Photography for Surveyors

There can be few surveyors who do not take photographs, if only occasionally. In this publication, Gareth Evans aims to pass on the fruits of his experience to busy surveyors who need to record buildings, and details of buildings, accurately and to present images in reports. Common problems experienced by surveyors include a failure to understand the equipment, the wrong choice of equipment and a lack of photographic experience. This text gives guidance on choosing a camera from the baffl ingly wide range available, and covers suffi cient basic photographic theory to provide solid support for the surveyors likely photographic tasks. Digital photography is strongly promoted as being more appropriate to business needs, since it lends itself to modern office document production, e-mail and the internet. While modern camera automation makes it easier to achieve satisfactory results, it is still possible to make elementary mistakes. Successive chapters provide an understanding on issues such as exposure problems, selection of zoom or wide-angle settings, and choosing the optimal speed setting. Practicalities, such as battery type, can be signifi cant and are also covered here. Macro photography is useful in recording small details, while fl ash results are often disappointing, and this comparison is covered. A chapter is devoted to succinct but helpful hints and tips that improve the chance of taking a useful image. The publication also provides an introduction to desktop work, including useful pointers on inserting images in documents, and using image manipulation software. Finally, some simple image editing examples are worked through. This guide should provide the surveyor with a good grounding in basic photographic technique, suffi cient to permit successful images almost every time. Gareth Evans is a partner in the Brighton and Hove surveying practice of J Green Associates. He embarked upon photography while at university, where he started to process his own fi lms, enlarge and print. His surveying experience includes over 20 years London-based work and he is familiar with buildings of all types and ages from most of England and Wales. He has been taking photographs of buildings for business purposes since 1973, using a wide variety of cameras over the years. He now uses exclusively digital equipment.Evans, Gareth W. is the author of 'Photography for Surveyors ', published 2005 under ISBN 9780728204775 and ISBN 0728204770.