Hype was heightened around the first official picture of the Princess of Wales following her abdominal surgery
Photo experts and amateur sleuths alike are analyzing the official picture released of Kate Middleton and her children for Mother’s Day in the U.K.
The Princess of Wales, 42, released an apology and admitted that she does “occasionally experiment with editing” after multiple global photo agencies pulled the Mothering Sunday picture over suspicions of manipulation.
Taking a closer look at the image, the Daily Mail has identified 16 issues with the portrait of Princess Kate with Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, which credited Prince William as the photographer. Editing errors include obvious blurring around Princess Kate’s hair and Prince Louis’ fingers while the adjacent areas are in focus, alignment issues with Princess Charlotte’s left wrist and skirt, the pattern on Louis’ sweater being skewed and the zipper on Kate’s top looking off.
The Mail spoke with and cited multiple photographers who said the picture looked edited, though their professional opinions varied on whether or not Photoshop was used.
Sky News analyzed the image file’s metadata, claiming to uncover proof that Photoshop was used on the image.
Sky News said the image was saved twice in Photoshop on an Apple Mac, “but it is unclear if it was saved on the same device.” The outlet said the image was first saved on Friday night at 9:54 p.m. and again on Saturday morning at 9:39 a.m. The same timings were reported by the BBC.
The outlet’s findings also confirmed the snap was captured at Adelaide Cottage, where the Prince and Princess of Wales’ family live in Windsor, on a professional Canon 5D Mark IV camera with Canon 50mm lens.
Sky News’ science and technology editor Tom Clarke said in a video published on Monday, “Pictures can be manipulated, but modern cameras don’t lie…if you can access the metadata embedded in the image file, which we did.”
The portrait drew extra attention as the first official picture released of Princess Kate following her abdominal surgery on Jan. 16. The hype was only heightened by the fact that the Princess of Wales has not stepped out in public since Christmas, and Kensington Palace said she was “unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter.”
On Sunday, multiple global photo agencies including the Associated Press, Getty Images and Reuters removed the photo from their press libraries, citing concerns about manipulation.
The AP released a “kill notification” for the picture, writing in an alert to journalists that after “closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement photo will be sent,” according to a screenshot shared on X by royals reporters Chris Ship.
Competitors have also made similar statements. A spokesperson for Reuters said, “The source of yesterday’s handout photo said that she has experimented with editing. The altered photo didn’t meet Reuters standards of image quality, and that is the reason we withdrew it yesterday.”
PA Media reportedly became the fifth photo agency to drop the shot from its archives on Monday. The agency explained in a statement, “Like other news agencies, PA Media issued the handout image provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales and her children in good faith yesterday.”
“We became aware of concerns about the image and we carried a report about it last night, and made clear that we were seeking urgent clarification about the image from Kensington Palace,” PA continued. “In the absence of that clarification, we are killing the image from our picture service.”
@people #KateMiddleton has apologized for editing a family photo, but what exactly was manipulated? #RoyalFamily #BritishRoyals ♬ Breaking News Background Music (Basic A)(1001538) – LEOPARD
According to the BBC’s tally, the AP, Reuters, Getty, AFP and PA will no longer be running the picture of the Princess of Wales and her kids.
Although the palace released the image likely with hopes of squashing rumors about Princess Kate’s health that have been circulating online, Mark Borkowski, a London-based public relations and crisis communications expert, tells PEOPLE that the controversy surrounding the image has “made it worse.”
“Now some people are asking if it is all generated by AI or is it a Photoshop of a photo taken. It’s not something you’d want the royal brand to be aligned with,” he says.
