Investigation Techniques
 

Scrutinise Your Results Rigorously

Scrutinising Your Results

The excitement of the investigation is now over and you have slept in late and now you are faced with a mountain of video, sound and other data to go through. This always seems a daunting task, so best start early and pace yourself.

I generally watch video for no more than an hour and listen to audio for no more than 30 minutes. Believe me after that amount of time your senses will have become dulled, so go an do something else for a while. Just walking around for a quarter of an hour and making a cup of tea or coffee is enough to get your senses back working again.

When listening to sound it is a good idea to use headphones and to use PC software like Acustica. This sort of software allows you to see a graphic representation of what you are hearing. Often I see something of interest well before I hear it, but that’s down to practice.

If you are fortunate enough to have a DVR it is possible to look at the output of 4 or more cameras at the same time, although in reality this is easier said than done and very tiring. The technique I use is to not look at any one image, rather to look at the centre of the screen, which allows you to use peripheral vision to look at all 4 images. If something moves you will very quickly see it this way. I prefer to use a laptop for viewing DVR images, then I can sit comfortably and don’t have to stare to much. I use the same method for looking at IP camera footage, although you can only watch one lot of footage at a time.

If you think you have caught something make a note of when in the footage you saw it, usually it’s a time index that you need to record. Then you can easily go back to it for a second more in depth look later. I often use my widescreen TV for when I take a second look.

Still pictures should be viewed using a good quality photographic viewer on a PC, great for digital images, but no good for film.

If you have to use film, either get the pictures digitised, it costs very little these days, or scan the prints with a good quality scanner. By good quality I mean at least 2400 * 2400, personally I use an HP 4800 * 4800 scanner, which can show very small detail.

Always make a copy of any digital images and store them away in a folder marked original xxxx pictures, then if you need to get authentication at some later date you can show the original unaltered image.

Only after I have my backup copy done I then look at the images using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This is quite a good tool, it not only allows easy viewing, but provides basic image editing capabilities, like zoom, resizing, cropping and a variety of contrast, brightness and mid tome editing. I use all of these including auto balance to allow me to look into every corner of the image. If I find something interesting I use Adobe Photoshop or Paintshop to do some other things to help me see better what’s there.

NOTE: I will be writing a workshop on using these tools at a later date.

One taboo where still pictures are concerned, always show the original picture as well as one you my have enlarged or cropped. I have been shown pictures where cropping has completely changed the prospective of the image, leaving the author open to a “faking it” challenge.

Also where still images are concerned look at the properties page, this can always be telling. I have been told many times, that the bright light in the picture cannot be a reflection because “I did not use flash”. A 5 second look at the properties boxes will either prove or condemn this statement, usually the latter. Be aware also of pictures taken with very low shutter speeds, particularly if flash has been used. Blurring of shapes can easily appear when slow shutter speeds are used. You would not immediately expect movement from slow shutter speeds in flash pictures, but many modern digital cameras are guilty of using low shutter speeds with flash. The properties box will again solve your problem, the shutter speed is also recorded. 

Sound and video files should also be backed up if you are going to do any editing. There are some very good utilities on the web to extract the audio tracks from videos should you believe that you have captured something interesting on the sound.

Personally I use Acustica as an audio editor. You can digitally amplify sounds and cut sections out. There are also a number of digital filters that can be used to hold back some frequencies and amplify others as well as reduce background noise. The only taboo as far as I am concerned is stretching or compressing . Again its important to have the original file for authentication purposes, so that someone else can go through the same steps. 

Being able to produce the original unedited work is important if your results are to be taken seriously. 

Good Luck!

© County Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research - 2008


Last Updated 27/07/2008