Dental photography

[Al.]

Pratice with your wife and kids.

Heres my lowers, my wife took this. its with the dual flash with typing paper filters on each flash.
Gives a nice soft look to the flash.

This is zoomed in all the way, check that peice of lent on my left lateral #23.

 

[rkm rdt]

I will try that.The softened flash still highlights the contours but certainly reduces the shine back .

Was the photo angle from slightly above as you described previously? The lingual incisal translucency is incredible.

 

[dmonwaxa]

Pratice with your wife and kids.

Heres my lowers, my wife took this. its with the dual flash with typing paper filters on each flash.
Gives a nice soft look to the flash.

This is zoomed in all the way, check that peice of lent on my left lateral #23.

Lint huh?,,,sure

Great Pic

 

[rkm rdt]

The margins appear to be short on the solid model, and it lacks characterization on #11& 12,,,,

Nice photography though.

The gingival stone was removed for contact adjustments.There are no short margins here.
If there were, it would be the milling centre's fault anyway

 

[TheLabGuy]

Are you getting that parafunction addressed Jedi Master?

 

[JonB]

On softening the flash - I've heard of people wrapping the flash heads with tissue paper and tying it on with rubber bands. For that matter, you could do the same with small white paper bags.

 

[rkm rdt]

Let's see how this looks: Page #1




Page # 2

 

[dmonwaxa]

I see an Al. Jr in the making, nice work.

 

[rkm rdt]

Thanks Dmon,
just working on the flash techniques and composition tools with Photobucket.These images don't seem as sharp as the originals though.

I experimented with a setting that gave me a double flash which seemed to reduce the glare and flashback.

 

[TheLabGuy]

Wow, nice work northern brother......who was the stoner who placed those implants? Geesh

 

[rkm rdt]

He told me they drifted so he wanted them splinted.

 

[dmonwaxa]

Nicely done, dont know if the implants drifted; more likelihood it was the teeth that drifted. Seems like the surgeon did what he had to do in a limited space. The placements aren't that bad, looks like theu're converging occlusally because they were confined by the adjacent natural teeth. I'll take those placements any day.

 

[rkm rdt]

The opposing lower anteriors actually contacted the ucla's and the central implant angled buccally so I had no choice but to make a metal lingual....of course I noticed this after I had ordered " engaging" .I had to remove the hex portion of the lateral abutment to achieve a path of insertion,however since these were Nobel Active,I still had the conical wall for engagement.It actually worked out better than I anticipated.

 

[JonB]

While the picts may be a little soft - they don't look too bad. All digital files need a little sharpening anyway and I'd bet these would look fine if you just go back to the original and sharpen them. You'd be surprised how much sharpening the pros ALL use on their shots. (unless its glamour shots where they want to soften a female's image).

I shoot in RAW, but you can set PS to open jpgs in ACR and edit the same way. We'd get too far into the weeds if i went through all of my basic editing steps but I bump up the "Clarity" slider about 10 to 15%, adjust the contrast a little then go to the Sharpening pane where i set the Amount slider to 75, Radius at 1.0, Detail to 50 and Masking to 90 to 95. That is the FIRST step in sharpening an image.
All of the pros I know sharpen everything multiple times in small steps. too much too quick and its obvious, but incrementally - it can be a real life saver.
Once the image is then opened in PS and AFTER all other editing has been done - the last steps I do is switch to LAB color space and select only the Luminance pane. This turns the image black and white (greyscale). I then sharpen only that channel to whatever degree and number of times i think incrementally it needs. Then I switch the image back to RGB color space and the color information helps to mask the edges where the tell-tale signs of sharpening (fringing) may show up. (especially if you're a little heavy handed on your first few attempts.)

 

[rkm rdt]

Thanks Jon,glad to hear from you again.

I resized these pics into a collage image from Photobucket .The originals seem a bit sharper however I haven't photoshoped them at all.

I will give it a try with my next project for sure!

Your above post is now a document for my project. I can't begin to thank you enough for your expertise.

 

[JonB]

I did a photo shoot for another lab owner yesterday and thought you'd like to see the setup that i used. The client wanted two "looks" - one where the model and restorations was floating in a sea of black and another where the restorations were in a perfect reflection. The first one - i used a piece of black cotton cloth i got from a fabric store. The second i used a panel of mirror laid flat on the angle board i was using. (see photo)

My lighting setup was the Macro Twin Light with the A light (left) rotated to the bottom and lowered in output to 1/64. The B light set to 1/8 was gaffer taped (NOT duct tape) to a boom arm and extended to directly over the model at about 2 inches. The closer the light is to the subject - the softer and more wrapped around the subject the light appears to be. Overall both lights were set to 1/3 of full power for the main power output.

Also to reduce a pesky shadow under the restoration against the model - I added one of my Elinchromes set to its lowest setting and set to trigger on the flash of the Twin Light. This one just acts like a kicker to soften the light. While the pict looks like i was shooting in the dark, it was at normal room light in the room. I just snapped this shot off with a separate camera to show the setup. It had the Elinchrome radio trigger to set off the monolight.

The camera is set up on a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with an RSS ball head, it is a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the 100mm macro and camera both set to manual focus and control. The shutter was 1/125 and the ƒ was 22 to 32 depending on what i was going for and i used a remote shutter trigger. I also would move the boom by hand to where i wanted it for each shot, since the coil cord kept springing back.

I wanted to use the 5DmII because its a full frame 21 megapixel sensor and these images are going to be used in presentations. Sorry I can't post any actual images - as they are for the client and not me. But eventually you will see some.



I lightened the above image so you could see it a little better - i just liked the top one cause its more dramatic...

This was a location shoot at the other lab, so i had to bring everything with me. At one point i used the foam core to surround the restoration and then as I noticed the harsh shadow, i used a folded piece of paper to reflect light back onto it to reduce the shadows - but in the end the Elinchrome came through.

 

[rkm rdt]

Holy Macro!

 

[NicelyMKV]

You all have really inspired me to become a better Ceramist. I Just ordered a Canon EOS Rebel T2i with a EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I think i need the Macro 100mm lens from Canon and will be looking into a dual flash. I am pretty much camera illiterate and your posts have really helped me. Any advice on the camera I have coming would be appreciated. It should be good enough....right?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[JonB]

Hi Jason, welcome to the world of dental photography! Yes that camera will be fine. You will need to invest in either a 50 or 100 mm macro and either a twin light or a ring light. I'd stay with Canon for the lens and the lights - just to make life easier in the long run. I've found that when things get complicated - they get put to the back shelf and then its all just a waste of money and time.
Stick around and ask all the questions you can think of and then ask a few more!

In another thread i mentioned checking into the Fred MIranda site: fredmiranda.com: Specialized in Canon - Nikon SLR Cameras, Forum, Photoshop Plugins, Actions, Reviews, Hosting and Digital Darkroom the to the buy & sell forum for a good deal on used lenses and lights and you can also go to KEH Buy & Sell New & Used Cameras – Canon, Nikon, Hasselblad, Leica & More - KEH.com and find decent deals on stuff there.

 

[NicelyMKV]

Thanks JonB! I really look forward to learning from you guys. I am a Mac guy so I just started looking into Aperature 3
By Apple. Software looks pretty user friendly for beginners and seems to gave several tools available for the more advanced user. It will be here tomorrow so i will attempt a few shots and post for guidance.
Thanks
Jason