Picture Perfect

ANCHOR LEAD IN:
IF YOU NORMALLY HATE YOURSELF IN PICTURES, YOU'RE NOT ALONE. IT OFTEN SEEMS LIKE PHOTOS FOCUS ON OUR IMPERFECTIONS. AND, OF COURSE, WE'VE ALWAYS HEARD THE CAMERA PACKS ON ABOUT TEN POUNDS. HOW'D YOU LIKE TO BE PICTURE PERFECT EVERY TIME YOU 'SAY CHEESE'? HERE'S ____________WITH A HEADS UP! ON NEW PRODUCTS THAT PROMISE TO HELP YOU LOOK YOUR VERY BEST!

NAT SOT Length: 01
Camera click

TRACK ONE Length: 07
IT'S NO SURPRISE COVER GIRLS ARE THE PICTURE OF PERFECTION WITH PROFESSIONALS SNAPPING THEIR PHOTOS...BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?

SOT
Length: 01 NO KEY
"My pictures are terrible!"

SOT
Length: 02 NO KEY
"I think I'm always overweight."

TRACK TWO Length: 09
NOW, SEVERAL NEW CAMERAS PROMISE TO HELP YOU PUT YOUR BEST FACE...AND BODY...FORWARD TOO.
MIKE MCNAMARA IS WITH POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE.

SOT
KEY @: 23 Mike McNamara, Popular Photography Magazine
"A wide variety of camera manufacturers are starting to offer cameras with some kind of beauty or portrait enhancement mode."

TRACK THREE Length: 08
MODES WITH NAMES LIKE 'SOFT SKIN'...MEANT TO TAKE THE FOCUS OFF FINE LINES AND BLEMISHES.
AND ONE NEW PRODUCT EVEN HAS A 'SLIMMING' EDIT FEATURE.

SOT
Length: 06(Mike McNamara, Popular Photography Magazine)
"It will shrink the center of the image. It gives you the control to actually make someone look a little bit thinner."

TRACK FOUR Length: 16
BUT DO THE TOUCH-UPS REALLY TRANSFORM?
MCNAMARA SNAPPED PICTURES USING THE CAMERAS' AUTOMATIC SETTINGS. THEN REPEATED THE SHOTS WITH THE SPECIALTY MODES. IS IT EASY TO TELL WHICH SIDE WAS PUT ON A DIET WITH HEWLETT PACKARD'S SLIMMING EFFECT? WE TOOK THE SNAPSHOTS TO THE STREETS.

SOT
KEY @: 04 NO KEY
"Heavier left, skinnier right. Maybe like two sizes smaller."

TRACK FIVE Length: 06
EVEN OUR EXPERT SEES A 'SIZABLE' DIFFERENCE. BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE SOFT FOCUS FEATURES, HE SAYS THE CHANGES ARE MORE SUBTLE.

SOT
Length: 05(Mike McNamara, Popular Photography Magazine)
"You really have to get up close to see that blurring and smoothing out of the skin tones "

TRACK SIX Length: 07
THE MODE GOT MIXED REVIEWS FROM OUR AMATEUR JUDGES, BUT OVERALL, THE FEEDBACK ON THE HIGH TECH PICTURE TAKERS WAS POSITIVE...

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KEY@: 02 NO KEY
"It's cool. Something I'd probably buy."

SOT
KEY @: 04 NO KEY
"Anytime I take ten pounds off of me, I would like that picture!"

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Snapshot sound effect

ANCHOR TAG:
Client Note: Please see source information below for details on the body image expert and the camera manufacturers' comments.
WE CONTACTED HEWLETT PACKARD WHICH TOLD US ITS SLIMMING EFFECT IS DESIGNED TO MAKE A PERSON LOOK TEN TO FIFTEEN POUNDS THINNER THAN THE DEFAULT SETTING- JUST ABOUT ON TARGET WITH WHAT OUR STREET JUDGES THOUGHT!

WE ALSO CONTACTED PANASONIC. THE COMPANY DID NOT RESPOND TO OUR FINDINGS, BUT SAYS ITS 'SOFT SKIN' MODE USES THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE SUBJECT AND THE BACKGROUND TO SOFTEN THE LINES ON THE PERSON'S FACE WHILE KEEPING THE BACKGROUND SHARP.

ONE OTHER NOTE...WHILE THE FEATURES ARE FUN, A LEADING BODY IMAGE EXPERT SAYS THEY MAY ALSO SEND THE WRONG MESSAGE -THAT IT'S NOT OK TO BE WHO YOU ARE, IMPERFECTIONS AND ALL.

SOURCE INFORMATION:

Mike McNamara
Popular Photography Magazine
PR CONTACT:
Kathryn Wender
212-767-6736

McNamara is Popular Photography's Executive Technology Editor. He runs the magazine's testing facility and writes many of the reviews. He says most digital cameras come with good photo-taking capabilities so, to differentiate themselves, companies are offering different modes and features such as the "soft skin" mode and the "slimming" feature.

Hewlett Packard
PR CONTACT:
Lindsay Sheppard
Porter Novelli
408-369-4655

HP says the slimming feature is meant to make a person look 10-15 pounds thinner than the camera's automatic setting, and that is right in line with what our judges thought.

The text from HP's Design Gallery brochure describing the slimming feature says the following:

"Slimming: It has been said that the camera adds 10 pounds. If this is true, then HP Design Gallery can help remove it. The slimming filter compresses the subject in the center of the image for a slimming effect while the objects along the edges are slightly expanded. The amount of slimming is subtle in order to maintain a subject that looks believable. A user can select between three levels of slimming. Best results are obtained when there is a single subject of interest centered in the image. However, that should not stop one from experimenting with alternative placements of the subject. Running this effect multiple times on each new image created can yield abstract looking subjects."

Panasonic
PR CONTACT:
William Safer
201-392-6124

Panasonic has not commented directly on our findings. However, Safer tells us when taking a pictures, the soft skin mode makes an assessment of the subject's skin tones and uses the light, and the contrast between the person's face and background colors to soften lines on the person's face while keeping the background sharp. It identifies the skin's median tone, and evens the photography out without diminishing shadows or depth.

TAG INFORMATION:

Cynthia M. Bulik, PhD, FAED
William and Jeanne Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
Professor of Nutrition, School of Public Heath
Director, UNC Eating Disorders Program
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1st floor Neurosciences Hospital
101 Manning Drive
CB #7160
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7160
919-843-1689

We contacted Cynthia Bulik to give us her comments on how these cameras may impact body image. Below is her response:
"Basically my concern is that this is yet one more way to make us feel as if it is not OK to age or just to look the way we do. On one hand-getting this kind of technofacelift or technolipo might give you a lovely picture that you enjoy seeing. However, it could also backfire and create an even bigger discrepancy between what you see on the picture and what you see in the mirror. Although marketed as a self-esteem booster, it could have the opposite effect-creating an even larger discrepancy between actual and ideal. A person could wonder-why can't I look like that in real life? and get even more distraught when looking in the mirror. Plus-even more than the actual operations and procedures, these changes really are just illusions.
On one hand this device could be fun-on the most superficial level. But then there are the deeper messages-it's not OK to have wrinkles or it's not OK to not be a size 4-so we have to morph you to make you look that way in a picture. Imagine this scenario. You have a 40th reunion coming up and you send in one of these adjusted pictures ahead of time to put in the reunion year book-it makes you look 20 lbs lighter and 10 years younger. Then the reunion comes and you are devastated-how can you go when everyone expects this thin young unwrinkled individual..an she's not coming with you!"