4– Taking Dental Photos Start to Finish

      

 

Extra-Oral / Portrait Shots

 

THE SET UP and TIMING

                 Always do extra-orals first to avoid tears, lipstick, and red marks

You can mark the floor to keep the same magnification (this works as long as you are not using a zoom lens)

White, blue, or black background recommended

However- if you want to extract the patient from the background then black is more difficult

Place patient one foot from the wall or more- farther better

Keep Frankfort horizontal level

 

SETTINGS

Settings for portrait shots that differ from intra-oral-

           Autofocus if you want (instead of manual)

           Aperture- f5.6 (instead of f32)

 

Settings for portraits that are the same for intra-oral-

Mode- manual exposure or aperture priority can be used unless you have the Rebel

Shutter speed- around 125 sec. (if you use aperture priority then you don’t set this)

White balance- flash white balance (lightning bolt)

Flash- TTL

ISO- 100 or 200

 

A Note on white balance for face shots

The flash white balance is most accurate technically, and will make the teeth their truest color

However, the patient will often look better with a warmer WB such as cloudy or shade depending on the camera (shade is the warmer of the two and looks too warm in some cameras)

You may want to play with this especially for after shots when you have the patient do their hair and you want them to look great

You would just want to keep an eye on the teeth to make sure they don’t start looking orange

You could also shoot your after photos in RAW instead of jpeg and decide the WB after the shoot in photoshop, and then write the files back to jpegs with the WB you chose (kind of a pain, but it works if you are really concerned about a certain shoot and want it to be absolutely the best)

 

 

VIEWS

Frontal View

Hold camera sideways(vertical) and turn one flash off so the remaining flash is high and center- to avoid shadows (or use the pop-up flash)

You may want to do one at rest and one with a smile

           Profile

                      Rotate flash so it comes from the patient’s front (avoid shadows)

Turn patient so you can just see opposite eyebrow- so you know they are not turned away from you

           ¾ Profile

                      Another option- oral surgeons sometimes use this

                      Turn patient into further toward the camera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intra-Oral Shots

 

THE SET UP / GUIDLINES

~these notes are to be remembered for all intra-oral shots~

Set magnification in distance scale window according to your 3x5 card for each view

(i.e.- 0.45m,  or 0.5m)

Leave both point lights on, and equal in output unless you have a specific reason to turn one down or off

           Always get the mirror as far from teeth as possible

Get mirror warm in mixing bowl of hot water to keep fog down- no defogging solution, and don’t need to blow air

45/45 Rule- always keep the flash (lens) 45 degrees from the mirror and the mirror 45 degrees from the teeth

Don’t worry about wiggle or camera shake- the flash basically becomes your shutter speed and is probably fast enough to stop a bullet

Move into the subject to focus

Take several photos of each view making adjustments to angles and keep only the best ones

Hold the mirror yourself so you can make the proper corrections- *very important

Use the strap around your neck

Let your camera hang, see photo through mirror, lift, shoot a few, and drop

Need to flip all photos except the frontals in software

Use clear plastic retractors for all views, except buccal where you use the wire retractor for the same side as the mirror and a plastic retractor for the opposing side, Use the ½ plastic retractors for occlusals to give room for the mirror

Hardest part- keep mirror as far from teeth/tissue as possible in all views

Keep camera parallel to occlusal plane

 

 

 

SETTINGS

                 Settings for intra-oral that differ from portraits-

Manual focus

Aperture-  f32

           Settings for intra-oral that are the same as portraits

Mode- manual or aperture priority unless you use the Rebel

Shutter speed- 125 or higher, but keep under flash sync.

don’t need to set this if you use aperture priority

White balance- flash (lightning bolt)

                      Flash- TTL

                      ISO- keep it all the way down (100 or 200)

 

 

VIEWS

Frontal

           Patient holds clear plastic retractors out

           Set magnification/ Distance scale window

           Focus on canine or first premolar- don’t waist depth of field

           Teeth together for standard shot, may also do slightly open to wide open with contrastor

Use grid in view finder to split arches and midline evenly- this can be turned on or off in some cameras

           Make sure camera isn’t too high or low

                      Have camera just high 1-2 degrees gives a slightly + line which is perfect

                      High camera position= positive line (upward)

                      Low camera position= negative line

If you want to show an overjet, or an incisal chip then you can put 1 flash at 12:00 (turn one off and rotate the other one to top)

The closer you get the more you have to watch your depth of field

           Occlusal

                      Have patient hold halved clear plastic retractors up or down and out

Set magnification

                      Use extra long occlusal mirror

                      Max

                                 You can do from behind- lean ‘em back

                      Mand

                                 Lean patient back until max is 90 degrees from floor

Push tongue back with mirror

           Buccal

                      Set magnification

                      #1B buccal mirror

                      Teeth together

                      Wire retractor same side, plastic opposite

                      Pull mirror out to cheek before rotating to 45 or you’ll pinch ‘em

                      Line mirror up so it is not uphill

                                  If you can get 45 degrees you’ll have a great shot

                      Hold mirror from back so you don’t shadow it with your hand

                      You can even get distal of 3rds

           For Perio people

#1 Wide Buccal for perio: http://practicon.com/category.asp_Q_c_E_450_A_Imaging%2FPhotography

           Palate and Lingual

                      Use the bulb side of #1B

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Sterilization- Wash with soap and water and wrap in paper towel, then bag