Need help with lighting medical/skin shots, please

[firewarden]

I am a noob photographer, but very willing to learn. I need help photographing close-ups of a skin disease with tiny details.

My teenage daughter has a rare skin/hair disease, Cicatricial Alopecia (scarring alopecia resulting in permanent hair loss, not to mention lots of pain, burning, and itching). Due to how far we have to travel to see a doc, taking several weeks to get in, the docs have never seen her disease when it's active. I've started taking photos of it in various stages, and this has really helped when explaining to the doc and getting treatment. (I print the pix as 5X7s and carry them in.)

The problem is getting the details of the skin to show up. I'm using a macro lens and have tried various lighting, in several rooms of our house, plus outside in direct daylight, outside with bright daylight, but in the shade, etc.. I don't have a studio, but am willing to buy basic, inexpensive studio lights to make this happen.

The major problem is that even when I can get a few details/infections/pores to show up by majorly tweeking the contrast/colors, etc., in Photoshop, there are still 10-20 smaller spots that don't show up on the photos for every 1 spot that does. Lighter flares and inflammation don't show up at all. I'm looking for a way to show tiny details including pus under a thin layer of skin, each raised pore, imperfections in the skin, and the tiny scales that surround them. (Sorry if this seems gross, but these photos - despite how bad they are - are the only way our doc has seen active disease flares, and we are struggling for a specific sub-type diagnosis.)

Here are the photos I've taken thus far that show anything at all. I am using an Olympus Camedia C-2040ZOOM w/ an Olympus macro conversion lense (f=40 cm, lens shows 43->55 and ring shows 41->43).

Pictures by firewarden - Photobucket

The orangy picture is taken with halogen lights bouncing off a while ceiling, but walls were rose (yeah, I know, I'm an amateur wracking my brain for ideas!!!). I'm looking for any and all info on how to set up an area where this condition will show. Should I drape a room with white cloth, what lights can I use that are affordable, etc.)?

I think the lens is probably good enough, although I'm not sure. If I need to change that, please can you tell me what one I should have. WIth lens, lights, environment... any and all suggestions will be gratefully studied and attempted (barring huge cash outlays)!!! Or if someone could even point me toward a tutorial that might cover this. Thanks so much!

[ttosifa]

I have never tried to photograph skin this way, so I can't give you specific advice. But I can try to give you some ideas to consider and try on your own in hopes it will help.

You are trying to photo something shiny (oily scalp skin) in which you want to reveal form (raised pores and scales) and/or detail under the shiny skin. Since the skin is shiny, you will tend to have specular highlights -- reflections of the light source back to the camera.

In the case of showing detail under the skin (not the case of showing form of the skin), you might try a circular polarizing lens and/or positioning your lights at 45 degrees to the skin. What might be happening is that your light source is bouncing back to the camera and washing out the detail. A polarizer will cut down some of the reflection, and putting the lights at an angle will make the light bounce in a direction other than the camera lens.

For showing form, you will need to create shadows. Forget flat lighting, such as boucing light into the ceiling above or shooting in the shade. You need good hard shadows. Photograph in strong sunlight with the light at an angle to the affected skin. You ought to be able to move your daughter's head and see by eye what kind of detail you get. You might find having a reflector useful to make the shadows less dense, but you want to keep the hard light.

Like I said, I have never done this and have no way to experiment. But hopefully this will give you ideas for experimentation.

I wish you and your daughter the best.

EDIT: If it's convenient, I am sure the book "Lighting: Science and Magic" will contain the correct answer.

EDITx2: You might also consider asking your question on the Lighting: Science and Magic flickr group moderated by the authors of the book:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/84897717@N00/

[firewarden]

Thanks so much for the information. I'm going to see if any local bookshop has that for sale, if not Amazon has it. I'll also check out the Flickr group. Thanks!

[klam]

It's saddens me when children are in pain. Being a new parent myself I kind of feel your pain. especially when there isn't much that can be done to help ease their pain. I'll pray for your daughters health.

This link might help you. texture lighting for detail shots here Strobist: Lighting 101: Textural Lighting for Detail Shots

[zona5101]

i'm sure nice even lighting is going to be a boon...here is a post of another dps members flash rig for macro...
http://digital-photography-school.co...acro-work.html

[firewarden]

Wow! Thanks so much for the links, y'all!!!! Going off to read them right now. And on the hair thing, it's not for laughs that it is often called "hair on fire." My daughter said she would gladly be bald forever (this is a 16-year-old), if they could just stop the pain and itching. As her parent, I'd like her to keep her hair if possible, though!

[Mr Guy]

I'm going to go home and play with lighting tonight, but judging based on the pictures on your page, you need a couple of things. The first is strong cross lighting, as mentioned before. You want to put the dominate light off to the side so every little bump casts it's own little shadow, which gives the eyes perspective. Secondly, you're going to want to skew toward underexposure. You get better dynamic range in the shadows then you do once a highlight is blown, and those pustules are basically going be highlights compared to the regular darker skin and hair around it.

The nature of the camera you're working with means there will be some limitations. I have to admit, my gut level reaction is to ask you to tell us where you live and see if there's a member nearby who may be able to assist you directly and bring some better equipment. I know technique can fix equipment in many cases, and with practice you'll get better at knowing how to light and work around some of that close up work, but in the meantime, someone with their own set up may be able to help you.




Single 100W (equivalent CF) bulb moved from behind camera to almost next to hand. Final has bulb above with on camera pop up flash turned waaaay down.

[firewarden]

Help with equipment locally would be wonderful, but impractical. This condition flares without warning so the best is for me to learn to do it and find the necessary equipment. I need to do this on a regular basis to document this for her doctor. Your examples show me that I can get the level of detail that I need. I'm blown away by what the right equipment can obviously do.

Current steps are to borrow a friend's 7 megapixel digital camera, use techniques suggested in this forum and linked information. I don't think his camera can use an external flash, but I'll compensate with lighting. If I can get the detail I need, I'll probably look at buying a newer camera for myself. This is definitely an ongoing project.

I hope to do the experimenting with the newer camera over the weekend. I will post as I have pix and will continue to monitor this forum for advice and suggestions.

Thanks everyone so much for the replies!!! I am learning so much! I cannot express how much I appreciate your time and expertise!

[firewarden]

Well, I finally got my friend's camera borrowed and set up a few lights to try the cross lighting. Murphy's Law and all dictates that my daughter's flares would calm a bit as I try this... so the skin is mostly kinda normal looking with some scarring, depressions, etc.

Current camera is a 7.2 megapixel Sony CyberShot. It doesn't have a separate macro lens, but has a macro setting. I've tried hand held shots and with a tripod.

I've gotten a few shots that look pretty good, but I'm fighting with his camera changing the fs on me as I try to zoom in and out on the areas I'd like to focus on. And this is with the camera on manual.

Was originally trying an ISO of 1000 for the light, but he told me to take it down to 100. So ISO 100, then set at 200/2.8 to 100/3.2 or so. The hair color is coming out very dark, but sometimes I do seem to get good detail on the skin.

Need to do more experimenting, but the pix are again at

Pictures by firewarden - Photobucket

Now that I've argued with the camera a bit, I need to keep experimenting to get the detail without the darkness. Oh, with lights, I'm under a skylight and trying to cross light from a distance with some halogen lights... as his camera has no link for exterior flash.

[firewarden]

After all the steroids wore off, my daughter's head/hair finally gave me opportunity for pix. New shots are at Pictures by firewarden - Photobucket

I'm getting better detail, but still need to try different lights... I've alternated between a couple of sets of halogen lights and natural light from a huge skylight.

Anyway, getting good enough pix to show the docs this time. Thanks for all the help. If you have any hints for things you can see I need to change, please post! Thanks so much!!!