ABSTRACT
Photographing natural science subjects creates challenges and responsibilities different than the approaches used to make photographs for art or in advertising. The advertising photographer’s role is to make “things” look better than they do. Embellishment and amplification are understood to be part of the process. Viewers expect that significant retouching has been done to advertising photographs. The process of making photographs for science requires the use of appropriate tools. Because of the continual release of new products, with ever-increasing capabilities, there will always be the challenge of staying current and having work evolve with the tools and software. Objects should be handled with great care when they are to be photographed. While many subjects are robust and hardy, many are delicate and easily damaged. In the forensic sciences, there is a theory about material transfer. In this theory, it is suggested that when two objects come into contact with one another, content from both is transferred to each subject.
