rick maloch

I'm starting to compile photos of before and afters of dental work I do for patient education purposes.

If I take a picture of the front six teeth on one day, then a week later I take a picture of the same teeth but don't stand the same distance or use the same zoom setting so the object is now smaller/larger on the second picture...

How would I crop/resize/fix and then print a 4X6 photo of the two sets of teeth so that they are roughly the same size? Therefore, when someone views the before and after, the orientation of size and scale isn't too different.

Does that seem clear what I'm getting at?

Rick In Houston.

chuck snyder

Rick, you're probably going to have to 'eyeball' this, although you could
turn on the grid to help you out. What I would do is open both images in
your workspace, then crop the one shot from closer to 4x6 using the Crop
tool with settings width 6 inches, height 4 inches, and resolution say 250.
Once that's done, do the same with the one taken from farther away, which
will have more cropped away. On the second one, you're trying to get the
teeth to be about the same size as on the first one you've cropped, which is
where the 'eyeballing' or use of the grid might help. If you find you've
cropped too much or too little, you can go backwards in Undo History and try
again. Once you have the crops right, you're ready to print because both
images will be 4 inches by 6 inches by 250 ppi. Give it a try and see how
that does for you.

Chuck (also in Houston!)

kenneth liffmann

Rick,
I suggest that you screw your camera on a bracket fitted with a bar that allows you to remain equidistant for the before and after photography. In that way you would not have to go to the type of manipulation that Chuck has delineated. I believe that you may be able to find such a device from a vendor or else construct one yourself quite readily.
Ken

Rick,

I think Kenneth's got the best idea. The size of your teeth is determined by the resolution and total image. Although you can change the resolution, it's not going to be an accurate scale except by eyeball comparing. You can also do a drag n drop of the second by selecting and dragging into the first image file, then enlarging to fit, but you'll also be doing a faux resizing (not resampling) and in many cases would result in losing quality of the image. The Drag n Drop (or Copy/Paste) would result in the second image being in it's own layer though, which could be a handy way to view the difference in some cases. It would be a way to keep all views in the same file. But be sure to keep it as a PSD (or TIFF) so layers can be maintained.

Bob

You might just want to make a tape mark on the floor to show where to stand. It may not be 100% exact, but at least you won't have even more equipment in the room that way.

paulsen,

You could print boxes that are 1cm or 1" square onto address labels, and then stick an label onto the patient's nose each time you take a photo. This could be an easy reference for comparing two photos.