External Eye Photography
Introduction

William C. Nyberg, RBP CRA
Scheie Eye Institute
University of Pennsylvania

External photography is the term used by ophthalmic photographers to describe pictures of the eye made with conventional cameras. The pictures look familiar to a person uninitiated in the more esoteric images made with fundus or slit lamp cameras, even though both of these cameras can also photograph the "external" (rather than internal) eye.

The typical range of subjects for external photography is from a low power image of the face to the a high power picture of the individual eye. External photographs of patients faces are used by general ophthalmologists and ophthalmic-plastic surgeons to document skin types as well as lesions and morphological abnormalities of the skull, eye lids and surrounding areas. Neuro- ophthalmologists use pictures of the head and shoulders, face and eyes to document nerve anomalies. Perhaps the most challenging and difficult to accomplish external photos are those that document the anterior segment of the eye ball itself.

Not only are external photographs unparalleled for showing conditions of the face, skin, conjunctiva, sclera, and the eye lids, but are capable of telling spectacular stories of the cornea, iris, and lens, to work in concert with slit lamp and fundus images.

Oblique View of Skin Lesions