A Bit About Dental Photography

[Ahmadkawi]

Thank you for the addition and correction. My memory was fuzzy regarding the card bit.

 

[Greg Lutke]

OK, first, I only shoot in raw. Most dental photographers don't and are not really interested in the advantages.
I do understand that most dental professionals just want great color and are ready to move forward. The capturing of a 'Custom" white balance in the camera is perfect for the 80% of these dental professionals. Their color is just great.

In short, a "Custom White Balance" just neutralizes the lighting source (the flash) to pure white (6500 degrees Kelvin is pure white light) . This one step will make the captured images 'color accurate'. With jpegs, the camera does the work. The captured dental images (jpeg) are color accurate - and fully managed by the camera. With jpegs, there is no work in Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/ Lightroom.
You will not see the typical tinting issues that most dental images exhibit.

Capturing raw is just much better, if image quality, is the most important issue. Dental speakers, dental publishers, and most really good cosmetic dentists would fall in this group.
The raw file is read only, which does protect it from edits. The 'Custom White Balance' is applied by Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/ Lightroom. It's just more precise and you will see the quality difference.
Most dental professionals would be surprised how little they need to do in Photoshop/ Lightroom. It's just great and worth the small effort.

In the end, shooting in either jpeg or raw delivers the same great color. The chief advantages of shooting raw is the 1) large quality data and 2) the ability to adjust missed exposures to absolute perfection.
Shooting raw files is true photography. The raw data will just get better as the software improves ( Adobe Photoshop through the next 10 years will make the rendering of old raw files better and better). Jpeg files are stripped and compressed lossy files that serve the present time just fine.

Sorry the too short answer - hard to really communicate fully on a message board. best of luck!

 

[user name]

In short, a "Custom White Balance" just neutralizes the lighting source (the flash) to pure white (6500 degrees Kelvin is pure white light) . This one step will make the captured images 'color accurate'. With jpegs, the camera does the work. The captured dental images (jpeg) are color accurate - and fully managed by the camera. With jpegs, there is no work in Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/ Lightroom.
You will not see the typical tinting issues that most dental images exhibit.

Are you saying that if you capture in jpeg rather than RAW, you dont need to do a custom white balance?
I thought a jpeg was just a compressed image/smaller file...?

 

[Greg Lutke]

No, you need a Custom White Balance for all images in dentistry. It's the Custom White Balance that makes the images color accurate. Jpeg or Raw.
There is a program - inside your camera - that is used to create a Custom White Balance, for your jpegs. That adjustment (Custom White Balance) lives inside your camera and is applied to all your jpegs during image capture.
In short, your camera (image sensor) has no idea about the lighting source. This is the reason most all digital cameras ship with Automatic White Balance as the default.

With raw files, the custom white balance is applied by Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/ Lightroom in post processing.

 

[user name]

No, you need a Custom White Balance for all images in dentistry. It's the Custom White Balance that makes the images color accurate. Jpeg or Raw.
There is a program - inside your camera - that is used to create a Custom White Balance, for your jpegs. That adjustment (Custom White Balance) lives inside your camera and is applied to all your jpegs during image capture.
In short, your camera (image sensor) has no idea about the lighting source. This is the reason most all digital cameras ship with Automatic White Balance as the default.

With raw files, the custom white balance is applied by Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/ Lightroom in post processing.

Thanks for the clarification. When shopping for a newer Nikon body, Ive ran into more confusion...Different types of sensors, different size and pixel count. Different pixel count vs pixel size, various sensitivity. If your options were a D-90 or a D-7000 (7200, 7300?),what do you compare to make a decision?

And lens...105 vs 85? Does the lens decision matter based on the sensor size in the camera?

 

[Greg Lutke]

in short, I like full frame sensor bodies. Nikon D800E/ D810. These bodies are also sharper without the anti-aliasing filter. This is a distinct increase in image sharpness.
The cropped sensors are fine - it does mess up the 1:2 and 1:1 settings on the lens barrel. Full frame sensors makes those settings on the lens correct.
The best for Nikon is the 105 mm Nikkor VR. The lens choice does make a perspective difference in full face shots. (85mm lens gives a small fisheye look to faces) The longer lens is better for face shots - as the faces look more natural.
Pixel count isn't important really. Large format printing is the advance for larger pixel count cameras.

 

[user name]

in short, I like full frame sensor bodies. Nikon D800E/ D810. These bodies are also sharper without the anti-aliasing filter. This is a distinct increase in image sharpness.
The cropped sensors are fine - it does mess up the 1:2 and 1:1 settings on the lens barrel. Full frame sensors makes those settings on the lens correct.
The best for Nikon is the 105 mm Nikkor VR. The lens choice does make a perspective difference in full face shots. (85mm lens gives a small fisheye look to faces) The longer lens is better for face shots - as the faces look more natural.
Pixel count isn't important really. Large format printing is the advance for larger pixel count cameras.

How do you feel the 85mm nikkor VR macro compares on just tooth shots?

 

[user name]

Moot point. I found out who you are, so I dropped my order for an 85 and went ahead and ordered the 105.

Your reputation is pretty good....considering youre not using me for your lab work.

 

[Ahmadkawi]

Wooooah! How come I haven't been getting updates of the thread. This is cool.