If you’re looking to elevate your practice, entice prospective customers, and gain authority in your field, this blog is for you.

by Lindsey Juehrs

If you’re looking to elevate your practice, entice prospective customers, and gain authority in your field, this blog is for you.

Taking hair restoration photos to show your client’s real progress and results is a crucial part of ensuring your business succeeds. In today’s world of being able to compare and contrast medical practices at the touch of a button, it’s important to stand out and show prospective patients that you are confident and authoritative in your practice. 

What customers really want to see is the result. Since we know hair restoration is a procedure that requires patience as the transplanted hair follicles heal and start a new growth cycle, it can be hard for some people to visualize their results. While it may take a bit more time, the result of capturing before-and-after photos is well worth the effort for you and your customers. But don’t worry; fancy equipment isn’t necessary. Your iPhone or Android phone is sufficient to get the job done.

It goes without saying that your photos should be high quality, but what does this really mean? There are a few factors to consider but don’t worry; none of them require you to be a photography expert. Let’s dive into our top tips for taking before-and-after photos to showcase your practice and skills to your customers.

1. Choose a Consistent / Plain Background

The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.

– Andy Warhol

Clean and crisp is the name of the game. You want to make sure when you’re taking progress photos to direct the eye to the focus of the photo. That means avoiding the patterned backgrounds and spaces with items in the background. This is distracting to the eye, creates bad reflecting effects, and compromises the overall quality of your result. 

You’ll want to use a solid background in a light neutral color (white, beige, light blue, etc). A backdrop is easy to DIY! You can attach a backdrop to a wall with double-sided tape and roll it up after each use. The goal is to keep the focus on the head and hair, so the less background noise the better.

💡 Tip: Try to have the same person in your office take all your before-and-after photos to ensure that all pictures are taken at the same height. Have the photographer stand in the same position by marking an X on the floor, and have your clients do the same.

2. Lighting Is Key

If your photos aren’t good enough, then you aren’t close enough.

-Robert Capa

You might be thinking, “Okay, lighting, that means the more light, the better right?” Not necessarily. When it comes to lighting and hair restoration photos, there are some key elements to remember:

• Do not use the flash on your camera. Using a flash on hair restoration patients can actually make some areas of the hair look thinner while making other areas look thicker, giving the illusion of an inconsistent result. 
• Use natural lighting if possible to avoid any visual distortion in your photos. 
• Place your backdrop in a well-lit area that’s not in direct sunlight. 
• Situate your patients with the light coming from behind the camera and toward them while taking the photos. 

💡 Tip: Do not zoom in! Using digital zoom will ultimately reduce the resolution of your image. Instead of zooming in, simply move closer to maintain the integrity of your results. 

3. Positioning Your Patient

I don’t trust words. I trust pictures.

-Gilles Peress

Getting the right angle is important to showcase your work as authentically as possible. But even more important is consistency with your before-and-after photos. Make sure you are positioning your patient so that their entire scalp is in frame and at an angle (we suggest holding the camera about 18 inches away at a 45° angle). Assuming all your progress photos will be taken in the same room, give your patients an object to look at in the room to ensure their head is at the same angle in each photo. 

For example, you can mark a small X on the floor with a bit of electrical tape or put small push pins on the wall. If you’re taking a frontal shot, the head should be tilted forward. For rear photos, the head should be tilted slightly backward toward the camera. Vertex shots should be taken directly from above (wheel out the step stools!). Whichever shots you are taking, make sure they are positioned consistently. 

💡 Tip: Turn on the gridlines in your phone’s camera settings for enhanced photo composition. This allows you to center your subject perfectly every time. 

• iPhone: Go to “Settings,” choose “Photos & Camera,” and switch “Grid” on.
• Samsung: Launch the camera app, go to “Settings,” scroll down and switch the “gridlines” option to “on.”

Get Inspired with Efferent Media

Trust your medical practice to a marketing company that has been successfully servicing small and large practices all across the country. If you are ready to take your medical practice to the next level, contact our experts today by calling (631) 204-3150. We look forward to hearing from you!

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