Techniques of Clinical Digital Photography in Plastic Surgery

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, clinical digital photography is very prevalent, though the pitfalls, problems, and standardizing works of its techniques have not yet been discussed well enough in Korea. Digital single lens reflex cameras and macro capacity lenses are still recommended for plastic surgeons for its reproducibility and high quality of developed photographs. Since the selection of digital camera itself is as important as the choice of the film in film cameras, the selected digital equipments should not be exchanged in a center or a clinic. Eighteen percents gray card(Eastman Kodak) could be used for the strict setting of the white balance as the white balance is essential in digital imaging. Studio flash lighting is good enough in clinical digital photographing settings and, soft, even lighting effect should be achieved using flash accessories (e. g. bouncer) minimizing loss of details. Taken images could be optimized through the software working (image processing) after the monitor color balancing work. They must be always developed or printed under the uniform setup status of the whole equipments to get accurate, constant pictures.