Category: Product Liability Photography

You can make photographs—without using flash—regardless of the light that’s available. But not using flash has three major limitations:

-1- You can’t change the relative brightness between elements in the image. Any change in exposure will raise or lower the brightness of all elements equally. Flash lets you emphasize any element in relation to any other.
-2- You won’t always be able to properly expose for every important part of the photo. If you properly expose to show details in the shadows, brighter areas can be blown out with no details. If you expose for highlight details, shadows can be blocked up with no detail and with digital noise. Flash lets you add light in the shadows to balance the image.
-3- You can’t handhold the camera with long shutter speeds. The less ambient light there is, the more exposure you need. Exposures requiring longer shutter speeds require a tripod, or the photos will end up blurry. Flash can add enough light so you can get a shutter speed you can handhold.

Except for accident sites, I use flash for almost every shot I make. I always use flash with tires and wheels, and with almost every vehicle or vehicle component—indoors or out. The only exceptions are for certain reflections, for close-ups of certain marks, and occasionally for light bulbs.

In my previous post, I described how to photograph a small wear gauge in place on a rim flange. All those photos were made in using flashes in my studio lab. Since I do many of my tire and wheel inspections there, I installed a bunch of bright LED shop lights overhead. They make the area really bright to the eye, but it’s still dark enough to require flash for most images. Here is a photo of the rim wear gauge setup using only the ambient LED shop lights. (Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return.)

Now, from the previous post, here’s the setup shot using flash.

While the differences in these photos are relatively subtle, there is more detail the photo with flash. You can see more detail in the lug bolt holes and more depth to the wheel itself in the image with flash. (Differences are harder to see in these compressed images on the web.) But more importantly for most circumstances, the shutter speed without flash was six stops less than with flash. (The total exposure was 5 2/3 stops different because the aperture was opened 1/3 stop in the flash image.) While both images were made using a studio stand (like a rolling tripod), the image without flash with its 1.0 second shutter speed certainly could not have been handheld. Higher shutter speeds also helps freeze the frame if there is any motion from loose parts or from wind.

When using flash, you can control how bright or dark the background by controlling your ambient exposure. A lot of people are afraid of flash, but it’s just another source of light. And it’s light you control.

As an example, while you’d never choose this busy background, let’s assume you need to shoot a light bulb indoors with a window in the background. Start with an ambient light shot like this. (Click on image to enlarge, then click on back arrow to return.)

To bring out detail in the bulb, add a flash at 1/8 power in manual mode off camera to the right. Note this is the same exposure as the first image. The only change is the added fill flash.

To darken the background, keep the flash setting (1/8 power), the ISO (64), and the aperture (f/14) constant. Then reduce the shutter speed to reduce ambient light. Here, the shutter speed was reduced from 2.0 seconds to 1/250 second.

Again, while you’d never choose such a background as this, this example shows that you can control the brightness of any background simply by using flash and changing shutter speed.

How many times have you looked at a series of photographs but have been unable to find a single one that is clear enough to provide the evidence you need to address a specific issue? 

Unfortunately, regardless of the source, many of the photographs you encounter during the investigation of an accident or a product failure are likely mediocre at best, and completely useless at worst. Taking care to make decent photographs applies equally to consulting experts, police agencies, insurance adjusters, and law firm investigators. You don’t have to become a professional photographer (although many of you are getting paid for making photos during your work!), but there are fairly simple things you can do to make your photographs more useful.

At more than one inspection, the subject of making photographs has come up. Quite a few times I’ve heard, “Well, my photos aren’t great, but they’ll be good enough.” Do you treat your measurements, analysis, or reports the same way: “They’re not exactly right, but close enough”?

Some of the all-to-common problems are: blur from camera shake; poor focusing; inappropriate lens focal lengths; bad composition; bad camera menu settings; bad lighting; and incorrect exposure. Close-up photographs are often essential, but have their own additional potential issues.

Fortunately, almost every one of these photo faults is easy to correct with a little care and a little knowledge. Even used on automatic, most cameras and flashes today are incredibly accurate for 95% of the photographic situations you’re likely to face–if you are careful handling your camera. But even the most advanced technology can’t overcome carelessness.

Rather than making this into one giant post, I will be posting a number of separate articles addressing the problems I’ve mentioned above, plus some other photographic issues. In the meantime, remember it’s worth taking the time to make the best photos you can. After all, if you’re not going to try to take good, usable photographs, why bother taking them at all?