Sometimes we come across great things in the archives. This one is just fascinating. It actual has some useful information, but its a wonderful slice of history too.

US Army Training Film TF19-3582

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq_O6OMqudc

“Covers the use of photography in military police work and criminal investigations.” In the course of this, includes some general photography instruction.

Forensic photography, sometimes referred to as forensic imaging or crime scene photography, is the art of producing an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene using photography for the benefit of a court or to aid in an investigation. It is part of the process of evidence collecting. It provides investigators with photos of victims, places and items involved in the crime. Pictures of accidents show broken machinery, or a car crash, and so on. Photography of this kind involves choosing correct lighting, accurate angling of lenses, and a collection of different viewpoints. Scales, like items of length measurement or objects of known size, are often used in the picture so that dimensions of items are recorded on the image.