Image Annotations: Turn Before & After Photos into Guided Case Studies

A great before & after photo shows that something changed. A great annotated before & after photo shows exactly what changed — and that difference is what turns a curious visitor into a booked consultation.

Image annotations (a Pro feature in MBA Gallery) let you drop numbered markers directly onto your case images, each with its own title and note. Hover or tap a marker and the detail appears. In this post we’ll cover why annotations are so effective and how to add them to your gallery.

Why annotations convert

Patients aren’t clinicians. When they look at a result, they often can’t tell what to look at — so the impact of your work gets lost. Annotations solve that by guiding the eye.

The “show, don’t tell” effect

A marker that says “Restored gum symmetry” or “Reduced nasal hump” does three things at once: it educates the patient, it demonstrates your clinical attention to detail, and it frames the result in the exact language a prospective patient is searching for.

Three concrete benefits:

• Comprehension — visitors immediately understand the value of subtle results they’d otherwise miss.
• Credibility — pointing out specifics signals expertise and confidence in your work.
• Education — annotations quietly upsell by revealing improvements a patient didn’t know were possible.

What you can annotate

Annotations work on every image in a case, and they’re stored per image pair — so a multi-stage case can carry its own markers at each step.

• Up to 30 markers per image side (before and after).
• Each marker has a title and an optional longer note.
• Positions are stored as percentages, so markers stay perfectly placed at any screen size.
• They display in both the Classic and Masonry case modals.

How to add annotations

Adding markers takes seconds and happens right in the case editor:

1. Open a case and find the Image Annotations panel.
2. Choose the image pair and side (before or after) you want to mark up.
3. Click on the image to drop a numbered marker.
4. Type a title and, if useful, a longer note.
5. Drag a marker to fine-tune its position; click it again to edit or remove.

That’s it — there’s no code and no fiddly coordinate entry. On the front end, visitors reveal each marker’s detail on hover (desktop) or tap (mobile), with tooltips that reposition automatically to stay on-screen.

For the full walkthrough, see the Image annotations documentation.

Best practices

A few tips to get the most out of annotations:

• Annotate the after image to highlight results, and the before image to set context.
• Keep titles short (“Improved jawline definition”) and put the detail in the note.
• Be specific and honest — name the actual change rather than overselling it.
• Don’t over-mark. Three to five well-chosen markers tell a clearer story than twenty.
• Mirror patient language. Use the terms people search for, not internal clinical shorthand.

Annotations are part of the bigger picture

Annotations pair naturally with the rest of the Pro toolkit — multiple image pairs for multi-stage cases, the Treatment Overview panel for at-a-glance details, and smart filters so patients can find cases like their own. Together they turn a simple photo grid into a library of guided, credible case studies.

Ready to guide every visitor’s eye?

Image annotations are included in MBA Gallery Pro — a one-time $99 lifetime license with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

See pricing · View the live demo