Professional photos for the HOF clinic

Images are the first conversation many patients have with an orofacial harmonization (HOF) clinic. Before reading any text, the person sees the setting, the face of whoever treats them and the care taken with details. Improvised, dark or outdated photos send a message the clinic does not want to send: carelessness.

This guide helps you decide which images to produce, how to plan a professional shoot, what to leave out (especially patients), how to hire and how to organize an image library that lasts. For the overall identity, see visual identity of the HOF clinic, and for everyday photos, behind the scenes at the clinic without exposing patients.

What are professional photos for?

They appear in many places, and each one calls for a different kind of image:

See the uses in website for the HOF clinic, Google Business Profile for the HOF clinic and Instagram highlights for the HOF clinic.

Which images should you produce?

A lean list covers most needs:

1. Portrait of the professional(s), with a natural expression, work clothes and a clean background.
2. The team in simulated action: reception, room setup, a conversation with a "patient" who is a hired, authorized model, when needed.
3. Facade and entrance, to help first-time visitors.
4. Reception and waiting area: the first setting the patient sees.
5. Office and treatment room, clean and organized, with no products on display in a way that identifies brands or promotes a technique.
6. Details: hands, closed instruments, the treatment chair, safety and care equipment.
7. Content images: a neutral background and objects that can illustrate posts without faces.

Why avoid patients in the photos?

Photographing a patient in the office creates more problems than benefits for an institutional shoot:

• Specific, documented consent for that use, which can be revoked.
• Advertising rules from the professional council and from CONAR (Brazil's advertising self-regulation body) on patient images. See what you may advertise (CFO and CONAR).
• Privacy and data: the face is personal data and, in certain uses, biometric data. See LGPD consent for patient photos.
• Risk of suggesting a result if the image shows someone "after."

If it is essential to show a person being treated, use a hired model, with an image-use contract, and make clear that it is a staged scene, if necessary. To illustrate the technology without a real patient, use the fictional person generated for the Harmy simulation, always identified as an illustrative simulation.

How do you plan a photo shoot?

Agree with the photographer on the time of best natural light, the equipment, the length of the shoot and the delivery date. A shoot at a time with no patients avoids any improper exposure.

How do you choose and hire the photographer?

Practical criteria:

1. Portfolio of interiors and portraits, preferably in healthcare or services.
2. Understanding of the limits: the photographer must accept that there will be no patients and that advertising rules apply.
3. Clear contract: scope, number of photos, editing, deadline, price.
4. Usage license: where, for how long and whether editing is allowed. Prefer a broad license for the clinic's own use.
5. Team image rights: an authorization form for each person photographed.
6. Delivery in useful formats: high resolution for print and lightweight versions for the web.

To organize the cost, see fixed and variable costs of the HOF clinic, treating the shoot as an investment in the brand, not an isolated expense.

What does the team need to authorize?

Everyone who appears must give written authorization to use their image. The form should state:

• Purpose: institutional promotion of the clinic;
• Media: website, social networks, print, ads;
• Duration: for how long;
• Revocation: how the person can withdraw authorization and what happens to images already published;
• Compensation, when applicable.

When someone leaves the team, they should be asked whether to keep or remove their image, as agreed. Use the patient image-use form template as a structural reference and adapt it for the team, with legal support.

How do you organize the image library?

Photos without organization get lost. Define:

• Folders by theme: team, setting, details, institutional.
• Clear file names, with date and content.
• Tracking of licenses and authorizations, alongside each batch.
• Versions: original, web, social media and print.
• Review date, to replace old images (the team changed, the room was renovated).
• Restricted access, with a secure backup.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• A dark phone photo as the website's main image.
• A stock image that does not represent the real clinic or promises something (for example, "transformed" faces).
• Filters and heavy editing that change the look of the setting or the team in a misleading way. See misleading advertising in aesthetics: risk.
• Photographing with a patient in the reception area in the background.
• Forgetting biosafety signage and care for the environment.
• Copyrighted music in institutional videos. See music in the HOF clinic and copyright.
• Using another professional's image without a license.

Investing in professional photos is investing in first impressions. When the images show a real team in a well-kept setting, without promising what cannot be promised and without exposing those who trust the clinic, they do what a long text cannot: they give the patient a reason to feel secure before even arriving.