02-09-2024

Digital Camera

• Photographic device  lightproof box

+ lens + digital image sensor.

Human Eye & Subjective View of Color

• White objects in these different lighting conditions objectively look more

blue (daylight), more red (incandescent), or more green (fluorescent), but
the brain uses a number of psychological clues to infer that white objects
are white, even if they are objectively different.

• Digital image sensors and film, on the other hand, record only what they
objectively receive, and don’t interpret it. The auto white balance feature
on many digital cameras measures the scene in the viewfinder and tells
the camera to interpret the brightest point as white.

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How the eye sees color?

1. Pupil or iris: The pupil (also known as the iris)
contracts and expands depending on the
amount of light entering the eye.
2. Rod cells in the retina: Rod cells perceive
levels of brightness (but not color) and work
best in low light.
3. Cone cells in the retina: Cone cells can
perceive color in bright light  RGB.

Digital Camera – types

• Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR)

• Digital Rangefinder
– Point and shoot camera
– Coincident rangefinder

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DSLR camera
• Reflexing mirror – frames image
before capture.

• Light into lens  reflexing mirror 

prism  viewfinder (actual image
area)

• Interchangeable lenses

DSLR – light optics 1. Lens assembly

2. Mirror
3. Focal-plane shutter
4. Sensor/film
5. Focusing screen
6. Condensing lens
7. Pentaprism or pentamirror
8. Eyepiece

Image by Cburnett. Licensed under CC BY 3.0, via

Wikimedia Commons.

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DSLR camera – components

1. Lens
2. Aperture
3. Shutter
4. Digital image sensor
5. Memory card
6. External flash
12.08.2024

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Focal length
• Distance between point of light
convergence through lens to point of
focus on the image plane / digital image
sensor.

• Longer focal length = more the lens

magnification of scene.

Focal length – definition

• The distance from the center of the

lens on your digital camera to the
image sensor.

• Measured in mm.

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Lenses

• To focus light beams onto

your imaging chip.

• Capture reflective light from

subject  focus onto image
sensor.

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Digital diopter
• Feature to allow individuals to adjust the viewfinder
for their particular eye quality  diopter adjustment
dial.

• It is usually located just to the right of the viewfinder

 dial or thumb slide that moves up and down.

• It is recommended to select an object, focus on it as

best you can, and then adjust the diopter both ways to
see whether doing so improves focus for your eye.

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Aperture

• Measured in f-stop = ratio of the focal length

of the lens to the diameter of the opening of
the aperture.

• Larger the f-stop value = smaller aperture size

DoF

• Area of image that appears in focus from

foreground to background.

• Determined by combination of aperture

opening and focal length of the lens.

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Shutter speed

• Duration of time that light passing through

the lens remains in contact with the digital
image sensor.

• Measured in fractions of a second.

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Lens – Types

1. Telephoto

2. Wide-angle

3. Zoom

4. Prime

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Fixed / Prime lens

• Fixed focal length – 50mm  fixed
angle of view.

• Normal or standard lens – Focal

length between 35mm and 50mm.

Telephoto lens
A lens with a long focal length that
magnifies the subject.

• Greater control over limiting the

depth of field (the area of an image in
focus).

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Telephoto lens
• Smaller apertures  smaller angle of
view.

• 70mm to 300mm or more focal length.

Crime scene (overall photographs),

surveillance, wildlife photography

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Wide-angle lens
• Shorter focal length  larger angle of
view  deeper DoF.

Landscape, cityscape, crime scene

(overall, mid-range) photography

Zoom lens
• Variation in focal length.

• Wide-angle to standard lenses  no need to

interchange lens.

• Moves the nodal point (that’s the point where

the image flips upside down inside the lens) closer
or further away from the imaging sensor.

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Digital Image sensor

• Reflective light from the photographed

subject passes through the lens and aperture
 the image is captured by the digital image
sensor.

• A digital image sensor is the computer chip

inside the camera that consists of millions of
individual elements (picture elements =
pixels) capable of capturing light.

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• Light-sensitive elements transform light

energy to voltage values based on intensity of
the light.

• The voltage values then converted to digital

data by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
chip (analog-to-digital conversion).

• The digital numbers corresponding to the

voltage values for each element combine to
create the tonal and color values of the
image.

• Each element has RGB filter corresponding

to color in pixel of captured image.

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Digital Image sensors – types

1. CCD : Charge – coupled device

2. CMOS : Complementary Metal Oxide

Semiconductor

CCD

 Originally developed for video cameras.

 Record image pixel by pixel and row by row.
 One row active at a time.

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CMOS
 Used in DSLR’s.
 Record entire image in parallel (at once)
 higher rate of data transfer to storage
device.

Memory card

 Image capture  processing  storage.

 Digital information stored in a file.
 RAW file contains image data
 standardized format as JPEG / TIFF.
 Different memory card types, but process is
the same – CompactFlash; Secure Digital
(Micro and Normal)

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Image Resolution
 Details of image.

 Pixel and bit depth of each pixel. Source: http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between

-pixel-and-resolution

 More number of pixels → more details → better resolution.

 Measured in Megapixels (MP).

The data captured by a digital camera sensor before it is converted into an image
file by software, either inside the camera or on a stand-alone computer.

Image File Formats

 Format to store data via computer algorithm or software.

 RAW - no compression.

 Lossy and lossless compression.

 JPEG, TIFF, GIF etc.

Source: https://www.graphicsmill.com/file-formats

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RAW file
 Most common file format for uncompressed images captured by digital cameras
and Scanners.

 Generally large in size  minimally processed image data with lossless quality.

 Contains the direct image data from the camera sensors with no loss of quality
and alteration.

 A file that contains data that have not been compressed, encrypted or processed
in any manner.

Image File Formats

 JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group

 TIFF – Tagged Image File Format

 PNG – Portable Graphics Format  GIF – Graphics Interchange

Format

 BMP – Bitmap Image File

 WebP – Image file format for the web (Google)

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External Flash

 For additional light in dim or low

lighting conditions.

 Mounted onto flash shoe or hot-

shoe bracket.

Digital Imaging

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Digital Image?

A set of binary numbers representing a scene.

Digital Image capture

Pattern of light  electronic sensor array
 response signals to binary data 
electrical signals on array  display
pattern of light.

• The result will be a likeness of the thing

photographed, a representation of the scene

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Image Acquisition
• Involve two basic operations:

1. Sampling (measuring light

intensity)

2. Quantisation (assigning a discrete

value to that measurement)

SAMPLING QUANTISATION

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Pixels
The number of locations at which light
intensity can be measured (sampled) is
set by the number of pixels a device
has which is usually stated as the pixel
count.

• The convention is for cameras to be

specified as, for example, 4000 ×
3000 pixels, or ‘12 megapixels’,
where a megapixel is one million
pixels.

• For scanners, the figure is stated as

pixels per inch, both horizontally
and vertically.

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• The number of values used to

represent the light intensity at each
location is limited by the bit depth of
the device.

• Bit is an abbreviation of binary digit;

the number of possible values will be a
power of two.

• A 1-bit image can have only two

possible pixel values: 0 or 1, that is
black or white and nothing in between.

Color image acquisition

• To record colour information individual
pixels are overlaid with coloured filters,
most commonly the three additive
primary colours: red, green and blue
(RGB), the filters being arranged in a
regular mosaic pattern or colour filter
array (CFA).

• Each individual pixel is therefore only

able to respond to part of the colour
spectrum.

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Typical Bayer Color Filter array

• The process of deriving the ‘missing’

two colour values for each pixel is
called demosaicing and is one of the
first instances of image processing
in the imaging chain.

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File formats
• RAW - proprietary raw formats
unique to manufacturer
• TIFF – Tagged Image File Format
• JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts
Group

• RAW file = digital negative.

• unprocessed or minimally processed

data from the image sensor.

• Raw files tend to have greater bit

depth and greater dynamic range
than other file formats.

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UV/ IR Photography and filters

Electromagnetic Spectrum
(EMS)
• The wavelengths of light are expressed in
terms of nanometers (nm).

• Visible light is between 400 and 700 nm.

• Immediately below the 400 nm range is the region
of ultraviolet light, which is 100 to 400 nm.
• Immediately above the 700 nm range is the region
of infrared light, with the region of infrared
applicable to photography being approximately 700
to 1100 nm.

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The main reactions of light with the different substrates

it strikes are:

1. Reflection

2. Absorption

3. Transmission

4. The conversion of light from one state to another, usually

regarded as fluorescence.

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Black and White colors wrt light

• When white light strikes some other surfaces, all the
colors that make up white light can be absorbed by
the surface.

• When no colors are reflected by a surface, the brain

interprets this surface as being black  absence of
color.

• It is “blue” because when all the colors of the rainbow,

white light, strike it, the material and dyes in the fabric
absorb the violet, green, yellow, orange, and red of the
white light, and the dress reflects only the blue part of
the white light.

• Being gray is a result of a surface partially reflecting

white light and partially absorbing white light.

• Transmission: Water, glass  Most light is transmitted

through the cloth.

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• Irish physicist George G. Stokes in 1852, showed some

materials will absorb the light that strikes them and
convert that light into a light of longer wavelength
and lower intensity, which is normally understood as
fluorescence.

• Molecules in the surface become excited, and some

of their electrons will rise to a higher electronic state.
As they return to their previous state, energy is
emitted.

• Light of a longer wavelength and lower

intensity emitted  has a different color.

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Luminescence, Fluorescence
and Phosphorescence
• Luminescence is the general term that includes both
fluorescence and phosphorescence.

• Luminescence means a molecule’s ability to emit light from

causes other than heat. These causes can include a
stimulation by a beam of photons (light), an excitation by
chemical or biochemical means, and others.

• Incandescence is an example of fluorescence caused by heat.

• Fluorescent materials emit a “glowing” light only

while they are currently being stimulated by a
stronger, higher-intensity light. Turn off the
stimulating light and the fluorescence also
immediately ends.

• Phosphorescence describes the ability of some

materials to retain some of the radiation they have
absorbed from a stimulating light and then continue
“glowing” after the stimulation has ceased.

“Glow in the dark”

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UV photography

UV light can be characterized:

1. Long wave UV (315–400 nm),

2. Medium wave UV (280–315 nm),

3. Short wave UV (200–280 nm).

Long wave UV light

Long wave UV light was the first crime scene light used to
search for blood, non-blood body fluids like semen at rape
scenes, and fluorescent fibers.

Before lasers and alternate light sources became the most

frequently used light sources at crimes scenes, long wave UV
light was the only light able to visualize many types of
“invisible” evidence.

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Short wave UV light

• Short wave UV light  Reflected Ultra-Violet Imaging
System (RUVIS). This equipment uses high-intensity
short wave UV light to visualize untreated latent
fingerprints.

UV light is also sometimes divided into UVA (315–400

nm), UVB (280–315 nm), and UVC (<280 nm).

• UVA is considered the “tanning” region of UV light.

• UVB is considered the region of UV light that is

responsible for sunburn and sun damage to skin.

• UVC is considered “germicidal.”

UVC is sometimes used as a nonchemical disinfectant because it

can kill germs effectively, which is also the reason that UVC, or
short wave UV light, should not be used around DNA samples. It
can also prevent the typing of DNA samples.

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Reflected UV photography
Involves capturing images with only long wave UV light being
allowed to strike the film or digital sensor  necessary to block
all visible light from entering the lens.

1. Simply turn off the lights and make sure no stray visible
light enters the room through door cracks or window edges.

2. Use a filter that blocks all visible light while allowing UV

light to be transmitted through it. An 18A filter does just
this.

UV light filters
• UV blocking filter – blocks UV light while transmitting
visible light.

– Used in fluorescence UV photography

and

• UV absorbing filter – blocks visible light while

permitting the transmission of UV light through it.

– Used in reflectance UV photography

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Forensic aspect
• Questioned document examiners will use this type of
imaging to help them differentiate between inks that may
look similar when viewed in visible light.

• Reflective ultraviolet light can also sometimes visualize

deep muscle bruising that has healed and is no longer
visible with normal lighting. Patterned wounds or injuries
can sometimes be detected with reflective UV light long
after the initial injury.

UV Fluorescence photography
• Ultraviolet light can also stimulate fluorescence in the visible
light range, which is one example of the Stokes shift.
• The UV light is absorbed by various substrates and is changed 
Some of the light energy is absorbed by the substrate as heat
energy. What is left is emitted as a longer wavelength of light
that is also less intense.
• To view and photograph the fluorescence caused by the UV light,
you can use a UV absorbing filter (camera filters called UV, 1A,
2A, or 2B). It would also be possible to see and photograph the
fluorescence through a yellow filter.

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Forensic aspect
• UV light creating fluorescence when certain fibers
and fingerprints are stimulated by UV light.

Fingerprints were processed with

a fluorescent powder and lit by UV light.

You should also be wearing protective

goggles  can be UV goggles, which
appear clear, or yellow goggles.

IR photography
The photographic infrared range is in the near IR part of
the electromagnetic spectrum, 700 to 1100 nm.

Most digital cameras have filters over the digital sensor that
filter out IR light. Digital cameras can have these filters
removed to make the camera sensitive to IR light.

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IR light filters
• The normal IR filter, is a Wrattan #87 filter.

• This filter blocks all visible light while transmitting IR

light through it. Therefore, to the eye, it appears
opaque.

Forensic aspect
Three categories of evidence IR can reveal at a crime scene:

1. Ink differentiations

2. Visualizing gunshot residue

3. Visualizing the writing on burned documents

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Effects of IR light on different

substrates
 The substance may absorb the IR light. If this occurs, the
substance absorbing the IR light will remain dark, or if it
currently is not dark, it will appear to darken.

 The substance may reflect the IR light. If this occurs, the

substance reflecting the IR light will appear to lighten in
color or tone. If it currently is black, it will appear to turn
a lighter shade of gray, or it may appear to turn white.

 The substance may transmit the IR light. If this occurs, the

substance transmitting the IR light may appear to
disappear, revealing whatever is beneath it.

 The substance may convert the IR light. If this occurs, the

substance converting the IR light will convert some of the
energy present in the IR light into heat. The weaker energy
remaining will then be emitted by the substance as light of
a longer wavelength, which is also a weaker intensity. This
light is fluorescent.

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