ABSTRACT
Although the quality and amount of training varies between departments and agencies, new investigators are thrust into a world rife with low-light photography opportunities mainly because they start their careers on the least desirable shifts-evenings and nights. Low-light conditions should be viewed as opportunities, not as impossible or frustrating. Low-light conditions provide investigators with the chance to choose from a variety of light sources, techniques, and methods to inventively illuminate subjects in a way that creates the most impressive and artistic images not always available to photographers working daytime crime scenes. One of the most harmful pieces of equipment given to new investigators is a “super-duper” powerful flash, especially when they are told that it can illuminate anything and everything. Electronic flashes are superior pieces of equipment, but they can be extremely detrimental to low-light photography and the processing of nighttime crime scenes. As long as there is any amount of ambient light, images can be accurately and reliably captured with and without the addition of electronic flash. To record a true and accurate low-light photographic image, the photographer merely needs to take the time to analyze the subject and determine if the addition of electronic flash is necessary. Flash photography is certainly an advantageous tool for investigators, as long as its limitations are understood.
