Photographs Are Evidence Too

Who Should Read This Publication?

This publication is particularly valuable for:

• Military defense counsel — Photographs may independently establish facts about a scene, injury, object, distance, visibility, or physical condition. Counsel should understand how photographs can corroborate or contradict testimony and why the complete photographic record may be more important than selected images presented in an investigative report.

• Civilian attorneys representing service members — Attorneys evaluating photographic evidence need to consider not only what an image appears to show, but also its source, timing, perspective, completeness, and relationship to other evidence. Those factors can significantly affect the conclusions reasonably drawn from a photograph.

• Defense investigators — Investigators should use photography as an evidence-collection technique rather than simply as a means of illustrating a report. Proper photographs can preserve conditions that may change or disappear and allow important details to be examined later.

• Attorneys and investigators evaluating injuries or physical evidence — Photographs can document injuries, property damage, physical objects, and other conditions at a particular point in time. They can also help determine whether later descriptions of those conditions are consistent with what was originally documented.

• Legal teams evaluating crime or incident scenes — Photographs may help establish distances, positions, lighting, visibility, access, obstructions, and relationships between objects. Examining the complete scene rather than an isolated photograph can reveal information important to evaluating a witness’s account.

• Investigators working with digital photographs — Original image files may contain information that screenshots, copies, or compressed images do not preserve. Understanding metadata, timestamps, file history, resolution, and the importance of retaining original files can strengthen the evidentiary value of photographic evidence.

• Attorneys and investigators confronting photographs offered as proof of an allegation — A photograph records what was within the camera’s frame at a particular moment; it does not necessarily explain what happened before or afterward. Perspective, cropping, lighting, and missing context must be considered before deciding what an image actually proves.