Methodological ideas of forensic culture and their use in improving the methodological and tactical content of crime investigation work

In the process of a specialist carrying out investigative actions during the inspection of incident sites to identify, locate, record and remove trace traces, situations often arise in which the traces of shoe soles (vehicles) discovered and recorded using a camera in photographic images contain geometric distortions. The listed distortions obtained during photography negatively affect the establishment of the true forms and determination of the dimensional characteristics of the recorded traces, which in turn, according to the results of expert research, does not allow the traces to be recognized as suitable for identification. In the current methodology for studying traceological traces recorded on photographic images, the expert evaluates the quality of the image, including the presence/absence of perspective, distortion and chromatic aberration distortions. The parameters established by the expert that characterize the photographic image of the track must be used when reproducing the conditions for photographing experimental tracks. At the stage of comparative research, the displayed general and specific features in the studied traces are compared with the features in the traces obtained from the results of the experiment, and it is necessary to observe the rule of comparability of the compared objects. In this connection, when comparing a trace recorded at an acute angle formed by the optical axis of the lens and the plane of the trace at the time of photography, it is necessary to obtain a photographic image of the experimental trace under similar conditions. An acute question arises about the possibility of determining the angle formed by the optical axis of the camera lens and the plane of the trace recorded in the photographic image. This article discusses the parameters of photographing traceological traces, at which it is possible to determine the angle formed by the optical axis of the camera lens and the plane of the trace. Methods for its establishment are proposed.