Nine problems our photo editor has with the ‘manipulated’ image of Princess Kate
The Australian’s picture editor Milan Scepanovic has cast his eye over the Kensington Palace released image of the Princess of Wales and her kids, a picture he says fails ‘on a number of truths’.
Hours after a picture of the Princess of Wales was released, photo agencies around the world removed the seemingly innocuous image over concerns it had been “manipulated”.
Shared by Kensington Palace and posted to The Prince and Princess of Wales’s official social media accounts on Sunday, the first image of Kate after her surgery shows the royal sitting down surrounded by her children, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis, with the caption: “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” signed “C” for Catherine.
However, a “kill notice” was issued by organisations including Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Getty and Reuters just hours after the image had been shared when noticeable inconsistencies were spotted in the photograph.
The Australian’s picture editor Milan Scepanovic has cast his eye over the image and identified the main issues he has with it that “fail on a number of truths”.
Below are some of irregularities found in the digitally altered image, ranging from a missing wedding ring to the reflections in the royal family’s eyes.
1. Cloning on Princess Charlotte’s cardigan sleeve from her skirt
“You can see that parts of her shirt have been cloned over the top of her sleeve on her wrist. There’s definitely material there that should be on her skirt that has somehow come to fall on her sleeve. It’s quite obvious there has been some cloning coming into play there.” – Milan Scepanovic
2. Princess Charlotte’s cardigan tucked in on one side
“Her cardigan is obviously falling over the top of her skirt but then the skirt seems to be on top of her cardigan on the right side of her waist. That seems like a big giveaway there.” – MS
3. Kate’s missing wedding ring
Princess Kate was also not wearing her wedding ring in the photo which was also fuelling commentary about this online.
4. Soft and sharp focus points
“If you were to look at Princess Kate’s left hand, it’s very sharp. Whereas, if you pan across to her right hand, it’s very soft. I doubt that is because of movement. Even the texture of Prince Louis’ jumper has been softened in order to account for that hand being put in there.” – MS
5. Acute angle of Kate’s hand around Prince Louis
“The curvature of the hand and the grasp on his waist just doesn’t seem right. Even the bit of jumper that you can see just below her [Princess Kate’s] fingers doesn’t seem to have collapsed under the weight of her cuddling her son.” – MS
6. Different lighting sources reflected in Kate’s eyes
“Eyes can reveal quite a lot about the environment in which [subjects] were photographed. You can see in Princess Charlotte’s eyes specular highlights and they reflect the lighting source. Here you can imagine there is a field to their left and the sun is being diffused by the clouds creating this large reflection of the light source. That’s also very evident in Prince Louis’s eyes. Whereas [in Princess Kate’s eyes] there’s a very small specular highlight and that indicates a much smaller light source like an electronic flash.” – MS
7. Prince Louis’s fingers crossed strangely and part of his index finger missing
“To be crossing over your third and fourth fingers like that seems very unusual and his index finger is not looking particularly healthy. Some sort of mischief has come into play there.” – MS
8. Kate’s zipper on her jacket is disjointed
Her hair also seems to have disappeared around the zipper on her coat.
9. Kate’s hair is sharp on one side and not the other
“Princess Kate’s hair strands are quite defined on the left hand side of the face, whereas if you move to the right hand side, you’ve got that odd softness that’s been introduced to the photo. When you are doing photographic editing and you are trying to deep etch someone’s face and their hair … it is a really meticulous task. Here it looks like the softness has been introduced as a way of achieving that task in a faster manner.” – MS
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