Digital Dental Photography

Digital Photography and Workflow for Dentists

Digital Photography

Prepare Lightroom for 2013 Dental Photos

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It’s the beginning of a new year, and if you haven’t already done so, it is time to create a new set of folders for 2013, and time to create a new Metadata Preset to be applied on import of all your photos.  Otherwise, you’ll be adding outdated metadata to your images and making your photo catalog less organized.  One side benefit of updating your Copyright Info in the Metadata Preset is this: if you upload any of those photos to your website, Google+ Local Page, Facebook Fan Page, etc., Google will recognize the year and know that it is new, fresh content.  And Google LOVES fresh content on websites!

Don’t forget to check out the short video tutorial at the bottom of the page, too!

Create A New Year Folder with Sub-headings

I’ve already discussed how I recommend organizing your Folder Hierarchy, and that hasn’t changed, although I changed a couple folder names this year, as you can see in this screenshot.  You can tell I did it before the end of 2012, as there wasn’t a single photo loaded into this year yet.

How to set up a folder hierarchy to organize dental photos in Lightroom

Of course, this is completely customizable depending on your procedure mix and desire to separate, or not separate them out as much as I do.

Create a New Copyright Metadata Preset for Import

To help protect your photos from online theft and misuse, make sure you read Image Copyright Protection; and now it’s time to create a NEW Metadata Preset.  Please DO NOT just “update” the one that you have; if you do so, every image to which you had applied the old one, i.e. for 2012, will now suddenly read as if it were taken in 2013 instead, which is wrong.  CREATE A NEW PRESET!

To do so, you must first be in the Library Module, then go to “Photos > Edit Metadata Preset” and you’ll come to this screen, and you can just enter the appropriate data for your practice.  As you can see at the bottom, in the box labeled “Keywords,” I’ve added just one keyword – 2013.  This is just to avoid having to add it to every photo.

What copyright metadata information to add to a Lightroom preset.

And you’re set to go!

2012 Ends and 2013 Begins

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As 2012 is wrapping up, I thought I’d share one particular graphic from my annual WordPress.com report received today, as it is just pretty darn amazing to me and really illustrates the power we have to reach the world through the Web.  The graphic sums it all up – 147 countries!

Internationally-read blog about dental digital photography by Charlotte NC dentist Dr. Payet

Photography Should be Fun

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On a personal level and in a break from the serious nature of my last few postings, I want to discuss a very serious topic, which is namely this:

Get Out There and Have FUN with your Camera!

In all seriousness, photography has become one of my most-enjoyed hobbies ever, and it is both a fun challenge and just pure enjoyment to get out the camera and gear and go shoot with no purpose in mind but to have FUN!

As it happens, there are 3 places where I’ve nurtured the enjoyment of photography, while learning some of the finer points of both shooting and post-processing images, usually with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop CS6; these days, I’m also experimenting with Nik’s software, such as HDR Efex 2, Silver Efex 2, and a couple others.  These 3 places are:

  1. The Aspiring Photographer’s thread on DentalTown (you have to be a dental professional to be a member)
  2. The FredMiranda.com Landscapes forum
  3. Google+

In the year since Google+ launched, it has become one of the biggest worldwide communities of photographers, and it is amazing to see the talent shared there.  I do find that FredMiranda.com is a better place to receive constructive critique, because it’s easier to be noticed there if you start a thread, while it’s easy to be buried in the constant stream of photos, and you need to be noticed and circled by enough people to have your images spread, but still…….G+ is great.

The Google Plus One-Year Photowalk

June 30th, 2012 happened to be the Google+ One-Year Anniversary, so a man named Thomas Hawke started the idea of a worldwide Photowalk to be held that day, and the response was phenomenal!  Here in Charlotte, NC we had nearly 20 people show up, which was even more remarkable given the 100-105 degree temperatures.  Getting together with a bunch of other people, none of whom I’d met previously, ended up being a lot of fun and pushed my photographic limits, as I’ve never done much architectural or street photography.  But here are a few shots from that blistering Saturday evening:

If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that I have not placed any watermarks on these photos.  Given my recent blog posts, you may wonder why, and there’s a fairly simple reason….I’m just not worried about anyone stealing these images.  Naturally, I would prefer that they not, but none of these shots is likely to be worthy of selling prints or otherwise being highly valuable.

But the real message: if you want to get GOOD at photography, and if you want to learn the most about it, get the camera out of the office and go shoot some stuff besides teeth!

Please share links to your own photo galleries, websites, or tell me what you enjoy shooting outside the office in the comments.

Finally Getting to Take Pictures Again!

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Over the last 18 months or so, I have been working so hard on my dental practice, and my websites, that I’ve had little time to actually be a photographer, which is truly a passion.  The last time I got to do any real shooting was when we took a family vacation to Hawaii in April 2010, but even that was just snapshots of a vacation, not planned, scouted, and visualized in advance for the best shots.  But that is about to change!

My Passion for Photography Outside Dentistry

A few years ago, I came upon a fabulous photography forum: FredMiranda.com.  A free site (you do have to sign up to post photos, but there are no fees for most things), they have a wide variety of forums, from weddings to landscapes to sports to wildlife, etc.  I learned a tremendous amount just by reading and viewing, then gathered the courage to post some photos and received some very constructive critique.

One photographer, whom I came to greatly admire, is Mark Metternich, and you can see his landscape photography on his website: WildforLight.com.  Around the end of 2008, I was exploring the idea of supplementing our family income with some photography (back in the midst of the economic crisis, anything seemed like a good idea!), and Mark was kind enough to spend some time with me on the phone, explaining some possibilities.  It didn’t pan out, but he did push me to start building my own photography website, www.CDPayetPhotography.com.

Landscape Photography Expedition in Oregon

Mark also told me that he does photography tours of the Southwest and the Northwest, and the idea fascinated me.  To spend an extended time totally devoted to landscape photography…..back in those days, it was a pipe dream for financial reasons, but the dream took hold, and it became a real goal to make it happen.  And earlier this year (spring of 2011), the time was finally right to make a commitment and schedule a trip, so I called Mark up and said, “Let’s do it!”

This coming Friday, September 1st, I will be taking off for Portland, OR, to be picked up by Mark, and we will be heading out for a full week of landscape photography at a level that I have never before reached.  I am so incredibly excited, I can barely make it through the next 2 days of work!

I don’t know if we will have much in the way of Internet access, and I don’t plan on taking a laptop this time, so I’m not sure yet if I will be able to blog my way (with photos) through the trip, but I am going to try.  If not, I’ll be doing a huge amount of post-processing for weeks afterwards, and I do plan on using this as a place to share (partially because I am going to be testing out some new WordPress photo gallery plugins).

Google+ Is the New Photography-Sharing Site

Is anyone else on Google+, their new social media platform?  If you are, it is rapidbly becoming a photographer’s dream – there are some amazing photographers on there!  If you’re interested in joinging Google+, please give me your email, and I’ll be glad to send you an invitation.

 

Who’s going to Townie Meeting 2011? Wanna “shoot” Vegas @ Night with me?

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OK, anyone else going to be at the Townie Meeting 2011 in just another 5 weeks?  I am really looking forward to it, as this is my first time back since 2005.  My wife is coming, too, as there are plenty of Townies who want to meet the woman who, quite literally, helped save my dental practice and turn my life around. It will even be a sort of 5th Wedding Anniversary trip for us.  😀

Naturally, with my wife along, and with all the great courses being given by some phenomenal lecturers, there won’t be a lot of free time, even in the evenings, but one thing I REALLY want to do is spend some time one evening walking around the Strip shooting pictures.

The only “requirements/suggestions:”

  • A camera and plenty of memory on the cards
  • A tripod in case you’re too tipsy to hold the camera steady from all the parties
  • You want to have fun taking a ton of pictures!

A Ring Flash Technique for Tooth Shade Matching

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In response to a question on DentalTown regarding how to get rid of the excessive flash on the central incisors when taking a shade for lab restorations, my colleague Dr. David Cook responded with this trick to solve the problem.  The description and photos are both courtesy of him.

One solution when you get too much perpendicular flash returning directly towards your lens is to alter the angle of your lens to the flat facial surfaces as others have advised.

Another solution is to still shoot perpendicular to the flat facial surfaces, but remove the ring flash from the front of your lens, hold it on top of your lens and angle it down 30-45 degrees. The flash is the same distance from the teeth, but the light angling down will not give you as much reflective washed out areas.

This image, the lens is perpendicular to the flat facial surface and the attached flash is perpendicular. Note the large reflected washed out facial areas on the centrals.


This image, the lens is still perpendicular, but I removed the ring flash, held it above the lens and angled it down 30-45 degrees. There are still highlights, but not the large washed out areas. You can also see the incisal translucency better and characterizations when the flash is taken off and angled down.

As others pointed out, another option is to use a twin-lite flash, such as the Canon MT-24EX TTL Macro Twin Lite or the Nikon R1C1 Wireless Closeup Speedlight system.  These are generally more difficult to use for anything except the anterior teeth unless you are very experienced.