2024-03-11 21:34:06
image source, Reuters
Caption,
Reuters was one of the agencies that sent its clients a notice to withdraw the image from circulation due to doubts of manipulation it generated.
Article information
- Author, André Rhoden-Paul, Joshua Cheetham y Jake Horton
- Role, BBC Verify
-
56 minutes
The Princess of Wales apologized for the “confusion” surrounding the editing of a photo published this Sunday that was removed by large photo agencies for fear that the image had been “manipulated.”
The photo, taken by Prince William on Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom, was the first released by Kensington Palace since his wife Catherine underwent surgery in January amid intense speculation about her health.
But the main photo agencies stopped distributing the image.
BBC Verify spoke to experts about how the image may have been altered.
“Bad Photoshop work”
Caption,
The cuff of Charlotte’s sweater is not complete.
BBC Verify interviewed Hany Farid, an image analysis expert, who said the editing could be a “bad Photoshop job”.
He identified a missing part of the cuff of Princess Charlotte’s sweater and a blurry spot on Catherine’s right hand and in the hair on the right side of her face.
He said it was consistent with a couple of different explanations: poor use of Photoshop, post-processing effects performed by the camera to remove features such as blur, or poor composition of images.
“There’s a relatively new feature where you have a group of people, the camera identifies them using face detection and takes a series of photos in rapid succession,” he explained.
“And invariably what happens when you take a photo of a group of people is someone’s eyes are closed or someone’s not smiling, so what this feature does is it looks at four, five, six, seven, ten photos, whatever.” , and composes them together,” he added.
“When you do that, sometimes you make mistakes,” he said.
Farid found no evidence that the image was generated by artificial intelligence (AI) after analyzing it through his own system.
He further noted that there is nothing to suggest that Catherine’s face was added after the photo was taken.
Caption,
The zipper on the princess’s jacket is not aligned.
BBC photo editor Phil Coomes also identified the problem with Princess Charlotte’s sleeve, as well as a problem near Louis’ legs where there is what looks like a jagged edge at the base of a wooden door.
A possible explanation for some of the failures would be that several photographs were taken and overlapped, perhaps because not all of the children smiled in a single image.
Questions remain about Catherine’s right hand and the misalignment of her hair and the zipper on her jacket.
There is also a green fade around Princess Charlotte’s right knee that doesn’t match the gray cobblestones in the background.
Caption,
There is also a green fade around Princess Charlotte’s right knee that doesn’t match the gray cobblestones in the background.
What editing do agencies allow?
Photography agencies have a very low tolerance for any digital alteration of images.
For example, the Associated Press (AP) photographic standards allow minor photo edits such as cropping and color adjustments “when necessary for clear and accurate reproduction,” but say the image “must maintain the authentic nature of the photograph.” “.
Backgrounds must not be digitally blurred and changes in contrast or saturation levels that substantially alter the original scene are not permitted.
Arthur Edwards, royal photographer for British newspaper The Sun, spoke to the BBC and described the process of sending photos to agencies.
“You take the photo, you can crop it, you can enhance it a little bit if you need to… and then you send it,” Edwards said.
“You don’t alter the image itself. For example, if one of the people in the image has red eyes, you can’t remove the red eyes, you have to leave them as they are.”
Kensington Palace said it would not republish the original, unedited photo of Catherine and her children.
But BBC Verify has analyzed an image broadcast by the PA and Reuters agencies. PA initially distributed the photo to British media under embargo.
Analysis of the image metadata (data about the photographic image) shows that the photograph was taken with a digital camera using a Canon lens.
It was saved twice in Adobe Photoshop photo editing software, using an Apple Mac computer. But we don’t know if both versions were saved on the same device.
The first version was saved on March 8 at 21:54 GMT and the second on March 9 at 09:39.
The metadata in the Reuters version of the image does not include any information about what was saved in Photoshop and says the version was created at 11:34 on March 10.
Caption,
Kate’s right hand is blurry compared to Louis’ sweater.
What did the Princess of Wales say?
Kensington Palace initially declined to comment when media outlets such as BBC News and photo agencies such as PA Media asked for more information about the images.
But in the last few hours, Catherine apologized and said she edited photos from time to time.
“Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion caused by the family photograph we shared yesterday,” the Princess of Wales said in a written statement.
“I hope everyone who celebrated had a very happy Mother’s Day,” she added.
Have British royal photos been edited this way before?
Prince William and Catherine have previously published their own photographs in the press and on social media.
Catherine often takes the images to commemorate special occasions, such as Father’s Day. The princess’s interest in photography is known.
While Catherine acknowledged that she occasionally edits photos, it’s unclear if that includes past official photos.
Crown biographer and photographer Ian Lloyd said the manipulation of photographs of British royals is “nothing new” but he had never seen images criticized and then taken down.
Additional reporting by Richard Irvine-Brown and Alex Murray
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