How to prepare a patient’s clinical photos for your records program with Photo Prep.
Photo Prep is in beta: it is free during the testing phase, and any approved account can use it.
- What it does
- Before you start
- Step by step
- Changing a picture
- Settings
- What it costs
- Common questions
What it does
Photo Prep takes one patient’s photos straight from the camera (the four face photos, the four bite photos, the two occlusal photos and the patient form) and gets them ready for your records program, such as SmileStream. It puts them in order, turns them upright, flips the occlusal photos back (they are taken in a mirror), levels them (the bites on the occlusal plane, the occlusal photos on the midline, the front face photos on the eyes), and crops each one. You check the ten pictures and download them in one zip named after the patient: J Van Der Merwe – Face smile.jpg, J Van Der Merwe – Front bite.jpg and so on.
Before you start
- An approved practice account: log in.
- The camera’s JPEG files for one patient, as they come off the card (not edited). Photo Prep uses the time the camera wrote into each photo to put them in order, so take them in your usual order: front bite open, front bite, right bite, left bite, occlusal upper, occlusal lower, the patient form, face lips closed, face smile, side smile, side lips closed.
- A desktop or laptop computer with a current browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
Your patient’s privacy. Everything happens in your browser. The photos, the pictures and the patient’s name never leave your computer: nothing is sent to this website or to any other service.
Step by step
- Add the photos: press Choose the photos and select all the patient’s photos at once, or drop them on the blue box.
- If Photo Prep asks Which photo is which?, drag each photo to its place (or click a photo and then its place), leave any retakes under Not used, and press Continue. If a photo was not taken, leave its place empty: it shows Image not provided. and is left out of the zip. It asks only when something does not fit; the yellow line says what.
- Type the patient’s name under Patient name. Each word gets a capital, and the name is used for the file names. The patient form is shown beside it, opened on the patient’s details: turn it with ⟲ and ⟳, zoom with + and − (or the mouse wheel), and drag it to move. Then press the flashing Continue (or Enter): the name and the form make way for the pictures. To fix the name later, press Change name above the pictures.
- Check The finished pictures. They are laid out in three rows: the four face photos; the bites from the patient’s right to left (Right bite, Front bite, Front bite open, Left bite); and the two occlusal photos. A flashing yellow Check on a picture means Photo Prep was not sure about it; point at it to see why. Click any picture to change it (see below); once it is right, press Save and the Check goes.
- Press Download the 10 pictures (zip). In Chrome or Edge a Save window opens in the folder the photos came from, with the patient’s name filled in: press Save. (Safari and Firefox save it in your Downloads folder.) The zip holds the pictures (ten, or fewer when a photo was not provided), each with the patient’s name in small letters in the lower right corner. Upload them to your records program.
Changing a picture
Clicking a picture opens it over the page, whole, with the crop frame on it.
- The crop: drag inside the frame to move it, or drag a corner or side to resize it. With the keyboard, the arrow keys move it and Shift with an arrow key resizes it.
- The level: move the Tilt slider or press − and + (a tenth of a degree a press). Or press Draw the level line and click two points along the occlusal plane (or on the two pupils): the picture turns so that line is level.
- Turn left, Turn right and Mirror fix a picture that is on its side, upside down or the wrong way round. If you turn a bite photo, Photo Prep remembers that on this computer and turns that photo the same way next time; Back to defaults forgets it.
- Swap with exchanges the photo with another place, if two photos ended up in each other’s places.
- Back to automatic undoes your changes to the picture. Press Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to leave the picture as it was.
Settings
| Setting | Choices | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tilt | −20° to 20°, 0.1° steps | levelled by Photo Prep | How much the picture is turned to make it level. |
| Crop frame | any size and shape | fitted by Photo Prep | What part of the photo is kept. |
| Turn left, Turn right | quarter turns | upright, as Photo Prep finds it | Which way is up; for bite photos it is remembered on this computer. |
| Mirror | on, off | on for the occlusal photos only | Flips the picture left to right. |
What it costs
- Photo Prep is in beta: it is free during the testing phase. Its page says so under the title: Beta version: free during the testing phase.
- After the beta, each patient’s download will use one Photo Prep credit, or be included in a Photo Prep Unlimited subscription. Downloading the same patient’s photos again within 24 hours will use no further credit, and you accept the Photo Prep terms once before your first paid download. Prices will be on the Pricing page.
Common questions
It says Photo Prep needs the camera’s JPEG files.
One of the files is not a camera JPEG (for example a PNG, a HEIC from a phone, or a PDF). It is left out; the other photos are still used. Add the camera’s JPEG instead.
It asks Which photo is which?
Something did not fit your usual set: more or fewer photos than usual (a retake), a photo that does not look like its place, or a photo without the camera’s time (an edited or copied file). Photo Prep has already put each photo where it thinks it belongs; check the places, leave retakes under Not used, and press Continue.
A picture shows a yellow Check.
Photo Prep was not sure about that picture, for example The arch was not clear; the usual turn was used. or No face was found; the whole picture is kept. Click the picture and correct the crop, tilt or turn, then press Save. If it was already right, just press Save: the Check stops flashing and goes.
The download button is greyed out.
Type the patient’s name under Patient name, and wait until all the pictures are shown.
Why are the occlusal pictures flipped?
Occlusal photos are taken in a mirror, so the camera sees them the wrong way round. Photo Prep flips them back, with the upper incisors at the top and the lower incisors at the bottom.
It says The face finder could not start in this browser.
Your browser is too old for the part of Photo Prep that finds faces, so the face pictures are kept whole. Use a current Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox.
It says A picture is too large for this browser to save. Try Chrome or Edge.
The browser could not make a picture that big. Chrome and Edge on a desktop computer can.
More help
Use the Help us improve Photo Prep box under the tool to report a problem or suggest something (you can add a picture or screenshot to show what you mean, but please hide the patient’s name and face), see the Video training page, or contact us.