Medical photography has always been an integral part of the medical profession with benefits that span diagnosis, follow up, assessment of results and teaching. The popularisation of digital photography has made it more accessible to most doctors and other health professionals.
For those with an interest in photography, this has been an easy transition, but for many, the results are often not as good as would be desirable. So far there has not been a text dedicated to medical photography of the head and neck, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this publication. It is jointly authored by an otolaryngologist with a long-standing interest in photography and a professional photographer.
The book is compact and is divided into 13 chapters which start with basic instructions on medical photography and proceed to in-depth explanations of photography equipment, techniques, studio arrangements and other essentials such as macro photography and digital processing. I was happy to see that there are descriptions of different camera versions including DSLRs, mirrorless and point to shoot types. There is also a chapter on smartphones and telemedicine which is a welcome inclusion. The last few chapters detail photographic techniques for specific head and neck areas.
The book is simply laid out and easy to read with ample photographs and explanations. There is also a link to 10 online videos that provide further practical tips and add to the value of the book. If there is any point of criticism, it would be the lack of an index at the end of the book.
I believe this will be a useful book to have on the shelf of any ENT surgeon. It will be especially worthwhile to those who would like to improve their medical photography techniques and obtain professional quality images for teaching, publications and for following patients up.
