Photography 101
This section is not difficult but it is important to do it the right way for best use of the program and your greatest protection. In the event you need to use this information in the event of a disaster the better the images the better they will serve you. We are going to look at some techniques used by the police and forensic photographers that photograph crime scenes and damage areas. The only difference here is there has not been a crime committed or damage inflicted on the area, and hopefully never will. The techniques are equally as good here and will provide you with the greatest protection should you need them.
You have probably all seen any number of crime programs like Law & Order where the police photographer is at the crime scene taking shots of evidence, well that is what we are going to look at here. The keys are simple, first photograph the overall area, what the forensic photographers call the establishing shots. These are photographs as wide as you can make them of the entire area. This may take several shots to cover all sides of a room, area or building. Next, you have area photographs that show a bit more detail of items in a specific area of the room. For example an area shot might include a table and show the items on it or an open cabinet to show the contents. The final photographs are the detail shots of specific items of interest or value. If you remember the Law & Order scenario, this is where the photographer is taking close up shots of evidence and you will see they have a ruler or measuring device in the photograph to establish the exact size of the object. In our case we will do the same thing. When you get to items of detail you will want to have a ruler or other object of known size in the photograph to establish the size of the item being photographed. This is very important in photographs of Jewelry and small pieces like crystal, sculptures, artwork or items that it would be difficult to determine the size from simply viewing the photograph. One advantage we have over the crime scene photographer is we can control the environment of the items where they have to take them as they find them. If you are going to photograph small detail pieced such as Jewelry or artwork it is best to choose a neutral background with as few distractions as possible for best image quality. It is easy to set up a table against a neutral wall and photograph your items one at a time to make sure you have the best image possible.
Basic Photographic Techniques:
When photographing with a flash, be sure not to photograph directly into a mirror or directly onto glass panels as the glare will obscure the details in the photograph. Try and keep the camera as close to the center height as possible and take your photographs level so you are not photographing in either an upward or downward direction. If you are using a digital camera that allows you to adjust the quality of the photographs you can set it to the lowest possible settings. The newer multi mega pixel cameras available on the market are created with the idea in mind that you may want to blow up the photographs to 8 X 10 or larger. While the quality is tremendous so is the size of the stored image. For our purposes we are never going to blow these up larger than a few inches when we print them. For both speed and storage size it is highly recommended that you reduce the settings on your camera to the lowest possible settings and you will be fine.
Dating Your Images:
One thing that helps insurance people is to do something to show the date the photographs were taken. Since you probably not using film you do not have a developing date go by, so one good idea is to photograph something in the room on a single shot that shows the date they were taken. An item such as a newspaper front page will establish when these were taken.
A Note:
The below photographs were taken with a simple Kodak digital camera without professional lighting or equipment. The idea here is to show that you do not have to be a professional photographer to get the results required to maintain a good inventory system. I have seen digital cameras for under one hundred dollars that will do a fine job for most of the shots you will need to take. The only requirement is that the photographs be sharp enough and exposed properly for an insurance adjuster or law enforcement to be able to identify the item and assign a value.
Overall or Establishing Photographs:
First step is to plan your shots. Starting at each corner of the room take photographs across and take enough photos to get all aspects of the room. Depending on the size of the room and how wide you camera will allow you to shoot will depend on the number of photographs required for that room.
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