Guidelines for standard photography in plastic surgery.

Uniform patient photographs that create permanent records are essential for any visually oriented medical specialty. These images are valuable for any plastic surgeon's practice for various reasons; thus, standards and recommendations for clinical photography should be well-known. There are several articles published on this issue, but it is still not uncommon to be exposed to medical publications and presentations that fail to satisfy clinical photography standards. This stimulated an interest in reviewing the important factors that are essential to achieve consistent, comparable clinical photographs with 35-mm single-lens reflex photography.