Photographing Injuries?

[alissasanderson]

This may seem like an odd question, but here goes...

It there any way to photograph bumps and bruises so that they are noticeable? My youngest fell tonight and hit his head, and he's got a really impressive bruise on the side of his head. I tried taking a few shots of it, to document it in case it got any larger (ok, and because I'll probably scrapbook it--it's a pretty good story) and it just doesn't show. Here is the best shot I got of it:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaspics/415974332/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/126/415974332_22250770b4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Ow" /></a>

Really, it's much more bruised looking than that. I took a few different shots at various angles, but he didn't have much patience and it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.

Any ideas?

[spazoid1965]

I really have no idea, but I'll take a guess at it. I would say the diffused lighting is softening the edges of the bruise. I also noticed the brightest portion of the photo was the temple area on the side of his head. In that area most of the skin tones are washed out. There's more detain and skin color on the front of his cheeks and around his eyes than just below the bruise. I'm not sure what you're using for lighting. It appears to be a bounced and defused flash. That method it great for softenning and hiding blemmishes. But in this instance your trying to highlight it. I would try using ambiant in the shade outside. That would give a more even light on the whole face with out to harsh flash spot.

[alissasanderson]

Hmm, that makes sense...

No flash--he's sitting on the kitchen counter underneath the fluorescent light fixture:)

In the morning perhaps I'll try again outside.