2010-07-21 14:27

NEW ORLEANS - BP acknowledges it posted on its website an altered photo that exaggerates the activity at its Gulf oil spill command center in Houston.

In this screen shot taken from Americablog.com, a digitally altered image BP posted on its website over the weekend of its Gulf oil spill command center in Houston, top, is shown above a zoomed-in image of the bottom center screen, with markings in red that note evidence of alteration. In the original picture, the screen shown at the bottom was blank. BP spokesman Scott Dean says Tuesday that two screens were blank in the original picture and a staff photographer used Photoshop software to add images. [Photo/Agencies]

The picture posted over the weekend showed workers monitoring a bank of 10 giant video screens displaying underwater images.

Spokesman Scott Dean says Tuesday that two screens were blank in the original picture and a staff photographer used Photoshop software to add images.

Dean says the company put the unaltered picture up Monday after a blogger for the website Americablog wrote about telltale discrepancies.

He says the photographer was showing off his Photoshop skills and there was no ill intent.

Dean says BP has ordered workers to use Photoshop only for things like color correction, cropping and removing glare.