Customer Reviews

Police Photography, Fifth Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read many books on the subject of Police Photography and/or Forensic Photography and this is the best book on the market. Having said that, "Police Photography" lacks clarity in describing techniques and much more.

As an instuctor of "Forensic Photography", not to be confused with "Crime Scene Documentation", the book either goes way over the head of most Police Officers who read the book, or they are left scratching their heads because certain questions remain un-answered.

In particular, the chapters covering Infrared & Ultraviolet photography require the non-physcist (99.9% of all Police Officers) to re-read those chapters mulitple times, after which they are still left bewildered by what they just read.

The equipment that is referenced throughout the book is either outdated or to expensive for most departments to afford.

While the book is the best on the market, buyer beware that it lacks a great amount of information on techniques and/or information is severly lacking.

This book has several un-truths, and is horribly out-dated (even though this edition was updated in 2006) They have very little information on digital photography, and definitely focus on the use of photography in smaller departments (and even smaller departments have gone to digital, as it is cheaper) Unless you HAVE to have this book (as I did, for the IAI CSI certification) don't buy it. TERRIBLE!

This is a review of the Fifth Edition of Larry S. Miller's "Police Photography," which I received in the mail two days ago and just finished reading through cover to cover. My own Loving Bride got so tired of my complaining about it as I read it that she suggested I just shut up and return it instead of continuing to gripe. Yes, dear.

You should notice that there is a Sixth Edition that's been published as of November 2010. While there is a chance the material on digital photography has been updated, I sincerely doubt that will outweigh the severely outdated material in this book when so many better textbooks on this subject are available. I'll list a few at the bottom of this review.

Chapter listing and excerpts:

1. The Police Photographer

2. Light and the Simple Camera

3. Cameras

4. Film

5. Equipment (Lenses, Filters, Exposure meters, Flash - all related to film cameras, but there is a mention of an underwater housing for the Nikon D100, which came out in mid-2002.)

6. Exposure (Excerpt from "Painting with Light" section: "Painting with light is a film camera technique that simulates multiple flash, but requires only one flash unit." "Digital cameras should not be used in painting with light. Some high-end digital cameras, such as the Nikon D100, allow time exposures for up to five seconds. Anything over one-half second exposure or more will result in "noise" on the digital image. If a digital camera must be used, it should be used with the multiple-flash technique." Comment: just do a simple Google search for 'painting with light' and see what you get.

7. The Darkroom (yes - 7 pages on how to equip & set up your darkroom for processing 35mm film, but not a single sentence in the whole book on Digital Workflow)

8. Black-and-White Processing: Negatives

9. Black-and-White Processing: Printing and Enlargement

10. Color Processing

11. Digital Photography (pp 125-136)

Excerpts: "On some models as many as 192 pictures may be made on one memory chip before "downloading" into a computer. Like videotapes, they can be reused by "photographing" over the old pictures or by deleting unwanted pictures on the camera."

"...until digital images and equipment emulate the quality and cost of traditional film photography, it will not replace the film camera."

"For instance, a digital camera is excellent for taking a few shots but fails miserably when it comes to taking numerous photographs."

"Even with a 256MB memory chip, the photographer may only be able to store 16 TIFF images on one chip, forcing the photographer to carry extra memory chips to a scene or carry a laptop computer and download images at the scene."

And then the final paragraph of this chapter, "The Future", is ironically prescient in stating:

"...no textbook can possibly keep up with the advancements being made in electronics and photography. By the time this text is in print, (Amazon says May 15, 2006) there will no doubt be more advanced cameras and digital imaging equipment available for the law enforcement officer." Yeah, quite a lot, actually, even 3-4 years before this Edition went to press.

12. Accident Photography

13. Crime Photography

14. Evidence Photography

15. Identification Photography

16. Questioned Documents

17. UV and Fluorescence Photography

18. Infrared Photography (Two paragraphs on digital here, excerpt: "Certain digital cameras can be used with infrared photography. Most of the newer digital cameras have an internal IR-cut filter (called a hot mirror) built into the body that covers the CCD or CMOS sensor." "A good way of checking a digital camera for suitability with infrared photography is to hold a television remote control unit in front of the camera lens and push one of the remote's buttons. If a white light is seen in the camera viewfinder or display, the camera is capable of infrared photography."

Although this book is much more readable than another EPIC "recommended read" title, Crime Scene Photography by Edward M. Robinson, at least that title has many more details on certain shooting situations. That title, too, spends way too much time on film equipment and technique for a modern photographer. See the whole list here:

([[...]) on the Evidence Photographer's International Council website.

Another title I'm currently working my way through is Sanford L. Weiss's "Forensic Photography: Importance of Accuracy" which is very readable, reasonably up-to-date on digital technology, and although pricey, worth the expense and time to read.

I would not recommend this book, "Police Photography, 5th Edition" to anyone interesting in becoming a better Police Photographer or Crime Scene Photographer, despite it being listed on a couple of "recommended reading" lists. It is too far out of date and focuses too much on equipment that is quickly becoming or is already obsolete.

This book has all the basics of photography. It is technical in nature, but has some great police pictures too. There is an excellent glossary of photographic terms in the back. Even though the book basically assumes you will be using a manual SLR, it covers use of old cameras right up through digital cameras. The techniques of good photography never change, even if the equipment does. This book concentrates on the type of pictures that police officers take, not taking picture of flowers,, animals, or people like most photography books.

This product came WELL in advance of when it was scheduled to come and was in the condition that it said it would be :)

The book arrived quickly and was in great condition. I was very impressed, as I don't do this often.