Lifestyles

If the camera always adds 10 pounds, it's only fair that manufacturers come up with a way to take those pounds back.

A new line of Hewlett Packard digital cameras have balanced the scales with a "slimming" feature that, simply put, elongates the subject of a photo, making the person appear thinner.

The ability to "slim down" a person in a digital photo is available to any graphic designer with a recent version of Photoshop imaging software.

"But for a lot of people, they don't want to spend all that extra time learning a new computer program," said Bob Gann, an imaging system architect with HP who works on the research-and-development side of the company. "With this feature built-in, but optional, they can change the things about the photo they want to change."

Photo alterations in the media occasionally cause an uproar; witness CBS' apology for an "overzealous" retouching of a Katie Couric photo earlier this year. The picture of the "CBS Evening News" anchor was altered to make her look about 20 pounds lighter.

Gann said for the average person taking pictures of his or her friends, the slimming effect isn't perceived negatively, as might be the case of an altered photo of a public figure.

"Once in awhile someone says, well, it's really about vanity," Gann said. "But people think the camera distorts them, so this makes them look like they really do. You're not trying to change the person, just make them look more like they really look."

But before abandoning those upcoming New Year's resolutions to lose weight, the staff at Trib PM put the slimming camera to the test. HP sent us one of its less-expensive models.

It wasn't all that user-friendly right out of the box. The default factory settings created large images, which quickly filled the camera's memory. And the delayed flash created a few photos that made the subjects look pale.

After staff photographer James Knox tweaked the settings, though, the photos were given the slimming treatment.

There was definitely a noticeable difference in the "before" and "after" photos. The subjects looked thinner, but without comparing the photos side by side, the effect was subtle.

In Knox's professional opinion, the quality of the photos wasn't great; he said any attempts at enlarging them created a pixilated effect.

And a warning: Unless the objective is to make the subject of the photos appear shorter and heavier (which might work for some people), hold the camera horizontally. Without using sizing features, vertical pictures subjected to the slimming effect created chubby digital versions of at least two Trib PM staffers, who shall remain nameless.

Naturally, those photos have been destroyed.

Gann said higher-end slimming cameras -- which cost as much as $349 -- have orientation sensors to prevent the "fattening" effect when the camera is held vertically. He added that rotating the image before applying the slimming effect should prevent fatter photos altogether.

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