Dental Photography

Camera basics - Intraoral - Portrait - Object

by Szabi Hant MDT

Dental Ceramist, Photographer
 My products

SOFTER Diffuser POLARFRAME

Object pho tography Ki t + Guide booklet Cross Polar isin g filter + at t achme nt ring

for tw in flas h set up s on br acket

Online, on-deman d d ental intra.di user

photogr aph y cou rse to capture the sur face det ails of t he te et h

6+ ho urs of con tent from basi cs t o advanced

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Szabolcs (Szabi) Hant
Master Dental Technician

0498 270 018

hant.dental@gmail.com
www.hantdental.com
Photography Checklist and Settings

Shade photographs are the base of the communication between the dentist and the dental
technician. Precisely captured shade photographs can provide valuable informations. These
settings are for cropped sensor camera with a longer ~100m lens and hence you might need to
modify them if your camera/lens/ ash setup is di erent from mine. Other option is Automatic
Flash power, which is TTL. With that setting you don’t need to worry about the ash power,
but the results will vary because the automatic ash power not always correct.
I recommend to take the photos in this order to avoid dehydration!

Shade Tabs with Gumy and Polarising Filter

Compensate the light loss with more ash and/or ISO

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash*

Flash Power 1/2

*I recommend custom WB for cross polarised images.

See at the white balance section.

Cross polarised close-up

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash*

Flash Power 1/2

*I recommend custom WB for cross polarised images.

See at the white balance section.

Shade Tabs with a normal ash

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Shade Tabs with Gumy in Lateral View

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8
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 Photography Checklist and Settings

Shade tabs with lower teeth

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Shade Tabs for Stump Shade

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Normal Smile

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Smile with edge-to-edge

1/200 f 22 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Full face with smile (twin or ring ash)

1/200 f 5.6 ISO100 WB Flash

Flash Power 1/8

Open the aperture to f/5.6-6.3 to allow more light in. Normal

twin and ring ashes are not strong enough from the
distance.
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The Basic components and tools

THE CAMERA BODY - CROP SENSOR VS FULL FRAME

In digital SLR range we can choose between a crop sensor or a full frame camera.
For dental photography the true winner is a crop sensor camera. Here is the details why:

The main differences:

Advantages of the CROP sensor: Advantages of the FULL FRAME:

-low cost camera body -low noise in Higher ISO
-smaller size and weight -large dynamic range
-lens compatibility (old lenses)
-larger and brighter view nder

Disadvantages of the CROP sensor: Disadvantages of the FULL FRAME:

-more noise in higher ISO -more expensive (at the moment)
-smaller dynamic range (not relevant -heavier and bigger
for dental photography) -shallower “depth of eld”

Dx or Crop sensor Fx or Full Frame sensor

Full frame vs C ro p p ed se n so r

Full frame se nsor

Crop sensor
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 THE LENS:
For taking photos of small objects only REAL macro lenses are able to do. Zoom lenses with a
"macro tag" are not suitable for this purpose.
Macro lens is classically a lens capable of reproduction ratios 1:1 or greater.

Macro lenses with different focal lengths:

60-70 mm – recommended only on DX/Cropped sensor camera. On full frame they have a distorting
e ect.

90–105 mm – Ideal on both type of camera types and especially for intra oral photos

Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro

Lens distortion
C entrals look bigge r

Ta mron 9 0 mm Ma cro Nikon 60mm Ma c ro

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The Basic components and tools

LIGHT SOURCE: Flash

In dental photography two types of ash are available: Ring Flash and Twin Flash. LED light can
produce su cient amount of light but with ash light the work is much more convenient.

Ring Flash:
- Good for documenting
- Evenly lit oral cavity
- Not ideal for shade photography, washed out colours, hard re ections

Sigma EM-140DG
Big specular highlights in the middle of the centrals

Twin flash:
- Best for shade photography because the great colour reproduction
- Ideal for object/bench photography (especially the wireless)
- Versatile as the ash position can be wide and narrow

Meike MK-320

Small re ections on the line angles - more details

Canon Macro Twin Lite Nikon SB-200 Canon EL-100 Meike Mk-320 Godox MF12
MT-24EX

Gear list: www.kit.co/SzabiHant

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FLASH BRACKETS:

Dual point ash brackets allowing you to position the ash heads near to the lens for posterior/
intra oral shots or wider for shade and aesthetic photography.

Some Brands:
Indusbello Flash Bracket - www.adamdental.com.au

Agno’s: Medical Close-Up Bracket “Scorpion"

Agno’s Scorpion Bracket Flash adapter

Photomed/Indusbello Flash Bracket

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 The Basic components and tools

Calibration:
Cameras can be calibrated with special grey cards but
monitors, displays render the same image di erently.
For precise shade analysis we have to calibrate our
displays. Calibrated displays show wider details in
shadow and highlight areas.
If we using the photographs for publication the
calibration also crucial, otherwise we can’t predict the
quality of the prints. Recommended to calibrate the
monitors in every 6 months as colour rendition
changes by age.
My recommendation is ColorMUNKI Display from X-
rite

Black contraster:
Provide an even background and enhance the incisal
e ects.

Smile Line Contrasters

Flexible contraster

Cheek retractors:

Good intra oral photos are not possible without cheek

retractors. Without the cheek retractors we can’t
guaranteed the perfect illumination.
To avoid re ections from the retractor we can
sandblast the outer surface and we can use black
ones.
Also recommended to cut o one end, this allows to
place the mirror or the contraster easier. Indusbello Black retractors
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 SHOFU Gumy:

Shofu Gumy Indicator is designed for a more accurate and comprehensive shade selection
taking the gingiva (gum colour) into consideration.

Cross-Polariser:
Light re ected from a nonmetallic surface becomes polarised. A polariser lm, lter will absorb
much of re ections from the surface.
In dental photography we using cross polarisation technique. Cross polarising e ect is where
you use polarising lters - one on the camera lens and one on each ash.

With polariser

The Polarframe - Order: www.hantdental.com

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Basic terms and de nitions

The Exposure - Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO:

Exposure:

In photography, exposure is the amount of light per unit area (the image plane illuminance times
the exposure time) reaching a photographic lm or sensor.
Correct exposure is the result of aperture, exposure time, ash power and ISO.
The ideal exposure time for macro ash photography is the maximum sync speed of the camera.
It’s usually around 1/180-1/250 with DSLR. With this shutter speed you can avoid the ambient
light in uence.

Aperture and Depth of Field:

In the lens, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. Metal blades form the
hole and controlling the light.
Depth of eld depends on the aperture and magni cation. Closing the aperture (higher “f”
number) reduce the brightness and increase the depth of eld. If we closing we need to use
higher ash power.

Aperture Benchmarks for di erent camera sensors:

Micro 4/3 - f/16-22

Crop Sensor - f/18-25
Full Frame - f/30-36

f/29 f/20 f/13 f/8 f/5.6 f/2.8 Shallow depth of eld with f/5.6

De pth o f fie ld
Focu s p o int

A p er tu re
f/2 2

Depth of field - Sharp area

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 ISO:
Film speed is the measure of a photographic lm’s sensitivity to light. A closely related ISO
system is used to measure the sensitivity of digital imaging systems.
Keep the ISO sensitivity as low as possible. Normally 100 or 200.
At higher ISO speed the sensor signal is ampli ed thus the image “noise” becomes more
visible.
Lower ISO speed has less image “noise”. At higher ISO we lousing details and information.

photo wit h high ISO photo with high ISO - incre ase d contrast
Sharpness:
Even a correctly focused photograph can be soft if we using too small aperture ( big “f”
number, e.g. f/32), this phenomenon called di raction. Never use the smallest aperture to avoid
the di raction. Use one or two stop bigger aperture. Normally the lens producing the best
sharpness at f/8 but the depth of eld is not enough at f/8. Without compromising the
sharpness we can get a decent amount of depth of eld at f/18-25 on a crop sensor camera.

An example for di raction:

f /14 f/ 32
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White balance, Histogram

White Balance - Colour Balance:

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts,
so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your
photo.
Automatic white balance (AWB) works nicely under normal condition,
like outside in natural light.
In dental photography we can’t rely on AWB, we need a predictable
result, hence the easiest way is using the Flash white balance preset.
For more precise WB we can calibrate the camera with White Balance
cards. Almost every camera has a “custom White Balance” option for a
precise colour reproduction. X - r i te c ol o rc h e c ke r Pas s p or t

Recommended brands: WhiBal, Xrite.

Wh i B a l c ard
White Balance Calibration - Custom White Balance:
In this section I give you a guidance for Custom White Balance (WB), but please check the manual of your
camera for more detailed informations. The steps are similar on di erent brands, just the menu naming and
location is di erent.

Nikon:
This method works on many Nikon models but can be a slight di erence between models.

Steps:
1. Need an accurate WB card (x-rite, WhiBal etc.)
2. Make sure your settings are give you a correct exposure ( Shutter speed, Aperture etc.)
3. Find the White Balance - Preset manual menu
4. Select the slot you want to use for your custom WB (d1,d2…)
5. Press and hold the WB button on your camera until the PRE sign starts ashing
6. Take a photo of your WB card with a black background. Just the WB card and black background visible
on the image. (no ngers or di erent colours)
7. Now you can rename your slot to remember what light source did you use for this WB

Step 3 Step 4 Step 5a

Step 5b An example of a correct image

for Custom White Balance
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Canon:
This method works on many Canon models but can be a slight di erence between models.
Steps:
1. Need an accurate WB card (x-rite, WhiBal etc.)
2. Make sure your settings are give you a correct exposure ( Shutter speed, Aperture etc.)
3. Take a photo of your WB card with a black background. Just the WB card and black background visible
on the image. (no ngers or di erent colours)
4. In the menu, nd the Custom White Balance
5. Select you WB card photograph
6. Go to White Balance menu and select the Custom slot

Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Sony:
This method works on many Sony models but can be a slight di erence between models.
Steps:
1. Need an accurate WB card (x-rite, WhiBal, etc.)
2. Make sure your settings are give you a correct exposure ( Shutter speed, Aperture etc.)
3. Find your White Balance settings in the Menu or with your dedicated WB button
4. Select you Custom slot (the number of options are depends on the camera model)
5. Select SET and aim the middle circle to the WB card.
6. Press the SELECT button to calibrate.

Step 3-4 Step 5 Step 6

Histogram:
Luminance Histogram (white graph) is a bar graph showing the tonal values in the photograph from black
to white.
Great help to check the exposure on the back of the camera. LCDs are not accurate.
If the bars shifted to the left part of the histogram the photograph could be underexposed. If the bars
shifted to the right the result could be overexposed.
We have to avoid the highlights blown out. Some cameras can show clipping on the nal image.

Photograph with H istogra m Nikon Histogram

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Tips and Tricks

Camera angle and light reflections:

To achieve the best possible photograph for shade communication we have to hold the camera in
the right angle.
The higher position will provide smaller re ections and more detail.

The correct an gle for sh ade photography

Too low an gle Correct angle

Occlusal photographs with intra-oral mirror:

Correct axis is a key factor with mirrors. If we position the focal plane correctly the entire dentition
will be in focus with the right amount of depth of eld.
In shade communication the occlusal maxillary photos can be useful showing the discolouration of
the lingual side of the anterior teeth.
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 Light modi ers

Light Modifiers:
Light modi ers are a range of equipment used on a shoot to change the ash light in some way to
make it more appropriate to meeting the goals of the shoot.
Basically two types of modi ers used in dental photography:
Shoot-through and bouncers/re ectors.

Copy paper intra .diffu ser

in tra .diffu ser and result

Bouncers or reflectors:

Anything with re ective surface can be used as a bouncer.

Normally a white surface is the ideal to avoid colour cast on the subject.
Bouncers producing similar soft light as the shoot-through modi ers with slightly less
light loss.

I prefer the shoot-through modi ers because sometimes di cult to position the bouncers
since we only have limited space for photographing the patients teeth.
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Object Photography tools

Backgrounds for object photography:

Black, white and mirror background are the most commonly used in object photography. Coloured
backgrounds are not ideal because can be distracting for the viewers.

Backgrounds with re ected surface are more ideal since the re ection of the object increase the
interest of the photograph.

Materials can be use as background/base:

• ceramic tiles
• black and white acrylics
• mirrors with re ecting surface

Materials can be use as di user:

• copy paper
• mini soft box
• plastic sheets

Black/white t ile

The “Softer” diffuser

The “Softer” di user kit - Order: www.hantdental.com

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 Examples

Flash light dif fused with acr ylic Rim/side light ing with acr y li c di ffuser

W ith white ba ckgrou nd Back light ing wi th ac r ylic di ffuser

Graze lighting Side lighting on black tile

Side lighting with diffused flash Objec t on whi te acr ylic, light from under
 Portrait photography tools

External flash: Light stand:

External ashes are extremely To support and
useful for portrait position our ash and
photography since we can light modi ers.
imitate the position of the sun Di erent heads for
and with special light shapers umbrella and for soft
we can easily achieve a box.
attering result. We can use
branded (Nikon, Canon) or no
name ashes. Flash with slave
function is pro table because
we don’t need any extra
expensive radio triggers or
cables to re the ash.

Light modifiers:

Light modi ers are used to soften the light.

A shoot through umbrella is the cheapest and easiest
option.
It’s provide a really soft light as the light can escape from
the open umbrella and bounce back from the white walls
and ceilings.
A soft box is more ideal if we want to control how the light Backgrounds:
hit the subject.
Both type of light modi ers are available in di erent sizes. Reversible backgrounds are perfect for
The bigger the light modi er the softer the result. portraits and “headshots”. Quick and
easy to set up and with the white-grey side
option we are able to capture high key
(white background) or low key (black
background) portraits as well.

Softbox

Lastolite white/ grey b ackgro und

Shoot through umb rella

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 Portrait photography lighting

Basic portrait lighting in a small room:

Meike MK-320 1/4

Background
Shoot through Umbrella

Meike MK-320 1/4

1/200 f-6.3-8
ISO 100-200

Silver Re ector

Just th e umbrella + Silver reflector + Back ground li ght + F lattering po se

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Portrait Examples
Materials and links:

Photomed R2 Dual Point Flash Bracket www.photomed.com

Agno’s Medical Close-Up Bracket “Scorpion” www.agnos.com

Indusbello Flash Bracket www.adamdental.com.au

Sensor Cleaning - Sensor GelStick www.amzn.to/3Czw1Wp

White Balance card - WhiBal Contact me!

Monitor Calibration - Spyder4Pro www.spyder.datacolor.com

Monitor Calibration - X-rite ColorMUNKI www.x-rite.com

Contrastor - Smile Line www.smileline.ch

Shofu Gumy - #7040 Contact me!

Polarising lm - Polariser 200mmx250mm www.3dlens.com

Acrylic Sheets www.acrylicsonline.com.au

Studio accessories www.kayellaustralia.com.au

Gear list www.kit.co/SzabiHant

© Szabi Hant
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 nt MDT
© Szabi Ha