Dental Photography: A Classic, Simplified Everyday Protocol
Category: Marketing and Management
Instructor(s): Juan Carlos Támara Motta
Course structure: Lessons: 6 lessons | Duration: 5 h 56 min
Course overview
After the course, you will be able to create and use your own dental photography laboratory.
You will learn:
– to choose the appropriate equipment and accessories for it
– to manage lighting, exposure, shutter speed and other important parameters for high-quality photography
– to take high-quality macro photographs of your restorations
– to edit photos
– to implement a simplified photographic protocol directly from your smartphone.
This course will be useful both for those who want to share their successes with colleagues and patients, and for those who want an additional protective tool in case of patient complaints.
What you will learn
- Set up a dedicated dental photography laboratory choosing appropriate equipment and accessories.
- Manually control exposure, shutter speed, and lighting for high-quality clinical images.
- Capture high-quality macro photographs of restorations using proper lenses and accessories.
- Implement a simplified smartphone photographic protocol for clinical documentation and sharing.
Course lessons
Lesson 1. History and Photographic Principles
– Know the origins of photography, its relationship with art, and the first artists who made it known
– Know, in a timeline, how photography has evolved through the years, which advantages technological development has brought to this field, and which mostly artistic characteristics have faded
– Learn some of the rules or norms of photographic composition in general photography and which we can adapt and use as protocol in our clinical photography
– Summarize the important pillars from their beginnings in the structuring of images.
Lesson 2. Getting to Know Photographic Equipment
– Learn the main elements and components of a camera. See in detail how the camera components can conduct, guide, or direct natural light beams
– Learn the different types of cameras that exist and which are most useful in the dental field
– Learn the different types of photographic lenses and know which are indispensable to achieve good clinical results
– Understand the process by which a light beam ultimately becomes an image and how, depending on the type of camera, this direction flow is modified
– Understand how we can properly manage lighting based on the principle of the exposure triangle and be able to use our equipment in fully manual mode, moving further away from automatic mode like photography professionals.
Lesson 3. Lighting and Macro Photography
– Know the different types of light used for photography, learn the difference between natural light and artificial light
– Know the different characteristics and properties of light in photography and which properties are indispensable to learn thoroughly for clinical images
– Learn about artificial lighting by reviewing the different types of photographic flashes, lights and accessories to optimize the lighting of photographic shots
– Learn what macro photography is and how we can apply it in clinical photography
– Understand the different magnification ranges of macro photography and know when we are taking a true macro photo and when an approximation or extreme magnification
– Know the different accessories, lenses, diopters or attachments for doing macro photography and which are most versatile in the clinical field.
Lesson 4. Tips and Lifehacks for a Perfect Photographic Protocol
– Know the beginnings of clinical photography and its applicability in dentistry, and understand why a photograph is no less important than a radiograph
– Know the different elements used for taking clinical photographs: retractors, contrast mirrors, accessories and useful items for capturing clinical images
– Know the different clinical photography protocols: basic image protocol, photographic close-up, framings and optional photos
– Learn the different positioning of the clinician acting as photographer and the positioning of the patient, to achieve ergonomics when taking photographs
– Know how to instruct my patient in the use of elements for taking clinical photographs by creating protocols that can be repeated for all patients
– Know what can be achieved with basic equipment such as a pair of retractors, a camera and a flash, as an easy protocol that provides a quick start to begin the learning curve.
Lesson 5. Dental Photo Processing and Marketing Considerations
– Know and understand what digital development (digital raw processing) is and what the basic IT requirements are for digital processing software
– Learn the differences between developing and digital editing and know how digital software can improve our photographs by an additional 30%
– Learn the basic features and controls of a digital raw processing program, such as tools for cropping, managing exposure and color temperature, sharpening, detail, and error corrections
– Learn how we can create a digital patient library where we can organize and classify photographs and maintain record control at the beginning, during, and end of any clinical treatment we perform
– Learn the different types of photographic files we can handle and which we can use for clinical photography, as well as which are compatible with our networked digital marketing and social media.
Lesson 6. Simplified Photographic Protocol for Smartphones
– Learn the basic characteristics of smartphone or mobile phone cameras
– Learn the parameters to consider when taking images
– Learn which equipment can best serve us in the clinical field to make a more accurate purchasing decision
– Know which accessories we can use to illuminate our photographs
– Understand image resolution and know which best fits our individual clinical practice
– Discover the digital applications we can use to edit, store, and share our photos, for example on social networks.
