is this true?

[Karen Tunison]

hi all.

i am not a photographer but i have been searching google all night without any luck so was hoping i could get some help here from those with expertise.

my sister has been telling me about a process where u can edit a photo to make yourself appear much slimmer. apparently her friends friend had this done. she sent off her full length photo and it got tweaked to take off 85 lbs. she then used this photo as a motivational tool to weight loss and it worked. she lost the weight and apparently the edited picture was identical to her new real slimmer self.

this story has passed thru 3 people before getting to me so i dont know if this is really possible and if it is, if it is really that professional. if it is i would like to have this done but i dont know the name of this procedure and so dont know what keywords to use to look for this service online.

if anyone could tell me if this story is true and what its called so i can searc h it up, i would be really grateful :-D

Many thanks in advance

[Ray West]

Hi Karen,

I would begin by using google, search on 'slim', then in 'search within results', at the bottom, enter 'photo', then try other words, as you think. I am pretty sure it is a standard sort of thing, probably offered by folk like 'transform', and other cosmetic surgery or weight loss companies. I suspect there is something you can do on-line.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Ray West]

Or try here

result of above searching method

http://www.soundfeelings.com/products/alternative_medicine/weight_loss/fitness.htm

This is not a recommendation of the product, just an example of how to use google to get to something

[Asher Kelman]

However Karen, you might already have the solution!

Do you have a digital camera?

If you do it came with a photograph editing program. Tell us what it is. You can usually select the profile of a person and then just bring in the waist. Good thing is that in learning to do this simple trick, you will have also learned the first steps in mastering the picture itself!

You might be able to save your $59!

Asher

[Jim Davies]

Photoshop's liquify tool can do wonders for a body. Even so called "beautiful" bodies in glossy mags are tweaked to remove small layers of fat under the arms and the inside of the thighs and a few other places.

Depending on the image, you can indeed tweak an image to give an impression of a slimmer profile. I've done it a few times with portraits.

There's a few ways to do it depening on the image you are using. The liquify tool and the clone stamp in Photoshop are both excellent tools for this type of work.

regards
Jim

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Karen,

How are the responses so far?

Asher

[johnhawk]

After reading your question , Karen , I was reminded of a new camera feature I had read about . It`s in the Hewlett Packard digitals , such as the HP Photosmart R727 , and is called " Design Gallery " ; amongst several other effects , such as Red-eye removal , you can use a slimming feature , which basically narrows the horizontal axis of the picture so that you look slimmer . The brochure shows quite an effective demonsration , and it might be useful if used sparingly .
Hopefully , these cameras are available everywhere (I`m in the UK) .

[Angela Weil]

Hi Karen,
personally, I think this is nonsense. Don't worry so much about a few pounds, just go out, move around and have fun.
If you want to know more about retouching, here are a couple of links I found on Joerg Colberg' s blog site: http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/archives/2006_11.html

The links:
http://fluideffect.com/ ("portfolio", then "before/after")
http://www.briandilg.com/imaging/index.htm
http://glennferon.com/portfolio1/index.html

Greetings from Heidelberg
Angela

[Mr.Lauren MacIntosh]

Here is a possible answer to lossing weight via digital processing???http://tinyurl.com/yb3spk , I have no connection to the site||Lauren

[Dierk Haasis]

One fine method is shown in Ken Milburn's Digital Photography - Expert Techniques in the chapter 9, "Retouching and Rescuing Photos", pp. 334ff [1st ed, March 2004, O'Reilly Media].

[Ilija J. Milasevic]

:: PHOTO SHOP 5 and it's free i belive!!! ::

You would actually be best if you could learn to do it you self, however at least you can always
try and build on it.

Just a thought
REGARDS

[David J. Eves]

But I do know. if you take an image of yourself and load it into photoshop

you can select the marque tool and draw a "bounding box" around yourself

CLICK on the Arrow / move tool and click inside your marque.

now you have the "handles" showing on the horizontal middle of the image

scale the image in (narrow) and I THINK this will INSPIRE what your trying to accomplish

quickly and easily!