Documents and AI
Photos taken on a phone at work
The delivery note, the meter, the damage, the plate: when a photo is a document and when it is a memento.
Most field documentation is born as a phone photo: the signed delivery note, a meter reading, damage to goods, the state of an installation. The problem is not photo quality: it is that it stays in one person's camera roll.
When a photo is a document
| It is a document when… | It is just a photo when… |
|---|---|
| It is in the file it belongs to | It is in someone's gallery |
| You know who took it and when | It only has the phone's metadata |
| It can be found by what it shows | It is called IMG_4821 |
| And someone else can see it | Only the person who took it has it |
Important
The fourth decides. A photo that exists only on a phone is lost with that phone, and lost with that person when they change jobs. The work happened, but no evidence remains.
How to make them count
- 1
Upload it at the moment, from the phone
To the right file. Ten seconds then are worth more than half an hour later.
- 2
Have it read, if it contains text
A photographed and read delivery note is searchable by number or supplier; unread, it is not.
- 3
Frame the whole document
The commonest failure: cropping an edge and losing the stamp, date or signature.
- 4
And certify what could end in dispute
Damage, delivery condition, readings. A provable date is worth a lot there.
Watch out
The angled photo with a shadow across it is the hardest to read, and it is usually the delivery note you will need in six months. Straight on, well lit, without your own shadow: that is half the result.
What is always worth photographing
Worth knowing
If there is no signal, take the photo anyway and upload on the way out. What does not work is leaving the upload for the office: that is where it gets lost.
›Do phone photos take much space?
Less than a maximum-resolution scan, and well within the upload limit.
›Can I upload several at once?
Yes, and for a day in the field that is normal.
›Does a photo count as evidence?
It depends what accompanies it: provable date, author and context. A photo alone is worth little.
A real case
The situation
A technician keeps photos of every job on his phone.
What you do
- Uploads them to each job's file at the moment
What you get
When a client complains six months later, the photo is where it should be, with a date.
The situation
The photo is taken holding the document and comes out blurred.
What you do
- Rests the document before shooting
What you get
Reading works first time.
The situation
The photo is taken against the light in a warehouse.
What you do
- Moves to find even lighting
What you get
The text comes out legible.
The situation
The photos stay in the phone's camera roll.
What you do
- Uploads them to the file at the moment
What you get
The record does not depend on the handset.
The situation
Photos are taken in a rush and a page is missing.
What you do
- Checks all of them are there before leaving
What you get
No return trip is needed.
The situation
The photo is large and the upload fails.
What you do
- Uploads on a stable connection or reduces the size
What you get
The upload completes.
This article answers
- upload phone photos to a file
- photographing a delivery note instead of scanning
- do phone photos count as documents
- taking site photos so they are not lost