Photography and Video

UT Southwestern is a globally recognized organization. The quality of our photography and videos should reflect that stature.

Whether you’re trying to find the perfect photo to use from our internal archive system, or shooting your own photos or video, the Office of Communications, Marketing, and Public Affairs (CMPA) can help you get started or connect you with one of our approved vendors.

Photo and Video Forms

• HIPAA Form
• Photo Request Form
• Video Request Form

Downloadable Resources

• Campus Images
• Virtual Backgrounds

General Guidelines

Authenticity

Sophistication as a brand requires a commitment to authenticity. Medical exams aren’t fun. Patients aren’t always smiling. Surgeons are rarely models. The courage to show life as it is (albeit artfully) should be a hallmark of our imagery.

Feature Photos/Patient Stories

Make it a point to imply both intellect and heart. When selecting multiple images, try to choose contrasting focal lengths. A closeup on a patient or doctor paired with a wide shot of an impressive architectural space is a great visual contrast – one that suggests both leadership and compassion.

Medical Procedures

Imagery should try to capture a sense of motion and progress. Consider choosing photos or other illustrations where foreground, midground, and background are represented. Stylistically, shooting through foreground elements offers a dynamic and appealing look. As a brand, we prefer observational images, where the subjects are not looking at the camera or smiling artificially, and preferably ones that artfully reflect our campus' true diversity in gender and ethnicity.

Digital Illustration

As a medical center, we use a lot of medical illustrations. As much care should go into selecting them as goes into selecting photography and video. A good rule is to focus on illustrations that are distinctive and use only one or two bright colors.

Medical Team

The one time it’s OK to have someone smiling at the camera is a doctor profile portrait or a group medical team shot, but even then warm smiles are better than all-out laughter. All such glimpses should reflect our dignity.

The Human Element

Generally, it’s preferable to include a human element in photos, even if the primary objective is to promote a building or a piece of equipment. People are drawn to people, and people are why we're even here.

Photographing Faculty and Staff

Here are some suggestions to consider when planning/taking photos or videos of faculty and staff:

Moments to Capture

Observational, real moments of interaction between staff and patients will be most effective. All images should evoke a feeling of optimism and reflect the true diversity in gender, age, and ethnicity that comprises our campus. Needless to say, avoid unflattering angles and harshly lit situations.

Backgrounds

Either feature the background by choosing wider framing, or soften it entirely by blurring with longer lenses, wider apertures, and tighter framing.

Subjects

When photographing staff, authenticity is the goal. Try to break them out of the need to pose and instead catch them observationally, doing what they do as naturally as possible. When you need a smiling-face shot, have an assistant stand a little off camera so the subjects can smile near camera, but not directly into it.

Angles

Find angles that reveal a mix of foreground, midground, and background perspectives. Try shooting action shots from lower angles.

Backlighting

When possible, backlighting subjects and action adds sophistication and visual interest.