Consistency is the key to success! Your post production is your signature.
What is a digital workflow in dental photography? We’re working with hundreds of photos everyday and proper documentation is the best way to keep them in order. We don’t even want to think what can happen with photos kept in a digital mess! But your order has also influenced your clinic-Lab communication: finding the right file will take a blink of an eye.
Do you need more advantages to get started? Let’s mention faster clinical protocols, lower cost materials for your clinic or repeatability of work (you can always re-print a model).
You’re not sure if you’re interested? These are some of the topics explored in this lesson:
Workflow: setting your camera and importing your photos to your computer
File transfer: types of ports, cables, cards. Transfer speeds according to USB connector type.
File Storage & Backup: Archiving your items, Backup devices, Tips: how to provide a solid backup of your files?
Organizing Images: Various ways of organizing your photos, according to date/event/type.
There are so many reasons to watch this lesson– whether you’re in it for outcomes, efficiency, patient experience, the planet, or increasing the value of your practice. Choose one of them and watch our course!
We’re pretty sure you would like to watch it now and don’t hesitate any longer!
ImagenAI has announced its AI-powered photo editing desktop app for Adobe Lightroom workflows.
Its artificial intelligence’s aim is to learn your personalized editing style. In your AI profile the app analyzes each image and predicts how you will edit and apply it in a matter of seconds.
How should it be used? First, you need to teach the app your particular editing style. ImagenAI asks for 5,000 or more of your previously edited photos in a Lightroom catalog, necessary to learn your editing style. Remember: the larger the sample size provided, the more accurate a profile it can generate. The system training will take a few days, and it will inform you via e-mail about the next steps to take. Thanks to using only artificial intelligence, the app promises to work much faster than any other tool that needs the human element.
Watch this video:
The application works on both PC and Mac and is free to try for your first 1000 images. After this limit, you can choose to cancel or to sign up for the service on a $7 monthly subscription plus a “pay-per-use” fee that scales down in cost the more images you send through per month.
Will this app help dental photographers in their everyday work? As soon as we can check this, we’ll let you know!
The emergence of artificial intelligence has made itself more significant over the last few years: Adobe, Skylum and Canon have their own tools and it seems like there will be more.
LEXAR 1TB – THIS CARD LOOKS IMPRESSIVE, AND WE DON’T MEAN JUST ITS CAPACITY.
Bigger and bigger photos, video in 4K – these changes need new solutions, like fast cards with bigger capacities. But if safety is important for you as well, this new card will be your best friend.
LEXAR IS BACK ON TRACK WITH SDXC CARD
Few things to know about Lexar Professional 633x SDXC? Record-breaking 1TB capacity, read transfer speed up to 633x (95 MB/s), write speed up to 70 MB/s, ability to work in challenging conditions and the fact that is out now.
In 2017 Lexar landed in Chinese producer Longsys and we wondered if its offer would still be expanded and how? Today we must admit: they did it well.
Of course, out of duty, we need to mention Sandisk 2016’s card with 1TB capacity. The only problem was, it never hit the sales. Unlike it, Lexar’s card is available already and costs around $500.
WE SPENT $500, AND WHAT DO WE GET?
Class 10 performance–leverages UHS-I (U1 or U3 depending on capacity) technology for a read transfer speed up to 95MB/s (633x) and 70MB/s write (guaranteed permanent write speed is 30 MB/s)
1TB capacity, but you can also choose cheaper cards with capacity: 521, 256, 128, 64, 32 or 16 GB
Ability to work in challenging outdoor conditions: from 0° to 70°C, or keeping it in -25° to 85°C with humidity range 5-95%
IS IT WORTH IT?
$500 is quite a lot, but in our opinion, this card is just worth the cost. Apart from its huge capacity and other features, working with a card from a known producer is safer. The card must be reliable.
If you’re looking for tips on how to rip and organize your photos of many patients visiting your dentist office, check out or lesson:Dental Office Digital Workflow
Reflective cross-polarisation gives interesting opportunities for clinician and dental technician to see the details in the tooth structure. Lastly, I had a patient with demanding color structure of the natural dentition.
With help of the polar-eyes mounted on my Metz 15 MS-1 ring flash, I took few shots to see and check the hidden details in the teeth structure.
After downloading the files into my computer, I start to work with editing. My software of preference is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC.
The first view shows the photo without specular reflections. The color distribution and structure of the teeth with visible cracks is more present compared to the non-polarised picture.
In the Develop Mode in the Lightroom software, I have the tools on the right panel, which will let me control and change different settings. By moving the sliders left or right I can change the values of specific parameters. This is very helpful and can bring even more details into the light from existing photo.
With the next photo, I reduced the Highlights -100. Notice the change in the cervical and incisal area.
Another change is with Blacks reduced to -100. The photo becomes oversaturated with more visible distribution of the color in the tooth
Last but not list is the manipulation with Contrast +100 and Clarity +100. The photo shows more details in the structure of the teeth, like cracks or perikymata.
There are many options to manipulate the photos in the digital world using different types of software. However, the most common are Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop CC, and Lightroom CC.
Of course, it’s up to you what kind of instrument will you use to get more information about the tooth structure.
Modern digital photography may be joyful or painful experience because taking photos is just the beginning. It’s crucial to understand the process and establish so-called Digital Workflow. In simple words, it is the step by step process from setting the camera and taking a photo to the final result. It can be photo printed in the book or email attachment or picture displayed on the big screen during lecture.
Digital Workflow in dental photography includes six main elements:
Initial settings of the camera
Setting the parameters to take intraoral shots or portraits
Importing photos
Pictures organization
Post-production
Backup
With this article, I start the series explaining these six elements in details. Let’s jump into the first step.
Initial settings of the camera.
– Date & Time
– Color Space
– Image quality
– White Balance
– ISO
Initial settings are crucial for getting the best results and for the future organization of the photos. When you buy your digital camera, it will have so-called default settings, embedded in the factory. They work fine and are good for a majority of the applications. In the case of dental photography or for advanced use it makes sense to dig inside these settings to get most out of it.
Not every digital camera offers you access to all parameters. A majority of modern DSLR cameras (Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera) and mirrorless cameras let you customize the settings depending on your needs. Some of them are easy to set, but others are in the menu of the camera. Whenever you struggle, please refer to the manual of your camera. Yes, I know, it’s annoying and written in the language understandable only for real geeks and photo enthusiasts but don’t give up.
1. Date & Time
It’s crucial for proper organization of your photos. When you take a picture, your camera will also save date and time. Then, after importing photographs to the computer, images will be organized based on the date hierarchy.
2. Color Space
In your camera, you can change default color profile settings from sRGB to Adobe RGB. It will allow saving 35% more information about color.
3. Image quality
A modern digital camera lets you save a single photo in jpg or RAW file. Whenever you have a chance, select RAW + jpg. It gives you best flexibility. I will explain this topic in the future, in the separate article.
4. White Balance
Set in the camera flash symbol. White Balance permanently applies to jpg files already in the camera. RAW files allow you to optimize the color in the postproduction. It’s important at the end to see your photos in the same color temperature.
5.ISO
Sensor sensitivity (ISO), should be set to the values in the range from 100 to 400. Newer cameras can handle with higher ISO values without compromising the quality of the photo.
Summary:
By applying these initial settings to your camera, you will get control over quality and organization of your photographs.
If you are subscribed user in the Dental Photo Master platform, you can watch related videos: Dental Photography Cameras – different models of the cameras are demonstrated, with step by step process of selecting the correct setup. Digital Workflow – The essential steps of a digital workflow. Learn about files transfer, management and archiving of your photographs.
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