White background

Black background

Marketing or clinical photography

At VCS you don’t need to choose . . .You can have the best of both worlds.

Marketing-ready images can (and should) come from a clinical study

Many brands come to us thinking a clinical study can only produce clinical-looking photos. For most of them, marketing photography means a white background and a white tee shirt.

We shoot that style too. It looks clean and friendly on a product page or a social post. It also gives up some control, and that matters as soon as you want to show a fine detail.

Show

All visits in a row shows every visit in order on one strip. Matched pairs splits them into labeled side-by-side pairs, so two visits are easier to compare.

White background, four visits side by side — White backgroundBaseline, immediately after, week 1, week 4

White background, baseline — White backgroundBaseline, immediately after, week 1, week 4

White background, three visits side by side — White backgroundBaseline, immediately after, week 4

Most clinical photos look like this

Search for clinical before and afters and this is what comes up: a face locked in a chin rest, eyes closed, a hard flash and the stand itself in the frame. These photos make a point, but nobody wants them on a product page.

That is the picture most brands have in mind when they hear “clinical photography,” and it is why so many ask us for a white background instead.

Clinical before and after from another source: face in a chin rest, eyes closed — One visit has a black headband and cape, the other a blue shirt and no headband. Her skin looks brighter in the second photo, but that is the flash bouncing off the shirt and back toward the camera.

Clinical before and after from another source: full face, eyes closed, hard flash — Eyes closed, a hard flash and a low-resolution file. The redness is visible, but the photo is hard to use anywhere a customer will see it.

Clinical close-up before and after from another source, cheek redness — Closer in, the color and brightness shift between visits, so the change in redness is hard to separate from the change in light.

Examples from around the web. These are not VCS images.

That is not how VCS shoots

Eyes open and a natural, held expression, so the photo reads as a person, not a specimen
A headrest kept out of the frame, and a plain black headband that blends into the background
Black background, so no light bounces back onto the skin
25.4 megapixels per frame, true color, no retouching

25.4 MPper frame, 4,271 × 5,955 pixels
True colorno retouching, no smoothing
Same lighting, same positioning, every visitthe only variables are product efficacy and time
Native resolutionno upscaling
Measured in pixelseach result is a defined mathematical count
Visits lined upbaseline and follow-up matched frame to frame down to the pixel
Face and bodyfrom crow’s feet to cracked heels
One image, multiple formatsready for web, print, TV and tradeshow material
Analysis you can switch onoverlays show exactly what was measured
Shot in Teaneck, NJin a temperature and humidity controlled studio

25.4 MPper frame, 4,271 × 5,955 pixels
True colorno retouching, no smoothing
Same lighting, same positioning, every visitthe only variables are product efficacy and time
Native resolutionno upscaling
Measured in pixelseach result is a defined mathematical count
Visits lined upbaseline and follow-up matched frame to frame down to the pixel
Face and bodyfrom crow’s feet to cracked heels
One image, multiple formatsready for web, print, TV and tradeshow material
Analysis you can switch onoverlays show exactly what was measured
Shot in Teaneck, NJin a temperature and humidity controlled studio

BaselineWeek 4

At full face, the white background works

Drag across the photo. Seen whole, the two visits read as a clean before and after, and the style suits a website, a social post or a retail listing.

Use it for overall look: radiance, evenness of tone, a makeup result, how a face reads at a glance.

Move in closer and the variables show

Without a headrest or headband, nothing holds the head in the same place from visit to visit. Each pair below uses the same crop window on both photos, so any shift you see is the photo, not the product.

Full face at week 4, same crop window, sitting closer to the camera

BaselineWeek 4

Positioning

The face moves inside the frame

Drag the line across the face. At week 4 she sits closer to the camera, so her face looks wider and the nose, mouth and jawline no longer line up.

Without a headrest, the head can also tip or turn a few degrees between visits, and every feature in the frame moves with it. Small changes in color tone, shine and reflection can be seen on the face too.

When the face itself has moved, any real change from the product is hard to judge.

BaselineWeek 4

Hair

Loose hair changes every visit

With no headband, the part, the flyaways and the strands across the forehead are different each time. Hair can cover the very skin you want to show, and it pulls the eye away from it.

Jaw and neck at baseline, white tee shirt

BaselineWeek 4

Expression and light

The shirt and backdrop bounce light back

The white shirt and background throw light back up onto the jaw, neck and face edges, and it changes as the shirt sits differently. The mouth and chin also hold a different expression at each visit. The position of the face visibly changes, and a small shift in the shirt changes the color and shadow of the neck, the chin and even the face as the white balance shifts.

Trust us . . . That subtle position change on the shirt isn’t easy to correct in this style of shot, and it’s not the only variable. It just happens to be the most visible one you can see here. The real answer is eliminating light scatter entirely, which is done by controlling the positioning and the attire so it’s non-reflective and less variable in a more controlled setting.

Both styles of imaging have their use, and combining or misconstruing them is a great source of unhappiness for us and our sponsors.

Choose wisely.

The clinical studio controls all of the variables except time and the effect of the product more effectively

In our clinical studio every subject is photographed against black, in a headrest, with a non-reflective black headband. The only things left to change between visits are the product and time.

HeadrestThe head returns to the same position and angle at every visit.
Black headbandHair stays off the face and the hairline stays put.
Black backgroundFar less light bounces back onto the skin, so color and shadow stay true.
Same light, every visitSo baseline and follow-up can be lined up frame to frame.

25.4 MPper frame, 4,271 × 5,955 pixels
True colorno retouching, no smoothing
Same lighting, same positioning, every visitthe only variables are product efficacy and time
Native resolutionno upscaling
Measured in pixelseach result is a defined mathematical count
Visits lined upbaseline and follow-up matched frame to frame down to the pixel
Face and bodyfrom crow’s feet to cracked heels
One image, multiple formatsready for web, print, TV and tradeshow material
Analysis you can switch onoverlays show exactly what was measured
Shot in Teaneck, NJin a temperature and humidity controlled studio

25.4 MPper frame, 4,271 × 5,955 pixels
True colorno retouching, no smoothing
Same lighting, same positioning, every visitthe only variables are product efficacy and time
Native resolutionno upscaling
Measured in pixelseach result is a defined mathematical count
Visits lined upbaseline and follow-up matched frame to frame down to the pixel
Face and bodyfrom crow’s feet to cracked heels
One image, multiple formatsready for web, print, TV and tradeshow material
Analysis you can switch onoverlays show exactly what was measured
Shot in Teaneck, NJin a temperature and humidity controlled studio

Redness, full face, baseline, clinical studio

Redness, full face, week 2, clinical studio

Redness, full face, baseline to week 2. Same headrest, headband, background and light at both visits.

Zoom in, and the black background wins

Full-face photos, even on a large screen, show only a fraction of the detail in a VCS image. To show redness, a fine line or a pore you have to zoom. Use the control between them to zoom both styles together.

The black background is nearly gone from the image below. At this zoom, the clinical image is the better choice for consistency and control.

White background

Baseline

Week 4

Zoom both

Full face

Black background

Baseline

Week 2

The background stops matteringAt the close-up, neither row shows any background at all. Once a clinical image is cropped, nobody can tell it was shot on black.

The control keeps matteringThe clinical pair stays locked together, so the same patch of cheek lines up and the change in redness is easy to see. The white-background pair drifts, so the same window lands on different skin.

Clinical photos can be your marketing heroes

The headband and black background do not make an image look clinical once it is framed well. Cropped to the face or the treated area, these clinical-studio pairs read as clean, bright before and afters.

They hold more detail than a white-background shot, so they still look sharp on a booth wall, a product page or a sell sheet, and every pair lines up.

Acne, cheek and jaw, baseline — **Acne, cheek and jaw**Baseline to week 4. Photos only, three-quarter face.

Acne, cheek and jaw, week 4 — **Acne, cheek and jaw**Baseline to week 4. Photos only, three-quarter face.

Redness, cheek, baseline — **Redness, cheek**Baseline to week 2. Photos only, close-up crop.

Redness, cheek, week 2 — **Redness, cheek**Baseline to week 2. Photos only, close-up crop.

Under-eye fine lines, baseline and week 3 — **Under-eye fine lines**−20% fine-line pixels, baseline to week 3. Photos only.

Under-eye fine lines, nose up, baseline — **Under-eye fine lines, nose up**Baseline to week 8. Photos only, quarter face.

Under-eye fine lines, nose up, week 8 — **Under-eye fine lines, nose up**Baseline to week 8. Photos only, quarter face.

Under-eye, full face, baseline — **Under-eye, full face**Baseline to week 8. Photos only.

Under-eye, full face, week 8 — **Under-eye, full face**Baseline to week 8. Photos only.

Crow’s feet and under-eye, full face, baseline — **Crow’s feet and under-eye, full face**Baseline to T1. Photos only.

Crow’s feet and under-eye, full face, T1 — **Crow’s feet and under-eye, full face**Baseline to T1. Photos only.

Body photos need every control we have

Heels, hands and patches of eczema move more than a face does, and there is no natural landmark to line up on. A body before and after only works when the area goes back to the same place, at the same angle, under the same light, at every visit.

That is why the black background is the better choice in almost every body study. It keeps light from bouncing back onto the skin, and pale flakes, cracks and dry patches stand out against it instead of blending into a white backdrop.

Dry heel, baseline — **Dry heel**Baseline to immediately after one application. Drag to compare.

Dry heel, immediately after — **Dry heel**Baseline to immediately after one application. Drag to compare.

Dry skin close-up, baseline — **Dry skin, close-up**Baseline to immediately after one application.

Dry skin close-up, immediately after — **Dry skin, close-up**Baseline to immediately after one application.

Eczema patch, baseline — **Eczema**Baseline to week 2.

Eczema patch, week 2 — **Eczema**Baseline to week 2.

Eczema on the knuckles, baseline — **Eczema, knuckles**Baseline to week 4.

Eczema on the knuckles, week 4 — **Eczema, knuckles**Baseline to week 4.

Image analysis is clinical photography only

Image analysis counts the pixels that show a condition, such as wrinkles or redness, and compares visits. It only works when every other variable is held still: position, light, hair and background.

The white-background style leaves too many of those free, so we do not offer analysis on marketing photos. If you want a measured result, plan for the clinical studio.

Wrinkle analysis at baseline — **Baseline analysis:** 47,735 wrinkle pixels

Wrinkle analysis at T1 — **T1 analysis:** 30,231 wrinkle pixels

−37%wrinkle pixels in the crow’s feet and under-eye areas, T1 versus baseline. Individual result shown.

Which one to choose

Marketing photography (limited use cases)

Full-face results shown whole
Overall glow, tone or a makeup look
Social posts, retail listings and specific online use cases

No image analysis. Small changes in position, expression, hair and light are part of the style.

Clinical photography (most use cases)

Fine lines, wrinkles, pores, texture and spots
Close-ups and zooms on screen, video or print
Social media friendly in close-crop scenarios
Before and afters that line up frame to frame
Image analysis and a measured percentage

Crop or zoom in, and the black background disappears from view.

You don’t always have to choose

You can shoot a subset of panelists in each style for the same study, such as clinical photography for close-ups and image analysis, and a white background for full-face marketing images. VCS shoots a variety of styles to fit your marketing needs. Ask our team how to cover all of the angles on your next clinical study.

Ask the team about your study

Keep exploring