Everyone has heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This is particularly true for maintenance pictures.
In the maintenance world, we take pictures for five primary reasons:
1. To show us a job for planning or bidding or to help us remember what we saw, show how things are assembled (so we know how to take them apart) and fill in the blanks on information we didn’t, or forgot to, collect.
2. To record what happened or what was the result of an event, like an accident for an investigation or a RCA (Root Cause Analysis) effort.
3. For training purposes or to help us recall how something is done, especially helpful with Total Productive Maintenance. A best practice is to use a series of pictures to tell a story. For example, how to do something, such as a set-up, repair, adjustment, disassembly, lubrication, cleaning, etc.
The usefulness can be enhanced by combining the pictures with a clear narrative and a video.
4. To record condition, document deterioration or show the condition of an asset over time.
5. To document construction or assembly and to show locations of piping, wiring, ducting, etc., before it is covered up.
With current technologies, we now have the ability to quickly and easily take good quality, color pictures. Moreover, we can use MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and email to send them, and we have the capability to attach them to work orders and vehicle maintenance and repair histories.
Expectations Defined
Depending on the reason for the pictures, there are three key things to keep in mind: context, point of view and acuity.
- Context – This is the story; what the photo really means. Without context, we don’t know the where, when or what about the image. It is important that the pictures tell enough of the story needed for the job.
Knowing the reason for the pictures helps us decide how much context is needed. For example, different pictures would be needed for training than for an accident investigation.
- Point of view – Also known as field of view, this is where the pictures are taken from and with what camera settings.
The same scene shot from different angles could result in very different representative. The type and focal length of the camera’s lens, speed of the shutter, sensitivity of the light gathering element and color sensitivity (visible light, infrared, ultraviolet and black and white) will have a major influence on what is being represented as well.
- Acuity – This is what is in focus. The lens is pointing at something but the item in focus may or may not be the item of interest.
In photography, the acuity is dependent on the f-stop of the lens. The higher the f-stop stop number, the smaller the aperture or hole size letting light to the sensor and the greater the range that is in focus.
We can enhance our use of photographs by taking better pictures, and in some cases, taking a wide variety of pictures.
In my search for a model for photography, I realized that there was a body of knowledge and a collection of techniques that were superficially well known through such TV programs as CSI and NCIS: crime scene photography for forensic investigators.
Rules
Some rules of crime scene photography we can adapt include:
- Secure the scene.
- Don’t focus on the obvious. The purpose is to document what is there and where it is in relationship to the scene, whether it is obviously connected to the crime (breakdown) or not.
- Take photographs before anything is disturbed, progressively working through the scene from outside to close-up pictures to show the relationship of evidence to the overall scene.
- Photograph the victims (the breakdown or asset) and also locations, “injuries” and condition.
- Photograph the “evidence” and where it was found. Each piece of evidence should be photographed with a scale to indicate size and without a scale.
- Take photographs before “evidence markers” are placed, then again after.
- Have a protocol in place to insure all needed photographs are taken.
Enhancements
Depending on what the pictures will be used for, it is acceptable to make enhancements in order to better convey information. An image may be:
- Lightened or darkened.
- Cropped.
- Color enhanced.
- White balance adjusted.
- Annotated and highlighted.
The objective here is to emphasize the important elements of the picture and “dim out” less essential components.
