A simple and cheap method of providing a good background for clinical or (pre-surgical) shots is to dig out an old black or dark blue t-shirt or other item. These are much better than the standard blue surgical towels in most ORs or clinics. Here is an example, a clinical shot of a patient with an isolated FDP laceration of the left ring finger:
This was taken with the OR lights on, camera flash off.
Higher quality images can be obtained by saving them directly from whatever PACS system you might have available. However, taking pictures manually with a lightbox and your camera of choice is often necessary, especially if your practice isn’t digital. Using a mounted camera directly over a special lightbox used for photography is ideal, but I’m not sure it makes a difference unless you plan to submit the images for publication in a journal.
This is a link to a page describing several ways you can manipulate a plain radiograph to obtain optimum image size, quality, and orientation.
after:
before:
Surgical Photography 