The First Practical Guide to the Use of Photoshop in Forensics Investigations
This timely book is the first to take the forensic use of digital imaging out of the classroom and into the real world for law enforcement, legal, and other forensics professionals. How do you show the exact position or size of a fluorescing blood stain in a crime scene? How do you analyze and enhance stills from security video? How do you explain your Photoshop efforts in court?
From metadata and sharpening methods to using the History log and accurately evaluating scale within a scene, this serious guide from one of the most highly sought trainers in imaging forensics outlines the processes you need for using Adobe® Photoshop® in a forensics environment. Whether you're working with the newest features of Photoshop CS3 or using an earlier version of the software, these clear, step-by-step tutorials will help you:
- Follow and apply legal rules of digital evidence and master best practices
Maintain an audit trail for non-standard enhancements to an image
Evaluate metadata to determine if an image is what it purports to be
Measure objects and scale in a photograph
Take advantage of non-destructive image enhancement techniques
Extract fingerprints from backgrounds using color isolation techniques
Take advantage of Adobe Camera Raw file formats in a forensic workflow
Correct bad exposures and color shifts in crime scene, evidence, and traffic collision photos
Perform frame averaging natively in Photoshop for image noise reduction
Get great prints for use in court by following good color-management policies
CD-ROM Included
The companion CD contains all the images used in each tutorial, allowing readers to practice along with the tutorials and compare their results, plus valuable scripts and links to many more resources.
About the Author
George Reis provides training and consulting services in photography, image analysis, and digital imaging through his company, Imaging Forensics. He worked for the Newport Beach Police Department for fifteen years as a forensic photographer, fingerprint examiner, and crime scene investigator and introduced that agency to digital imaging in 1992. With prior experience as a photojournalist, freelance photographer, and commercial photo lab processor, Reis is uniquely qualified to teach imaging forensics and is in great demand as both a trainer and an image-analysis expert witness.