How do I take accurate pictures of back and buttock moles with a camera?

September 6, 2020 6:26 PM

Hi there, this is my problem. Since a recent biopsy I've taken to documenting the moles on my body with a phone app, the problem is when it comes to attempting to catalogue moles on my back and ass. I'm shy to have other people take it and this is a quarantine situation anyway. How do you do it? I thought up one way of somehow having my phone control the camera of another phone where it is needed. Is there an application for that or can you recommend another way? Help!
posted by CyborgHag to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Can you put the camera on selfie mode then do a self timer? I imagine if you were positioned and ready to go a 10 second countdown would be sufficient to take a decent photo (provided the lighting is good).
posted by eggs at 6:39 PM on September 6, 2020

Best answer: As my dermatologist explained it to me (I'm moley) it's important to take the picture from pretty much the same distance and angle every time. So you might pick a table where you can stand up the phone on a timer in a very specific spot, then pick a very specific pose, back to camera, hands exactly halfway between this door and that, etc.

There are also little remotes that can activate the camera pretty easily if you prefer. I'm afraid I haven't tested these - the doctor's first recommendation was to have one's partner do it, which luckily I can comply with.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 6:59 PM on September 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For about $40 you can get an endoscope with a camera on the end that wirelessly transmits an image to your phone. That might make it a lot easier to see what you're doing while you get the positioning right. I'm not sure the image quality would be good enough for medical purposes, though.
posted by teraflop at 7:07 PM on September 6, 2020

Best answer: Here is just one example of the little remotes that BlackLeotardFront mentioned.
posted by Hatashran at 7:08 PM on September 6, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, can you recommend any endoscopes teraflop?
posted by CyborgHag at 8:19 PM on September 6, 2020

My phone uses the volume buttons to capture pictures, when it’s in camera mode. As a result, my headphones that also have volume buttons on the cord, will take a picture. So if you want to test out the remote shutter thing, you may already have what you need.
posted by Secretariat at 8:53 PM on September 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

You may already have the necessary equipment for remotely taking photos if you have an iPhone and Apple Watch.
posted by jeffmilner at 9:57 PM on September 6, 2020

There's no reason you can't do BlackleotardFront's technique using video. Just hit record, line yourself up in frame, then turn around and turn it off.
posted by Jilder at 2:07 AM on September 7, 2020

With rubber bands and twist-ties, you can make a cradle to hang the phone from a kitchen cabinet knob, or just stand it up on a shelf. Also, the kitchen usually has bright lighting. Most phone cameras have a delay setting.
posted by theora55 at 6:11 AM on September 7, 2020

Seconding the suggestion to take video. Modern phones take very high quality video and it means you don't have to worry about activating the shutter. You can take still images from the video to share if you need.
posted by Nelson at 8:30 AM on September 7, 2020

If you have two iOS devices, you can use an app called AirBeam that lets you use one device as a viewfinder and controller for the other device. You can take pictures or videos and control the flash. It's $3.99 on the App Store. It appears there's also an Android version, but I haven't used that one. Good luck and take care!
posted by malthusan at 1:37 PM on September 7, 2020

My phone (Android, LG V20) has a feature buried deep in Settings that lets me take a picture with a voice command. This is very useful when I have lost the Bluetooth button I bought to do this! (Charmingly, one of the commands is "Kimchi.")
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:27 AM on September 8, 2020