Best Practices for Digital Color Photography in Medicine

Collect industry best practices in the field of digital photography and write a guidance document which can be used by the medical industry to minimize the color errors created during the digital color camera image capture process.

Scope:

This guidance document will apply for a range of digital cameras (from cellphone cameras to scientific grade cameras) and lighting conditions. Recommendations will also be made for camera setup and color correction in post processing.

Content:

Introduction and background
Factors that can contribute to color errors
Recommended light conditions
Recommended camera setup
Use of reference color charts
Color correction in post-processing
Recommendations on color management

Note: Content should expand on or introduce new information to what is already available (e.g. ATA Practice Guidelines for Teledermatology 2007)

Document distribution:

ICC publication
Journal article
Collaboration with other organizations (e.g. American Telemedicine Association)

Participants

Yves Vander Haeghen, University of Ghent Hospital
Stein Olav Skrovseth, Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine
Elizabeth Krupinski, Arizona State University
Aldo Badano, FDA
Phil Green, ICC

Project coordinator: John Penczek NIST/Univ. of Colorado

Publication:

ICC White Paper 46: Improving Color Image Quality in Medical Photography

Go to Medical Imaging Working Group main page.

Meetings

See the Medical Imaging Working Group main page for details of upcoming meetings.

Calibration examples

Images on the left below are uncalibrated, calibrated images are on the right.

Image 1. Ulcer. The image on the left is as shot with camera in full automatic mode, but the original image is still very yellowish. The image on the right has been calibrated to a D65 display white point as described in the guidelines. Courtesy of the University Hospital Ghent, Belgium.

Uncalibrated image
Image 2. Ulcer. Similar problem as for Image 1: white-balance produced a green tinge. Courtesy of Dr. Sven Van Poucke, Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, Belgium.

Uncalibrated image
Image 3. Animal experiment, using a very simple color chart. Courtesy of Dr. Sven Van Poucke, Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, Belgium.

Uncalibrated image

Calibrated image
Images 4 and 5. Vitiligo. Original images (left) were taken only seconds apart using full automatic settings of the camera, producing very different images. Courtesy of the University Hospital Ghent, Belgium.

Uncalibrated image
Image 6. Pigmented lesion. Over-exposed image, masking a lot of specular reflection. Calibration recovers this partly. Courtesy of the University Hospital Ghent, Belgium.

Uncalibrated image
Image 7. Ulcer. Camera was in full automatic mode, but the original image is still very yellowish partly due to typical hospital wall colors. Courtesy of the University Hospital Ghent, Belgium.