When taking photos, which three compositions should you capture?

• A. Long Range, Mid Range, Close Up
• B. Overview, Detail, Full View
• C. Wide View, Medium View, Close Up
• D. Close Up, Narrow View, Wide View

Answer: (C)

When documenting an incident scene, use three photo scales: wide view, medium view, and close-up. Starting with a wide view establishes the overall scene—where the aircraft is, how it’s oriented, and how the wreckage sits in relation to the surroundings. This context is essential for understanding the big picture and for later reconstruction.

Next, a medium view shows important components and areas of interest with enough detail to see how they relate to adjacent structure. It’s where you capture the relationships between parts, possible damage patterns across a subsystem, and the context of features like doors, panels, or engines without losing the sense of scale established in the wide shot.

Finally, a close-up targets specific evidence: fasteners, surface marks, deformation, corrosion, serial numbers, or other details that reveal the failure mode or conditions at the moment of impact. These details are often the critical data points for analysis and reporting.

Using this progression ensures you document both the scene as a whole and the essential specifics, giving a complete and useful record. The other options mix scales in ways that don’t consistently provide the necessary context and detail, or use nonstandard terms that don’t clearly convey the range of perspectives needed.