No matter how effective your medical aesthetic treatments, you must have pictures that accurately depict the results in order to market to new patients.

Take pictures of every patient at every step of their treatment plan in order to best tell the story of their results.   Think of the pictures as just as important as proper procedure technique!

Patient Positioning: Seat the patient on a stool which is adjusted to a comfortable height and placed in front of the camera. The patient should sit up straight. When turning for angled and side views, the patient should rotate the entire body, including shoulders and feet.

Framing Your Subject: Center the ears vertically in all views. For front and angled views, center the entire head horizontally. For lateral views, place the front of the face 1/4 frame from edge.

Standardizing Your Photography:  In general, photographs should be taken without makeup, at standardized distances, using standard camera height, position and lighting:

1. To provide an accurate record, the relative positions of patient and camera must be kept constant.

2. Maintain constant lighting every time you photograph. Use the same lighting (overhead or side lamps) and have patients stand in the same position relative to the lighting to maintain similar shadows from photo to photo.

3. If possible, always take the photographs using the same background. A dark wall or a dark (blue or black) cloth background will bring greater attention to the body you are photographing.

4. Remove all distracting items from the photo area, such as office furniture, body jewelry, and clothing (other than undergarments). Also, if not taking pictures of the face, have patients stand with their hands on their heads to reduce distraction from the arms, and to ensure the position can be redone easily for the “after” shots.

5. Ideally, draw a circle on the floor for patient positioning. It should be divided into eight 45° angles. From the circle, draw a straight line on the floor to the position of the camera. This is the axis of the camera. The patient should rotate on the outer edge of each of the 45° axes, while the camera move forwards and backwards, instead of side to side, to get the best shots at distances and angles relevant to the body area of interest.

6. While holding the camera, sit, stand, or kneel at one of the positions marked
 along the camera axis. For greater stability, the camera may be mounted on a tripod. Camera height is adjusted to match the height of the target area, with the lens barrel always parallel to the floor. It is important not to tilt the camera up or down.

Bottom line:

It is essential to have good pictures that don’t appear to be exaggerated. By keeping the photo setup the same for every picture, it is possible to bring more consistency and accuracy to the photographs.

See the photo array taken during a series of EndyMed RF Micro Needling treatments. You can see more treatment images at http://www.endymedtraining.com/rf-microneedling.html