CLPEX Chat Board

And to answer the question Boyd, I don't, other than some of the processing techniques described by Ski for nin prints and using various channels.

I'd love to see others if any use image processing methods for IND-ZnCl or various fluorescent images.

Eric Ray has some cool tricks for setting up GYRO palettes in Photoshop, but I have a too old version (literally still have Photoshop 8 and it works great!)

g.

josher89 wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 6:13 am

Steve Everist wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 2:41 pm You misspelled "Boyd."

I shot coffee all over my monitor!!! Thanks for that and yea, sorry Boyd.

I'm pretty sure you can export an action, right? I'll look and see where it's saved so I can post it here maybe.

Yes. You can save actions (and sets of actions) as files and then attach them to emails. The receiver just saves the files somewhere (like an Adobe Actions folder) and then loads them from the Actions panel fly-out menu. (as I'm reading through, I guess you just covered this).

Hope you weren't working from home when you ruined your monitor...

Boyd Baumgartner wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 7:02 am

josher89 wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 12:23 pm Those that use clarify over enhance say..

Clarify is what you do to butter, not photos. Right Steve?

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Clarify.jpg
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"I'm down with G-H-E-E." Yeah, you know me.

You make adjustments to photos. Adobe made it simple, it's right there in the program menu: Image - Adjustments

Wait - mine says Image - Manipulate...

g. wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 2:25 pm On which term to use, SWGDE is pretty clear.

6.2 Image Processing
Photographic comparisons commonly involve an examination and evaluation of features
observed in a submitted image compared to features of a known subject. This process may
require image processing to enhance features to make them more visible for comparison. Image
processing should be conducted in accordance with SWGDE Image Processing Guidelines.
(July 2019)

Image processing includes both simple and complex functions.

g.

It looks like SWGDE uses process over enhance at a 3:1 ratio - so it's "process?" Or wait... is processing only used as a descriptive term to define enhancement, which is the actual word used for this purpose? You could swap the words and the message would likely be understood the same.

I ran into similar problems when I used to have an exclusion lecture, about 15 years ago, with SWGFAST - they interchangeably used words or had definitions in contradiction with each other or commonly understood definitions of words.

It's as if words mean things.

It's as if words mean things.

Or it's more that words have multiple meanings that change over time and can have vague definitions so the important thing is to be able to clearly articulate what you did and not feel beholden to using some vague term or definition that means different things to different people. Especially since the bulk of our explaining what we did to visualize a digital image is to jurors who really only care about how we do something and not the jargon we use. I think all 3 words can be used interchangeably as long as the explanation is clear and really it just comes down to a personal preference on which one to use. I like to use words on the stand that don't get muddled. So I use processing for the chemical and powder techniques I use to develop potential latents and enhancement to talk about what I did in photoshop to improve the contrast of the image (if needed).

Boyd Baumgartner wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 7:17 am Do you have a favorite Photoshop Script you've written? Some super secret squirrel advanced enhancement technique? A tip you think isn't widely known?

Share it here.

Bringing it back around...

I've got a few simple actions that are pretty much specific to my workflow: expand canvas to 512p X 512p for NEC/WIN searching, a blank canvas for my charted documentation with a few things that are always included in my charts, converting my grayscale images to RGB, adding a new layer, kicking down the layer opacity for on-screen comparison/markups, etc...

When I was teaching my workshop, one thing I'd been doing for years (back in the tracing/NEC times) that surprised me in the response was related to the brush tool. If you're tracing out ridge paths, you can select the brush tool. Click your starting point and then hold down the shift key. Mover further up the ridge and click again - PS will automatically connect the clicks in a straight line. Continue to hold the shift key and click as you move along the ridge path.

Also related to the brush tool, if you hover your cursor over the ridge, and the brush is too large or too small, use the square bracket keys to make the brush larger or smaller without having to go into the brush tool menu.

With the CC versions of PS, CTRL-Z will step back in history. Continuing to hit CTRL-Z will continue to go back in your history. With older version, CTRL-Z is just back one step and then hitting it again goes forward one step. You have to hold ALT with it to continue to go back in history.

Steve Everist wrote: ↑Fri May 22, 2020 10:19 am Also related to the brush tool, if you hover your cursor over the ridge, and the brush is too large or too small, use the square bracket keys to make the brush larger or smaller without having to go into the brush tool menu.

Thanks! That's a function I was not aware of, but I will definitely be using it in the future.

I use most of the same actions Steve uses. I also have actions for rotating images and dropping the resolution size down to 500ppi because I like all my main tools visible in one panel. The bracket shortcut key for brush size is probably my favorite and most used shortcut key. For lift cards I have an action that converts it to RGB adds a Levels Adjustment Layer and adds a layer I use for my markup. For digital photographs I have an action similar to my lift card action except that it adds a B&W Adjustment Layer instead of Levels and doesn't include a convert to RGB step

If I'm analyzing a latent that is not entirely clear, one that lies outside the green zone in the SWGFAST Q-Q chart, I will usually add a number of layers. The more complex the analysis, the more layers. CTRL-Shift-N is the easiest way to add a layer. After doing the adjustments, I may block out the red GYRO zones in different layers using 33% opacity. I may add creases and wrinkles in a layer, using magenta at 33% opacity. I will add a layer for high confidence points using green dots, then one for lower confidence points using orange dots. Frequently, I will add a layer for ridge counts, in which is use a 3 pixel brush and yellow to trace a short segment of each ridge between two points. I may add a layer for type lines or one for a scar. Usually, I paint a scar in red at 33%. I may create layers for a different target groups. For a faint target group, I may use the 3 pixel brush and yellow to trace the ridges for a 3 or 4 point target group. A complex latent may have 8 or 10 layers before I'm through with analysis and go on to the comparison phase.

None of the SWGDE documents can be found...including the linked ones on the OSAC DE Subcommittee site.

Is there an alternate location for these?

Here's another script I've got where you use the ruler tool to determine a size, then run the script. The script will apply an automatic levels adjustment to a square the size that you specified by using the ruler tool. I got the idea for this one from one of the Morpho enhancement tools in our AFIS.

It's best to use this on an image that's already resized 1:1, otherwise it will be slow.

Workflow: select the layer with the latent; use the ruler tool and rule out the width of a square that you'd like to apply the adjustments to; run script
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Here's some latent I got off google images to show the effect.
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josher89 wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 12:15 pm None of the SWGDE documents can be found...including the linked ones on the OSAC DE Subcommittee site.

Is there an alternate location for these?

I haven't clicked the links, but here's SWGDE's page: https://www.swgde.org/documents

My personal favourite is the Colour Deconvolution plugin from the https://4n6site.com/improc/decoplugin/main.htm site.

I've got some Actions and Scripts for GYRO here: http://rayforensics.com/latent-print-software/

Includes the following features:
- Create markings using GYRO colors and keyboard shortcuts; no need to look away from the print and click on the Color Palette to change the color)
- Create dots or lollipops (circles and direction lines); (lollipops especially helpful if working with FRStat)
- Move minutiae dots
- Turn on and off all minutiae of the same color

There should be a YouTube video to explain how to install everything, but may require slight tweaks for your specific version.