The Gadgets Page

I use a camera to record what is around me. I like to have a document that proves that I was there. Hewlett Packard has added a feature to their cameras that alters history. I don’t know what I think about it.

• Slimming photos with HP digital cameras – HP Digital Photography Center

It’s not like it’s a button on the camera that slims your subject like the Joy of Tech comic makes it look like. It’s a feature on their photo-editing software within the camera. It just simplifies what Photoshop Jockeys have been able to do for years. Why does it bother me?

I guess I don’t want my history altered. Making a picture so it makes me look thinner is revisionist history. I don’t need it. Despite my vanity, I think my ego would suffer even more if I used the slimming feature. Everytime someone saw that photo, I would feel like I had to preface it with, “I used the slimming feature on that to make me look a little better. I wasn’t really that skinny.”

Do people really want this feature?