The British royal family and photography have been intrinsically linked for decades, with images of the royals offering insight into their lives to give the public a sense of connection to the monarchy.
Since the days of Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, photographic portraits of the royal family have been issued to authoritative news services for public consumption, as well as editorial photographers covering live news events such as royal weddings and coronations. The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace will soon host an exhibition on a century of royal photographic portraits.
Recently, social media has become a key platform for many to view photos of those in the public eye. This has led to a more laid-back way of public figures and brands presenting themselves. The royal family are no different.
Rather than the professionally shot traditional photographic portraits, the royals have started sharing more informal portraits – sometimes even taken themselves – on social media and news wire services. Kate, Princess of Wales, is a keen photographer and has taken many photos documenting the milestones of her children, which were then issued to the public.
Trained photographers take hundreds of shots to capture that one perfect image, going to painstaking lengths to ensure elements such as composition, lighting and focus are just right. Amateur photographers make mistakes, so rely on editing afterwards.
There are degrees of manipulation: anyone who has taken a photo on their smartphone knows you can hit the ‘auto adjust’ button and see your image immediately improved. The latest technology on Samsung and Google smartphones dubbed ‘best face mode’ or ‘best take’ allows you to merge the ‘best’ elements of a series of photos into one image – does your child have their eyes closed in one shot, or are they looking away at the vital moment? Select their face from another image and drop it onto your chosen picture.
Professional photo editors and photographers regularly improve images with small adjustments, with the most common example being the lightening or darkening of a photo when the initial camera exposure isn't quite right. More drastic measures, using tools such as Photoshop, can be used to make someone look slimmer, or more toned.
Such tools can allow an editor to replace an entire face on a body, or create scenes that never existed.
In this instance, a photograph taken by Prince William, and then edited by the Princess of Wales, has been released with several very obvious signs of digital adjustment.
The two areas of the photograph that show the clearest signs of digital work are around the Princess of Wales’s head and Princess Charlotte’s sleeve. Just below Princess Kate’s collar is a horizontal line running across her torso, which shows up most glaringly on the zip of her jacket, with the natural line of the zip totally broken. There are also more subtle signs of alteration around her hair. Princess Charlotte’s sleeve also appears to have been adjusted, looking as if it has faded into Princess Kate's grey sleeve.
In the current climate of speculation around the Princess of Wales’s health and even a wider distrust of image manipulation due to the rise of AI, it didn’t take long for the public and news outlets to spot the digital changes.
It also begs the question of how many other royal images have been doctored.
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Catherine, Princess of Wales greets wellwishers after attending the Christmas Day service at Sandringham Church in Norfolk in 2023. All photos: Getty Images, unless otherwise indicated -
Catherine flies a drone as she visits The Queen's Dragoon Guards Regiment for the first time as their Colonel-in-Chief in November 2023 -
Catherine congratulates the England team on their Rugby World Cup quarter final victory over Fiji at Marseille's Stade Velodrome in France, in October 2023 -
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince William and Catherine on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 2023 -
Catherine meets wellwishers during a walkabout on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace before the coronation in May 2023 -
Catherine takes part in a spin class during a visit to Aberavon Leisure and Fitness Centre in Port Talbot, in February 2023 -
Prince George, Prince William, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Catherine attend the Easter Mattins Service at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in April 2023 -
Catherine is driven down The Mall after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022 -
Prince William and Catherine with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth in the Palace of Westminster in September 2022 -
Catherine and Prince Louis attend the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in June 2022 in London -
Catherine, Prince William and their children on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to watch the RAF flypast during the Trooping the Colour parade to mark Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 -
Catherine is accompanied by Hollywood star Tom Cruise at the Top Gun: Maverick Royal Film Performance at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, in May 2022 -
Catherine enjoys a slide during a visit to the Lego Foundation PlayLab in Copenhagen, Denmark, in February 2022 -
Catherine takes part in an England training session, after becoming patron of the Rugby Football Union in February 2022, at Twickenham Stadium in London -
Prince William and Catherine attend the Earthshot Prize at Alexandra Palace, London, in October 2021 -
Catherine plays tennis with US Open champion Emma Raducanu at the LTA Centre in Roehampton in September 2021 -
Catherine land yachting at the beach in St Andrews, Scotland, in May 2021 -
Catherine tries her hand at archery on visit to The Way Youth Zone in Wolverhampton in May 2021 -
Catherine visits to the Covid-19 vaccination centre at Westminster Abbey in March 2021 -
The royal couple play a grab-a-teddy game during a visit to Barry Island, South Wales, to speak to local business owners about the effect of Covid-19 on the tourism sector in August 2020 -
Prince William and Catherine try hurling at Salthill GAA club during a visit to Ireland in March 2020 -
Prince William and Catherine visit a settlement of the Kalash people, to learn more about their culture and unique heritage, during a visit to Pakistan in October 2019 -
Catherine accompanies Princess Charlotte as she arrives for her first day of school with her brother Prince George at Thomas's Battersea in London in September 2019 -
Catherine presents Novak Djokovic with the Wimbledon men's singles trophy in July 2019 -
Queen Elizabeth visits the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with Prince William and Catherine in May 2019 -
Prince William, Catherine, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry arrive for the Christmas Day church service on the Sandringham Estate in 2018 -
Catherine at a state banquet for King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands at Buckingham Palace in October 2018 -
Catherine and Prince William with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis after Louis' christening at St James's Palace, London, in July 2018 -
Prince William and Catherine leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, London, with newborn Prince Louis in April 2018 -
Catherine and Prince William cook with nursery children in Norway, during a visit to Sweden and Norway in February 2018 -
Catherine with four-year-old Rafael Chana on a visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to officially open the Mittal Children's Medical Centre in January 2018 -
Catherine dances with Paddington Bear as she meets the cast and crew of the film Paddington 2 in London in October 2017 -
Catherine plays with Prince George as US President Barack Obama talks to Prince William at Kensington Palace in April 2016 -
In front of the Taj Mahal during the royal tour of India in April 2016 -
Catherine and Prince William on a game drive at Kaziranga National Park in north-eastern India, in April 2016 -
Catherine with her daughter Princess Charlotte at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate for the princess's christening in July 2015 -
Catherine and Prince William at Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, during a tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2014 -
Catherine with Prince George and Prince William visiting the Natural History Museum in London in July 2014 -
Catherine and Prince William with newborn Prince George, at St Mary's Hospital in London in July 2013 -
Prince Harry, Catherine and Prince William on the set of Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter films during the opening of the Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, in April 2013 -
Catherine and Prince William celebrate after watching cyclists Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain win the gold and set a world record during the London 2012 Olympic Games -
Queen Elizabeth II and Catherine watch a fashion show at De Montfort University, Leicester, in March 2012, during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK -
Prince William and Catherine outside Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding where a helicopter was waiting to fly them off on honeymoon -
Catherine and her sister and maid of honour Pippa Middleton enter Westminster Abbey for the royal wedding on April 29, 2011 -
Prince William exchanges rings with his bride in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams during their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April 2011 -
Kate Middleton and Prince William visit Trearddur Bay lifeboat station in Anglesey, Wales, in February 2011, after their engagement in November 2010 -
Prince William and Kate Middleton cheer the English team during the RBS Six Nations Championship rugby match between England and Italy at Twickenham in 2007 -
At the Gatcombe Park Festival of British Eventing in Gloucestershire, in 2005 -
Kate Middleton during her graduation at St Andrews University in June 2005. She and Prince William met as students at the university in Scotland. PA -
Kate Middleton, front left, in a rounders team photo during her time at St Andrew's School in Pangbourne, Berkshire. She attended the school from 1986 until 1995 -
Kate on a family holiday in the Lake District when she was three years old
This may be a symptom of an amateur photographer trying to make the best of their photographic results but the errors were there for all to see.
Although you may sympathise with the idea of improving the way you and others look in a photograph, when there is such heavy public interest in a subject it can create a sense of distrust in the material. As much as the public want to see images of the royals, they need to know that what they’re seeing is real.
