A before-and-after photo protocol the whole team can follow

Most clinics take plenty of pictures. Few can find a pair that matches. The before is in a practitioner’s camera roll, the after is a WhatsApp crop, and six months later nobody can prove the angle was the same.

A protocol is not a photoshoot. It is three rules the team repeats on every visit that needs a record: same light, same distance, same file.

Decide which treatments always get a pair

You do not need photos on every facial. You do need them when the result is visual and delayed: injectables, laser, peels, body contouring. Write the list once. If a treatment is on the list, the visit is not complete until the set is on the file.

• Before: on arrival, before makeup or numbing if it changes the surface.
• After: before they leave, or at the review visit you already book.
• Same backdrop. A marked floor spot beats “stand over there.”

Keep the file, not the phone

Personal phones mix family photos with clinical ones. Staff leave. Threads get deleted. Put the set on the patient record the same day, tagged to the visit. Name it by treatment and date, not “IMG_4021.”

Patients did not agree to live in a receptionist’s gallery. A clinic upload is easier to defend and easier to search when someone asks “what did we do in March?”

Consent before the shutter

Capture consent for clinical photos before you shoot, with the wording your counsel approved. Marketing use (website, ads) is a separate yes. A clinical set on the file is not permission to post.

If you want this running on your book — visit, photos, and consent in one place — request a GlowPilot demo. We walk the protocol on a real patient file, not a slide.