Digital Photography for Forensic Collision Investigators

Current Course dates:

September - fully booked

20-22nd November 2023 (Initial Level FCI course - some spaces still available)

December - fully booked

8-12th January 2024 - fully booked

29th January - 2nd February 2024 (Standard/Advanced Level FCI/FVE course - some spaces still available)

*Cost - £650.00pp (ITAI members), £699.00pp (non-members)

The price includes refreshments, lunches, learning materials, help guides and resources.

Accommodation is not supplied, but we can provide a list of nearby accommodation.

Please read below for a listing of other training courses.

For enquiries and / or to reserve your place, please email:

360 Virtual Services Ltd (Photography training)

Email: training@360vsltd.uk Tel: 07403 353877

This Standard and Advanced Level Certificate training (and indeed all the courses below) is now provided by 360 Virtual Services Ltd (Photographic Training), who presented the course previously at Cameracal Ltd. The courses continue to be a collaboration with ITAI, to bring digital photographic training to members of the Institute and other interested persons.

Your digital camera is one of the most important pieces of equipment available to you as a collision investigator, sadly it is also one where training is often neglected and almost never refreshed, despite continued changes to the technology and importantly, emerging requirements from the Forensic Science Regulator (FSR).

Some Forensic Collision Investigators or Forensic Vehicle Examiners may have had some training, but this may have been many years ago, or cascaded from someone who went on a course, or under went training that was of a more generic nature and crucially, was provided by someone who had little or no experience of Forensic Collision Investigation and Vehicle Examination work.

This training course is specifically designed for Forensic Collision Investigators and Forensic Vehicle Examiners, and mirrors the course content being offered to police FCI’s. The course has developed over time and is constantly reviewed to ensure it keeps pace with the requirements of the discipline and the photographic industry.

This full course (Standard and Advanced) is presented over 5 full days, either at your location or in our classroom, based within a recovery operators facility, for easy access to vehicles and components, by a minimum of 2 trainers. It includes practical sessions, assessments, and assignments. The practical sessions allow you to practice techniques and develop your skills.

The assessment and assignment process incorporates a tiered approach dependent upon the level you wish to undertake. These are:

Standard Level Certificate*

One week of training, daily assessments, practical assessment, on-line final examination (to be completed within 7 days from the end of the course), plus a photographic portfolio of images based on 4 assignments, but without the written elements of the original assignments, submitted within 6 weeks of the end of the course. Grade - Pass or Merit, based on marks. A further refresher course within 3 years.

Advanced Level Certificate *

One week of training, daily assessments, practical assessment, on-line final examination (to be completed within 7 days from the end of the course) as above, plus 6 written assignments with practical photographic tasks and portfolio, submitted within 10 weeks of the end of the course. Grade - Pass, Merit and Distinction, based on marks. A further refresher course within 5 years. The comprehensive and detailed training is backed up by at least two training staff with extensive experience in collision investigation and photography. It is also supported by Nikon UK who have provided equipment.

The course covers everything from the technology involved, how it works and the differences between current common technologies (DSLR vs Mirrorless, Full frame vs APS-C vs Micro 4/3rds etc.), sensors, focussing systems etc., through to settings and input on capturing images in different scenarios and lighting conditions, HDR imagery, focus stacking, macro, plus a myriad of other aspects (filters, accessories, enhancing marks etc). The course also covers capturing day and night-time scenes, photographing vehicles and damage, as well as important aspects such as field of view, depth of field and perspective from a driver/witness point of view.

In addition, it’s important for FCI’s to understand how to back up their data and maintain audit trails, to conform to best practice and also align with the requirements of the FSR. In addition to these aspects, the course also covers the basics of image developing, dust deletion, how to use images and understanding exif data, as well as how to clean sensors and why camera and lens calibration is necessary and the advantages of doing so.

This is all backed up with a comprehensive presentation, help guides, videos and a supporting manual, to ensure that delegates have thereference material they need to refresh themselves. For successful students, the course will culminate in a certificate. It will also attract CPD, as determined by ITAI.

Post course, during normal business hours, free advice is available by phone or email, should delegates run into technical difficulties.

For courses run at our location, delegates will also have access to damaged vehicles and low light areas to further enhance their skills.

Practical sessions will also cover photographing vehicles and views, using filters, lighting, low light and night-time scenes, macro and component photography, as well as other relevant aspects.

Refreshments and lunches are provided throughout the course. Delegates will require a DSLR / Mirrorless or high specification Bridge camera and a laptop to undertake the course.

All learning materials are supplied via a resources folder, which remains accessible to delegates post course.

This course does not, however, include accommodation, so that will need to be booked separately by you, although we can supply a list of hotels in the area.

To reserve your place on this course, please email: training@360vsltd.uk

Please specify whether you are a member of ITAI (all grades of member qualify for discounted price) with your membership number.

Other courses

Further courses are also available, either to cater for refresher training, those with no photographic knowledge or experience or those wanting to push their knowledge further:

Refresher Course - £300.00pp

Three days of refresher training with updates for established collision investigators, who need to brush up on their photographic skills and knowledge, and learn new techniques.

Initial Level Certificate - £395.00pp

Three days of training, daily assessments, practical assessment, on-line final examination (to be completed within 7 days from the end of the course). Extensive pre-read provided ahead of the course. A further refresher course within 3 years.

Advanced Forensic Vehicle Examiners Digital Photography course - £395.00pp

A bespoke practical based course for FVE's concentrating on capturing images of vehicle damage, defects, components and component failures, using both macro and standard lenses, and various lighting techniques. This course is based at a recovery agent's premises and utilises damaged vehicles as the subjects. This course is ideal for anyone who has undergone previous training and wishes to expand their knowledge and skill.

Lightroom, Photoshop, Nikon NX-Studio and Canon DPP training - £350.00pp

We also provide training in the above software packages for FCI’s and FVE’s, to enable you to improve your images, understand when images have been edited, compile images for HDR, focus stacking, panoramas, damage overlays, tethering and component reconstruction. This is a two day course (including refreshments and buffet lunch, when at our location), however, we can undertake bespoke training to suit your requirements and the cost is on application.

Please note that from April 2024, the cost of some of our courses are increasing. We have kept our pricing the same for the past couple of years, but like many others we have had to introduce modest increases to offset the increased costs that we are incurring. Therefore, the cost of the full 5 day course will be increasing to £720.00pp for ITAI members and £770.00pp for non members. The Initial Level Certificate and Software training courses will remain unchanged, however, the Refresher course will increase to £350.00pp for ITAI members and £395.00pp for non-members. The Advanced FVE course will also increase to £450.00pp and £495.00pp respectively. We do offer discounts for multiple/block bookings, so please contact us to discuss your needs and how we can assist you.

Course Dates