ABSTRACT
In archaeological photography, particularly small artefact photography, people should always choose the aperture before people choose the shutter speed, because it is the aperture which controls the depth of field. Controlling depth of field is an important way of concentrating attention on particular features and is also essential for maintaining sharp focus over a range of distance. Spherical aberration can be avoided by purchasing aspherical lenses, which have a lens surface that is subtly curved to minimise aberration at the time the photograph is taken. These can be expensive, however, and are probably not necessary for casual archaeological photography. All archaeological photographs taken for technical purposes must include a scale, irrespective of what is being photographed. Ideally, people should have a variety of scales to suit any circumstance, but each one must have the unit of measurement clearly marked on it (e.g. millimetres, centimetres or metres).
