Capturing Photos with Atlas Companion

Dermi Atlas Companion is the iPhone and iPad app for Dermi Atlas Professional. It opens the practice's Atlas on the device, with every Atlas workflow available, and adds a camera that shows an earlier photograph of the patient over the live view, so a follow-up photo can be taken at the same angle, framing, and distance as the one before. Photos taken in the app go straight into the patient's Image Pool.

Installing the App

Atlas Companion is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later. On first launch, a short walkthrough introduces the app and the servers list opens after it. The walkthrough can be replayed with Show Walkthrough in the app's Settings.

Connecting to the Practice's Atlas

The iPhone or iPad must be connected to the practice network. Atlas Companion asks iOS for permission to reach devices on the local network, and that permission is needed to connect.

1. Tap Add LAN Server.
2. Enter a Name for the location, such as the name of the clinic. Each name is unique on the device.
3. Enter the Host: the IP address of the computer running Atlas, taken from the address shown on the Status page of Dermi Atlas Manager (for example, 192.168.1.50). The Advanced ports section keeps its defaults unless the practice's Atlas was set up with different ports.
4. Tap Add.

If Atlas cannot be reached at that moment, a Server Not Reachable message offers Add Anyway, so the server can be added before Atlas is running.

The added server becomes the active server, shown at the top of the list with its status and one main button:

• Open Atlas opens the practice's Atlas. Sign in with the same team member account used on any other device.
• Install Certificate appears until the device trusts the practice's security certificate. The steps are in Installing SSL Certificates on iPhone and iPad.
• Retry Connection appears when Atlas cannot be reached. Check that the device is on the practice network and that Atlas is running.

A practice with several locations adds each one the same way. The other servers are listed below the active one, and Activate makes one of them the active server. The info button on the active server opens its details, where its name, icon, and color are changed or the server is removed from the device.

The built-in Cloud Demo server opens the Atlas Cloud Demo, where the sign-in uses a Dermi Cloud Services account. Show Cloud Demo Server in Settings hides it from the list.

Returning to the Servers List

Inside Atlas, a three-finger swipe down anywhere on the screen returns to the servers list. Shaking the device does the same when Shake device is turned on in Settings under Return Home. With Auto-launch into Atlas turned on, the app opens Atlas directly at launch whenever the active server is reachable.

Uploading Existing Photos

In the Image Pool, Add Images opens the iPhone or iPad picker for photos and files already on the device. The upload rules and the consent requirements are the same as on any other device; see Uploading and Organizing Images.

Capturing with a Reference Photo

Reference capture takes a new photo with an earlier photograph of the patient shown over the camera. It is offered only in Atlas Companion, in two places:

• Reference in the Image Pool toolbar.
• Reference Image on the Image Pool card of a clinical entry, once the pool holds at least one image.

To capture:

1. Open the patient's Image Pool and tap Reference.
2. In the Reference Image drawer, select the photograph to line up against, then tap Open Camera.
3. Line up the live view with the reference overlay and take the photo.
4. Tap Use Photo to add it to the Image Pool, or Retake to take it again.

The photo is added to the Image Pool under the date it was taken. Its Image Properties drawer carries a Captured With Reference section showing the reference photograph, and selecting it opens that photograph; see Viewing Images. Reference and Reference Image are unavailable while uploads are blocked for the patient, for example while the account's consent enforcement level is Required and no consent is recorded.

Camera Controls

• Overlay mode switches between the outline of the reference photo, the default, and the whole reference photo. The choice is remembered.
• Overlay opacity sets how strongly the reference shows, from faint to fully visible. It starts at half.
• Lens buttons switch between the lenses the device offers, such as 0.5x, 1x, and a telephoto lens.
• Focus is set by tapping a point of the live view.
• Flash cycles through Auto, On, and Off.
• Grid and Level add framing guides, and stay as last set.
• Timer takes the photo after a 3-second countdown.
• Scope, on devices that support it, keeps the camera on the selected lens instead of switching lenses automatically.

Grid, Level, Timer, and Scope sit in the camera's options panel. The close control leaves the camera without taking a photo.

Capturing for Full Body Sessions and Lesions

Reference capture is also built into two other workflows:

• In the Capture mode of the Full Body Photography page, a pending pose that an earlier session already photographed offers Capture. The camera opens with that earlier photo of the pose as the reference, and the new photo is assigned to the pose. See Documenting Full Body Photography Sessions.
• In a lesion record, the Add Dermoscopy sheet offers Capture on Companion. The camera opens with the displayed overview photo as the reference, and the new close-up is linked to the lesion. See Documenting Lesions.

Related Resources

• Installing SSL Certificates on iPhone and iPad for trusting the practice's certificate before the first connection
• Uploading and Organizing Images for the Image Pool the photos are added to
• Viewing Images for the viewer and the Image Properties drawer
• Dermi Atlas Companion for an overview of the app