Achieving standardized photographs in aesthetic surgery

Abstract

The plastic surgeon who wishes to share clinical experience with colleagues is obligated to produce accurate data in the form of photographs. Moreover, accurate photographs are essential to enable an objective critical appraisal of one's own surgical skill and to display postoperative results to patients in an unbiased fashion. Change should not be a function of either the photograph or the photographer. The use of an acetate screen grid in conjunction with anatomic boundaries is described as a means to achieve accurate, reproducible standard photographs of the face and body in aesthetic surgical patients.