Doctor In The House

posted on 27th of march, 2007

With an explosion of medical advertising and health care issues often in the news in print and on the web, there is an increased demand for images of medical professionals. To produce images of doctors and nurses, it's not necessary to have access to a hospital. It's been my experience that the most popular image in the genre is a simple testimonial or spokesperson image:

The addition of a white lab coat and a stethoscope are all the props you need. For nurses a blood pressure monitor is a good addition. Remember to make certain that the facial expressions are realistic as seen in the photos below.

A medical professional needs to have a somewhat serious and non-threatening expression and display a professional, confident demeanor. Women should not be heavily made-up. Alternative images for health care use are the exhausted doctor or the scary nurse with a huge needle. Illustration is a good solution.

"Doctors" should look mature enough to have made it through years of school, internship and residency. The nurse above is age appropriate but I recommend you use an older man or woman for the doctor images.

Overall look of models in health care images, in addition to age and appropriate expressions, should be suitable. I once reviewed a medical shoot featuring a "surgeon" with visible prison and gang tattoos. The idea that the doctor has a prison record isn't likely to bring in the patients.

Simple procedures can also be "faked" or actually created with the cooperation of a doctor/friend. I don't recommend sticking a model with a needle but you can cut the needle so that it is very short and then gently press it against the skin so it looks like it has penetrated. Don't try using a syringe without a needle to fake a shot. The result will look like the needle was driven way too deep into the skin.

The most complex medical shots are those in the operating room. These require skilled lighting, cooperation with a hospital and many models or permissions. Nevertheless there are some excellent examples on Dreamstime.

We don't want to neglect the other professions in the health care fields. Images depicting dental care, eye exams and cosmetic surgery are also important.

Effective images representing herbal cures and traditional Chinese medicine are below:

Other images that work well in the health care field are illustrations like these:

Tip for Dreamstime contributors: we need more images illustrating acupuncture. And a sure winner in stock is an image that could be a pharmaceutical rep speaking with a doctor.

Tags: advice doctor images photos portraits tips

Comments (10)

	Posted by Rxhope on September 14, 2011 "Doctors" should look mature enough to have made it through years of school, internship and residency... ha ha . as a doctor i laughed hard......cool images...excellent work,
	Posted by Fotosmurf02 on April 02, 2007 What a coincidence! I just finished a 'medical' photoshoot and have some of them pending at the moment to be reviewed. You article gives me even more reason to continue down this road and fresh ideas on different medical topics to shoot. Thanks for the great ideas!
	Posted by Ellenboughn on March 30, 2007 Its not the diversity issue that photographers face in photography in health care facilities. It's permission to shoot. Serious stuff is going on in hospitals and they are open day and night. Privacy is also an issue.
	Posted by Avion49 on March 30, 2007 I am a internal graphic designer for a hospital, we are always looking for 'different' shots. Such areas as: sports medicine treatment; support groups; diabetes education, community screenings, breast cancer programs, prostate cancer programs, internal functioning of the hospital (ex. I recently went looking for housekeeping staff in the hosptal setting and did not find any), DIVERSITY in medical settings (this has been a hard area to find people of different ethnicities working together in normal situations), hospice care. I would have liked to see things like this mentioned in the article pertaining to medical photography. Please consider these suggestions. Have you considered talking a look at the nearest VA hospital? You will find a lot of diversity in the medical staff there. Sandy
	Posted by Amaviael on March 29, 2007 Very interesting article. It helps to find new concepts. BTW thanks for using one of my pictures. :)
	Posted by Ermeister on March 29, 2007 I absolutely agree about the medical content. Most of my downloads are the medical photos of stethoscopes. Hopefully my shots of a model wearing scrubs/labcoat will gain interest once uploaded/accepted. Thanks for the article.
	Posted by Eichelberj on March 28, 2007 I can't agree more with your article. I am constantly looking for images of Physicians and office staff. My company's brand standards call for more candid shots where the model isn't looking at the camera. Also a variety of expressions are needed, not all serious looking. Images that I have had a hard time finding are office staff or doctors on the phone (and not a cell phone either), and Physicians consulting with a patient. Great article
	Posted by Ellenboughn on March 27, 2007 Yes Mclarenart. You are correct that the images that you mention are important and difficult to find. The issue is hospital and treatment center access and permissions for photographers which can be very difficult. And, of course, medical personnel and patients have an expectation and a right to privacy so models need to be used in most cases. I found that I usually had to pay thousands in location fees or find a photographer who has a close association with a hospital to do my productions. I'm glad that you posted these suggestions though. I am going to write another blog at a later date about medical teams and will certainly mention the diversity requirement. And if any Dreamstime contributor wants to pursue shooting the types of images mentioned in Mclarenart's post and has access, you can contact me at boughn (a) dreamstime and I'll help you out with the details. Thanks for your post.
	Posted by Mclarenart on March 27, 2007 I am a internal graphic designer for a hospital, we are always looking for 'different' shots. Such areas as: sports medicine treatment; support groups; diabetes education, community screenings, breast cancer programs, prostate cancer programs, internal functioning of the hospital (ex. I recently went looking for housekeeping staff in the hosptal setting and did not find any), DIVERSITY in medical settings (this has been a hard area to find people of different ethnicities working together in normal situations), hospice care. I would have liked to see things like this mentioned in the article pertaining to medical photography. Please consider these suggestions.
	Posted by Kaarsten on March 27, 2007 Thanks for the article. They are very useful and always worth to read. I learned a lot from it. Greetings Kaarsten

Comments (10)

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