blades results in twice the number of rays. Using the same camera as above, but switching to a lens with nine aperture blades (the Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens), also stopped down to f/16, resulted in eighteen sun star rays. [Click on image to enlarge, then click back arrow to return to this post.]

Made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.2 S lens at f/16, 2.5 sec, ISO 64.

Takeaways:

-1- Day or night, “sun stars” are often created from small, bright light sources in a photograph when lenses are stopped down.

-2- An even number of lens aperture blades creates the same number of sun star rays. An odd number of blades results in double the number of rays.

-3- An even number of blades creates more pronounced rays than does an odd number of blades.

-4- Sun stars are usually undesirable in forensic photographs. A future post will describe how to control the prominence of those rays. But if you must stop down for depth of field, an odd number of lens aperture blades will create more rays, but they will be less obtrusive.

SAE International’s Accident Recon Digital Summit 2024

On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, I will be presenting One Flash is Great; Two (or More) Can Be Better! at the third annual SAE International’s Accident Reconstruction Digital Summit 2024.

One flash will both balance the exposure and bring out details that would otherwise be hidden in shadows. A second (or third or…..) flash is sometimes essential to show textures or to reveal information hidden in remaining shadows. While some people fear using even one flash, you’ll see that it’s actually quite easy to use one or more flashes to add light where it’s needed, making your images even more useful. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Tire and wheel inside semi-trailer. (Made using Nikon D850 with ZEISS Milvus 35 mm lens and on-camera Nikon SB-910 that also fired two Profoto B10s.)

The Summit is a free online event over two days. My presentation will be first out on Day One at 11:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, February 6.

Both days will feature presentations on a variety of current topics that accident reconstructionists are facing now, and that will be even more prevalent in the future.

Registration is free at this link:  https://www.sae.org/attend/accident-reconstruction-digital-summit

Hope to see you there.

2024 Forensic Photography Symposium (FPS)

FPS 2024 Banner

From January 22 through 25, 2024, Eugene Liscio of ai2-3d Forensics (https://www.ai2-3d.com/) is hosting the third annual virtual International Forensic Photography Symposium (FPS 2024). It features an incredible variety of relevant, useful forensic photography topics from a diverse group experts in their fields.

In addition to the presentations, new this year will be several workshops in the morning sessions. Eugene asked me to conduct the first workshop on Photoshop techniques for forensic photography on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, from 10:00a to 12:00p (EST).

My workshop will include demonstrations of chromatic aberration correction, focus stacking, creating panoramas, and median stacking. We will also see how to bring out elements of the subject that are faint or may have faded over time.

We will then learn techniques for extracting additional details from your own or from supplied images from other sources. To wrap up, we will both apply these techniques to modifying images for exhibits, publications, or teaching, and see examples of improper manipulations.

Importantly, throughout the workshop, we’ll make sure that every step in every image will be preserved, can be reversed, and can be replicated by anyone else, without a single permanent, irrevocable adjustment being made.

All FPS presentations and workshops will be recorded and available to all registrants after the symposium. I’ve found this quite useful to review new, detailed, or complex ideas from presentations. This will be especially important for my workshop since we’ll be using a lot of techniques but won’t have the time to describe each one in great detail. With the videos, you’ll be able to try the techniques on your own images later.

All four days of presentations and workshops—along with the post-symposium videos—are offered for the incredibly low price of US$150 (US$75 for full time students).

Here is a link to the schedule and registration: https://www.ai2-3d.com/schedule-fps2024.

 

Focus Stacking Close-up Images

The closer you get to your subject, the less depth of field (DOF) you have. As you can imagine, when you photograph close-up or macro or micro subjects, you get progressively even less DOF.

In close-up—or closer—shots, even stopping down to your smallest aperture won’t give you enough DOF to make much of a difference. Besides, if you fully stop down your aperture, any small gain in DOF will likely be negated by diffraction, which softens the entire image.

Focus stacking blends multiple images with increasingly further focus points into a single image. This allows you to create an image with the specific DOF you want for your subject . You might not need everything in the foreground or background sharp, but you control what is or isn’t in focus by how many images (called slices) you use.

For this example, I wanted the entire broken lug stud in focus, but wasn’t concerned about the hub surrounding it. As shown below, even stopping down to f/16 didn’t give sufficient DOF to show the entire fracture surface. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Single image at f/16 made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikon Z 50 mm MC macro lens. One Profoto B1x studio strobe on either side with Godox T365N II flash mid-left. f/16, 1/200 sec, ISO 64.

Notice how the focus quickly falls off toward the farther end of the broken lug stud fracture surface. Both the foreground and background of the hub are out of focus, but that’s okay since they’re not the subject of the photograph.

To get the entire lug stud to be in focus, I made nine separate photographs of the fracture surface with each one focused slightly further from the camera. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Each individual image from closest focus upper left to farthest focus lower right, each made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikon Z 50 mm MC macro lens. One Profoto B1x studio strobe on either side with Godox T365N II flash mid-left. Each component image f/16, 1/200 sec, ISO 64.

In Photoshop, I brought all of the raw frames (slices) into a single image as separate layers. I aligned the layers, then stacked them using Auto-Blend Layers. As shown below, using layer masks, this function blocked the out of focus areas on each slice. Only the sharpest parts of each layer, or slice, remained. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Screenshot of Photoshop layers with their focus stacking masks.

I cropped the image back to its original size and saved it with all its layers as a PSB Photoshop Big) file. With ten 45 megapixel layers, the file was over 2 GB, which is larger than can be saved as a PSD (Photoshop Document) file. I then flattened the image, resized it, output sharpened it, and saved it as JPEG. Note: I still always keep the PSB file with the layers and layer masks to be able to show what I did, if asked.

Below is the result of the focus stack blending of the nine layers shown above. [Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Focus stacked in Photoshop from nine images, each made with Nikon Z 8 with Nikon Z 50 mm MC macro lens. One Profoto B1x studio strobe on either side with Godox T365N II flash mid-left. Each component image f/16, 1/200 sec, ISO 64.

Note how the entire face of the fracture surface is now in focus. Note: I used to also use Zerene Stacker and Helicon Focus for focus stacking—and both are excellent—but now I almost exclusively use Photoshop.

Takeaways:

-1- The closer your camera is to your subject, the less depth of field (DOF) you will have.

-2- Most forensic images require the entire subject to be in focus to show all its details.

-3- Even stopping your lens down to its minimum aperture won’t give you sufficient DOF, plus you risk losing detail from diffraction.

-4- Focus stacking requires a series of photographs (slices) be made with the focus increasingly distant from the camera. These slices are blended into a single image where only the sharpest elements of each slice will be kept by the software.

-5- Only combining images through focus stacking allows you to get sufficient DOF for many close-up, macro, and micro images.

-6- The closer the subject, the more slices (individual images) you need. For some micro images, more than 1,000 slices need to be blended through focus stacking.

-7- Focus stacking can also be used for large subjects including landscapes, buildings, accident scenes, and vehicles. Those larger subjects require fewer slices—often only two or three.

Why Full Auto Exposure Mode Creates Inaccurate Night Photographs

One kind of forensic night photography requires you to accurately capture the appearance of a scene as closely as possible under lighting conditions similar to what they were at the time of an incident. Of course that results in an overall image that appears dark since, after all, it is a night scene.

Using fully automatic exposure modes will result in the scene being significantly (and obviously) overexposed. This is because the camera is trying to record the scene as a mid-tone (frequently referred to as “middle gray” even when the subject isn’t gray). This automatic brightening of night scenes usually results in noisy, overexposed images that don’t resemble the actual scene at all.

Almost all consumer and prosumer cameras have a fully automatic exposure mode denoted by a green camera icon with or without the word “Auto”. The image below shows the full Auto mode icon on a Nikon D5600 and Canon T7i. (Professional cameras like my Nikon Z 8’s often do not have this mode.) [Click on the image to enlarge. Then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Made with Nikon D850 and ZEISS Milvus 100 mm macro lens.

In Auto mode, the camera sets the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, and you cannot change or override any of them! Because the photographer cannot affect exposure in any way in full Auto mode, when teaching I refer to it as the “Green Mode of Shame” to drive home the point that you as the photographer are left without any ability to control your exposure (or a number of other important settings). While this mode might work for ideal lighting during the day, it just doesn’t—and can’t—work for ambient light night photographs. (Note: Semi-automatic exposure modes Program, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority will be addressed in a future post.)

I made the following two images in a lighted parking lot that had a white, a black, and a silver vehicle in the scene. (Note: both images were captured in the camera’s raw NEF format.)

For this first image, I used a Nikon Z 5 in Auto mode (its Green Mode of Shame). As discussed above, the camera tried to create a mid-tone image, and I couldn’t do anything about it. [Click on the image to enlarge. Then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Auto exposure mode with Auto ISO. Made with Nikon Z 5 with Nikkor Z 24-70 mm f/4 lens at 49 mm in raw mode. f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO 25,600.

Note the camera chose a wide open aperture to let in as much light as possible (f4 on that lens), and an ISO of 25,600(!), while setting the shutter speed to 1/50 of a second. (A shutter speed of 1/50 of a second is considered handholdable with a near 50 mm focal length. The thinking is that if someone is going to use a camera in Auto mode, the camera will most likely be handheld. Consequently, the camera will open the aperture and boost the ISO to keep the shutter speed handholdable. But as usual, I had this camera on a tripod, like I almost always do in any light. )

Even though the original image is quite noisy (the great reduction in size and the JPEG compression of this posted image reduced the appearance of noise from the original raw), that’s not the biggest issue with it. The real problem is the scene was nowhere near this bright; it didn’t look anything like this at the time I made this image.

For the image below, I switched to manual exposure mode (the only exposure mode I ever use). I kept the aperture at f/4, but then set the ISO to the camera’s minimum of 100 to minimize the image noise. Because the camera was on a tripod, I wasn’t too concerned about shutter speed as long as it stayed within reason. [Click on the image to enlarge. Then click on back arrow to return to this post.]

Manual exposure mode with ISO set at 100. Made with Nikon Z 5 with Nikkor Z 24-70 mm f/4 lens at 49 mm in raw mode. f/4, 1/3 sec, ISO 100.

With the aperture and ISO set, I adjusted the shutter speed until the image on the back of the LCD looked like what I was seeing with my naked eye. As it turns out, the Auto image was four stops lighter than this more accurate one.

Note 1: By default, I have the camera’s Picture Control set to Neutral with reduced contrast and saturation so the LCD closely matches my computer monitor.

Note 2: For an actual night photograph case, I start by tethering my camera to a laptop that is calibrated to match my desktop monitor. There’s much more to the actual process than I did for this demo, but it’s close enough to illustrate the point that you need to take manual control of the camera.

While this second image is close to showing the scene as I saw it, to view it properly, you would need to view it with a black surround in a darkened room with your monitor brightness set to 140 cd/m² to match what I see. Regardless of these technicalities, comparing the two images—in whatever light you’re in or computer you’re on—it is obvious that the upper Auto exposure image doesn’t look anything like the more accurate lower manual exposure mode image.

In a number of cases where I’ve done both the night photography and explained why photographs submitted by other experts or photographers were improper and misleading, all of those inaccurate photographs have been stricken and disallowed by the judge.

While it’s a little bit off-topic, being able to explain how and why photographs were made and why they accurately represent what they purport to show—and why other ones don’t—is critical in almost all ambient light night photography cases.

Takeaways:

-1- Fully automatic exposure modes (like Auto) are not designed to—and cannot—accurately capture ambient light night images.

-2- You need to shoot night photographs using manual exposure mode with a low ISO to minimize noise, with the appropriate aperture for the depth of field you need, and with the shutter speed set to match what the scene looks like to the naked eye. There’s much more to the whole process, but that’s the essence of it.

-3- While the lower photo looks much closer to what the parking lot looked like when I made the photographs, it was not made with the procedure I use for case work. It is close enough to make a quick demo comparison against a demonstrably incorrect Auto method that yielded a demonstrably incorrect image.