There is still time to register for one or more of the forensic photography short courses being offered next week. Each will be from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon EST. They are:
Monday, January 20: Using Flash in Forensic Photographyby Tom Vadnais.
Tuesday, January 21: Close-Up and Macro Evidence Photography by Jerry Narowski.
Wednesday, January 22: Precision Lighting for Evidence Photography by Gale Spring.
Thursday, January 23: Photoshop Enhancement Techniques by George Reis.
Each four-hour course is only US$75, and each qualifies for continuing education credits after a short test and assignments are completed. Best of all, you’ll immediately be able to apply what you learn in each class in your daily work.
Here is a link for the descriptions and registrations for the four short courses—one per day next Monday through Thursday: https://www.ai2-3d.com/fps-courses
The Symposium will be held each of those days after the short courses. For the schedule and to register for the Symposium itself, please follow this link: https://www.ai2-3d.com/fps2025-schedule
You’ll need to register separately for each short course and for the Symposium itself. Since they’re all virtual, you don’t even have to travel!
As I mentioned in a previous post, for the first time, FPS will offer a different short course each morning before the symposium presentations begin. Each short course is a separate event; you don’t even need to register for the Symposium itself (although I recommend that you do!). If you want to attend any short courses, you’ll need to register for each of them individually. You’ll still need to register separately for the Symposium.
Each short course and the Symposium itself are eligible for continuing education and ACTAR credits. To get those credits for each short course, you will need to complete a short quiz and submit a couple of simple assignments to demonstrate completion. These will be due within a couple of weeks after the courses. Videos of the entire short courses will be available on the FPS website to review during the quiz and assignments as needed.
I have been honored to be asked to instruct the first short course on January 20, 2025, from 8:00a to 12:00 noon EST. My topic will be Using Flash in Forensic Photography.
This workshop is designed to show how critical and straightforward it can be to incorporate flash (including off-camera and multiple flashes) in your daily photographic work. You’ll see—and experience—that flash isn’t incomprehensible or even difficult. You’re just adding light where you need it!
Hope to see you then. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. My contact info is here: https://vadnaisengineering.com/home/
Eugene Liscio, the founder and mastermind of the virtual International Forensic Photography Symposium (FPS), has asked me to teach one of the inaugural Short Courses at FPS 2025 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon EST on January 20, 2025. It’s only US$75!!
I’ve been honored to have presented at all three previous FPS events. I have also attended every session of every symposium—even those about areas I will never have to deal with. I always learn something new, and have benefitted from seeing how others address issues they’ve encountered, regardless of their forensic photography genre.
My short course will be Using Flash in Forensic Photography. As I’ve discovered during my 43 years of consulting and forensic photography—and especially since 2018 when I started teaching my three-day automotive forensic photography class for SAE International—that many people fear using flash. That fear is not unfounded. You can’t see how or where your flash will add light to your subject until after the image has been made. But actually, as this short course will demonstrate, flash—even with multiple flashes—is straightforward, and even easy!
Nikon D850 with ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro lens and Nikon R1C1 macro flashes made with Nikon Z 7II with Nikon Z 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens and two Profoto B1x studio flashes. f/14, 1/200 sec, ISO 200.Nikon D850 with ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro lens and Nikon R1C1 macro flashes. f/16, 1/200 sec, ISO 64.
One or more flashes simply add light where it’s needed. We’ll see when and how to use ambient light, fill flash (ambient with localized flash), and full flash (where the image would otherwise just be solid black). We’ll also discuss using flash on sunny days outdoors to highlight details and fill in shadows.
We’ll learn when and how to use TTL (Through The Lens) versus Manual flash. There will be demonstrations of bringing out textures, when and how to use different types of flashes, and how and when to use reflectors or other modifiers.
Since capturing accurate colors can be critical in forensic images, we’ll see how to set the proper white balance when using flash. We’ll also see the effects that the color of the background—along with the effects of the color of any surface a flash is bounced off of—can have.
To get credit for the course, you’ll have to take a short quiz (all answers will be covered during the workshop) and complete quick, easy hands-on assignments to show you can use flashes as described. All assignments will be specifically demonstrated during the workshop, so this will be easy, too. These assignments should be as much fun as they are useful. My goal is not just to get you to incorporate flash in your daily shooting, but to actually enjoy using it.
If you have any questions about the short course, please contact me through one of the methods on this page of this website: https://vadnaisengineering.com/home/.
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 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.
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 thispost):
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 thispost):
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.
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.
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 freeonline 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.
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).
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.
This tire was photographed in the afternoon on a sunny day. [Click on the image to enlarge. Then click on back arrow to return to this post.]
Mounted tire on wheel outdoors with no flash. (Made with Nikon Z 8 and ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro on Nikon FTZ II adapter at f/16, 1/10 sec, ISO 64.)
Despite being properly exposed, there are almost no details in the shadows of the tire sidewall or the wheel. Brightening the exposure would have shifted the brightest parts of both the wheel and tire into blown out highlights and all detail there would have been permanently lost. While not essential to the tire or wheel, the brighter spots on the concrete driveway would also have blown out. This would result in a less professional looking image.
Fortunately, the overall exposure itself can remain, and flashes can be used to bring out details in the shadows. [Click on the image to enlarge. Then click on back arrow to return to this post.]
Mounted tire on wheel outdoors with both on-camera flash and second flash at lower right. (Made with Nikon Z 8 and ZEISS Milvus 50 mm macro on Nikon FTZ II adapter. Godox TT685N II in camera hot shoe and Godox AD200 Pro at lower right at f/16, 1/10 sec, ISO 64.)
While keeping the identical exposure, a Godox TT685N II speedlight was slid into the camera’s hot shoe and aimed towards the shadows inside the wheel and on the left side of the tire sidewall. A second Godox flash—an AD200 Pro—was handheld at the lower right, and angled upwards toward the right side where the tread used to be.
These two flashes balanced the natural light and added much-needed detail in the shadows. The result was both a professional appearing image and one where details were not blocked up in dark shadows or blown out in the highlights.
Of course, like almost every photograph I make, both of these images were made with the camera on a tripod. I used a five-second self-timer so I could move over and get the handheld flash at the lower right into position.
Takeaways:
-1- On bright sunny days, there is often too much contrast to capture detail in both the highlights and the shadows.
-2- Increasing the exposure will lighten the shadows, but will cause the highlights to blow out and permanently lose all data and detail there.
-3- Adding one or more flashes to fill in shadows where needed results in more detail in the shadows without losing detail in the highlights.
-4- You may have to make a couple different images with the flashes to get the proper amount of light and the proper angle of light for what you want. When I make more than one image, I only keep the one that shows the details I intended. If you feel you must keep all the images you make, no problem. Only use the best one in reports or as an exhibit.
-5- More good news! The more often you practice with one or more flashes, the more quickly and intuitively you will be able to get both the amount and direction of light that you want.
There is still time to register for one or more of the forensic photography short courses being offered next week. Each will be from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon EST. They are:
