Photography and optical enhancement of physical evidence

Photography provides several key applications within criminalistic practice including nondestructive methods of evidence detection, recording, preservation, and enhancement. Most forms of physical evidence require the evidence to be photographed either at the crime scene or in the forensic laboratory. The preservation of perishable forms of physical evidence places a higher emphasis on photographic recording for the purpose of retaining the evidence long after the scene has changed or the evidence has perished. In a sense, these photographs themselves may become the only form in which the evidence exists.