Reading before and after photographs in Busan Seomyeon, and the five things to check.

Almost every clinic publishes these and almost none state the conditions. Five checks take a few seconds each and change how much weight a photograph deserves — including the ones we publish.

Check one — lighting

The largest variable and the easiest to exploit. Flat frontal lighting fills shadow and flatters; directional overhead lighting deepens every line and hollow. A before photograph under a ceiling light and an after under diffuse studio light shows an improvement that no treatment produced. Look at where shadows fall — if they differ between the two images, the lighting differed and the comparison is not one.

Check two — angle and head position

A chin lifted a few degrees tightens the jawline visibly. Head tilted back reduces under-eye shadow. A camera held slightly higher slims the lower face. None of these require intent to mislead and all of them change the apparent result. Genuine comparison photographs are taken from a fixed camera position with the head in a standardised orientation.

Check three — expression

A relaxed before and a slightly smiling after changes the midface entirely. More subtly, a raised brow lifts the upper face while lowered brows heavy it. Both images should show the same expression, and for anything treating dynamic lines both should show the muscle in the same state — an at-rest before against an at-rest after, or contracted against contracted.

Check four — the interval

A stated interval is the single best sign of an honest set. Results photographed at the correct point for the treatment mean something; results photographed at an arbitrary point may be showing swelling rather than effect. Filler at day one is swollen rather than improved. Lifting at week two shows almost nothing of what will arrive at month three. Jaw botox at two weeks is too early — see how long results last.

Check five — make-up and hair

A bare-faced before against a made-up after is not a comparison of treatment. Foundation, contouring and lash definition change a face more than most single treatments do, and hair pulled back in one image and framing the face in the other alters the perceived shape. Both photographs should show the same preparation, which in practice means neither wearing make-up.

Are results edited?

Sometimes, and more often smoothed than reshaped. Skin-smoothing filters are applied by default on many phone cameras without the user choosing them, so an image can be edited without anyone intending it. This is a further argument for fixed clinic conditions rather than photographs taken casually — see dull skin and the glass skin idea.

Why do some clinics show dramatic results?

Selection, mostly. Any clinic publishes its best outcomes, which is reasonable, and the range of what treatment achieves is genuinely wide — a patient with significant volume loss shows more change than one with mild laxity. What is worth noticing is whether a set shows a spread of outcomes or only the extremes, and whether the treatments and volumes are stated alongside.

Why does this matter more for foreign patients?

Because a photograph is often the only evidence available before committing to a trip. A local patient can visit, consult and decide over weeks; someone booking from abroad is weighing images against a flight. That asymmetry makes the checks above worth more here than they would be at home, and it is why what a clinic states about conditions matters as much as what the images show — see booking in English.

What is the fastest way to spot a weak set?

Look at the background rather than the face. If the wall, the chair or the crop differs between the two images, the camera moved — and if the camera moved, so did the angle and probably the lighting. A genuine pair looks almost boringly identical apart from the face itself. That one glance takes a second and catches most of the problems the five checks above describe, which makes it the useful shortcut when scanning a page of examples rather than studying one pair closely.

How should I judge my own result?

Photograph yourself under consistent conditions before treatment — same room, same time of day, same distance, no make-up, neutral expression, front and both profiles. Repeat at the correct interval for the treatment. This is the single most useful thing patients neglect, and it converts a later conversation about a result from a disagreement about memory into a comparison of two images.

What we publish and how

Photographs taken under fixed lighting from a fixed camera position, at the interval appropriate to the treatment, with treatment and volume stated. Results are not smoothed. That description is itself checkable — a set without stated intervals or with visibly different lighting between images is worth discounting wherever it appears, including here — see before and after.