Keep It Simple, Right?

When it comes to tak­ing pic­tures for den­tistry, one of the most com­mon ques­tions I get is along the lines of, “How do I know which set­tings to use for the dif­fer­ent kinds of pic­tures?”  Since most den­tists, as well as their staff mem­bers, are not pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phers, the DSLR cam­eras I rec­om­mend often seem big and really complicated.

Here’s the truth: once you get the basic set­tings writ­ten down and mem­o­rized, there will only be ONE set­ting that you have to change on the cam­era body, which basi­cally means that the big, complicated-looking, fancy cam­era you’re hold­ing will be turned into a POINT & SHOOT cam­era, and about every­one can deal with that. 

So what set­tings do you need to use?  Using the KISS Prin­ci­ple, here you go:

FULL FACE:

• ISO 200
• Shut­ter speed 1/200
• f-stop f/8.0

EVERYTHING ELSE:

• ISO 200
• Shut­ter speed 1/200
• f-stop f/25

 As you can see, the ONLY set­ting you really need to change of the 3 is the f/stop.  See, I told you it would be easy!

Soon I’ll be giv­ing a more detailed expla­na­tion of what those set­tings mean, as well as a few other set­tings to round out the com­plete list that you need to make den­tal pho­tog­ra­phy truly simple.