Are Photos reliable evidence?
Since its 'invention' in the 1830s, photographs have been used as sources of evidence. The direct (indexical) relationship between the sun's rays and the resulting image makes photographs seem reliable as sources of information.
Real evidence is material, tangible evidence such as an object, a tape recording, a computer printout or a photograph. It is evidence that the court can examine for itself.
The preponderance of the evidence standard is met if there's more than a 50% chance that something is true. Jury instructions define it as a slight tipping of the scales.
Impression evidence can be collected by casting (filling the impression with a compound that hardens and retains the shape and characteristics of the impression) and with photography. Photographs of impressions are often used to make positive identifications, but casting of impressions provides the best evidence.
Captures a moment in time in a visual medium. Quickly and concisely informs about people, places, objects, and events. Provides information that is difficult to convey through written formats (fashion, decor, art, etc.) Sometimes records details of everyday life of people that are not captured in written records.
A very important use of photographs as evidence, and probably the most common one, is the use as explanatory or illustrative evidence, and their purpose is to enable the jury to better understand the testimony of the witnesses.
Photographs don't lie. To say a photograph lies is to believe that there can be such a thing as an objectively truthful photograph. There can never be. All photographs present a truth: their makers'.
Pictures are not only more effortless to recognize and process than words, but also easier to recall. When words enter long-term memory they do so with a single code. Pictures, on the other hand, contain two codes: one visual and the other verbal, each stored in different places in the brain (Paivio).
Photographs are very useful types of primary sources. They provide a rare glimpse of a particular second in time, which will never again be repeated. This is especially true for events that occurred before the development of television or digital technologies.
In order for photo and video evidence to be admissible in court it must meet two basic requirements: relevance and authenticity. In order for evidence to be relevant it must have probative value. In other words, it must either support or undermine the truth of any point at issue in the legal proceedings.
What is strong evidence in court?
According to the Supreme Court in Colorado v. New Mexico, 467 U.S. 310 (1984), "clear and convincing” means that the evidence is highly and substantially more likely to be true than untrue. In other words, the fact finder must be convinced that the contention is highly probable.
More importantly, no courtroom viewer will understand the nature of seeing, and that there is no way to dissociate the viewer from the image. As a result, no photograph image can accurately portray what the viewer would, could, or should have seen at the time of the original event.
At least three photos should be taken of a piece of evidence, one of the whole piece of evidence, a medium view shot of the evidence, and a close up shot of the evidence. Include photos from the overall scene, medium view shots, and close-up shots. Photograph evidence before it is collected.
Section 65(B) of the Indian Evidence Act says that electronic records need to be certified by a person occupying a responsible official position for being admissible as evidence in any court proceedings.
Primary sources are firsthand accounts or direct evidence of an event or period under study. These types of sources include, but are not limited to, letters, interviews, photographs, and cultural artifacts such as coins, everyday objects, and works of art.
Photographs play an important role in everyone's life – they connect us to our past, they remind us of people, places, feelings, and stories. They can help us to know who we are.
Images should be evaluated like any other source, such as journal articles or books, to determine their quality, reliability, and appropriateness. Images should be evaluated on several levels. Visual analysis is an important step in evaluating an image and understanding its meaning.
Crime or accident scene photographs can often be re-analyzed in cold cases or when the images need to be enlarged to show critical details. Photographs made by film exposure usually contain much information which may be crucial long after the photograph was taken.
Pictures can also be illusions--deceptions of vision so that what is seen does not necessarily correspond to what is physically presented. Most of visual science is now concerned with pictorial images--two-dimensional displays on computer monitors.
Mirrors are much more accurate than camera images. This, of course, assumes the mirror is plane and flat. We are not talking about trick mirrors or the type of mirrors that are designed to create distortion.
What makes a picture real?
A real image occurs where rays converge, whereas a virtual image occurs where rays only appear to diverge. Real images can be produced by concave mirrors and converging lenses, only if the object is placed further away from the mirror/lens than the focal point, and this real image is inverted.
Image is powerful. A universal language of sorts, images evoke emotion, can mobilise the masses and even change the course of history. But, images are representations, not reality. And representations of what our culture deems as beautiful or not can have a profound impact on our lives.
A powerful image is one that looks real. Remember, you are trying to evoke an emotion — a genuine feeling in the viewer that connects them to the photograph. You want your viewer to mentally put themselves in the photograph, or at least, feel like they are in the same space as they view it.
Images are more powerful than words. because: Turning words into images is easier for people to remember. but: Words can get the more comprehensive knowledge in detail. but: It is more efficient to produce creative and abstract ideas using words.
Under Section 2 of Rule 130, documentary evidence includes writing, recording, photograph or other record. Photographs, still pictures, drawings, stored images, X-ray films and motion pictures or videos are expressly included in the definition of documentary evidence.
Photographs don't lie. To say a photograph lies is to believe that there can be such a thing as an objectively truthful photograph. There can never be. All photographs present a truth: their makers'.
Further under the provisions of Section 62 of the Evidence Act, Explanation 2, where a number of documents are all made by one uniform process as in the case of... photography, each is primary evidence of the contents of the rest.
Primary sources are firsthand accounts or direct evidence of an event or period under study. These types of sources include, but are not limited to, letters, interviews, photographs, and cultural artifacts such as coins, everyday objects, and works of art.
Most people, when asked to form an image of a person they're familiar with, can see it within their mind. In other words, it's a visual, mental experience – similar to what we would see if the person were in front of us. But it turns out that this isn't true for everyone.
Why are photographs useful primary sources? Photographs present a visual record of a moment in time. This can enhance our understanding of events and moments by giving us a sense of what they looked like.
Can a photo be hearsay?
As “demonstrative evidence,” photographs and videos are not testimony subject to cross-examination, and are not hearsay.
(a) A photograph of an original is secondary evidence of its contents, though the two have not been compared, if it is proved that the thing photographed was the original.
Photographs contain a wealth of information which may be used effectively in historical research. Visual images may be used as evidence, for illustration, for comparison and contrast, and for analytical purposes.
Photographs can provide glimpses into lives past, long-ago events, and forgotten places. They can help shape our understanding of culture, history, and the identity of the people who appear in them.