Signs that Princess Kate's Mother Day photo was 'edited'
on to the main story of the day the one that everybody’s actually here for which is uh Kensington Palace yesterday issued an official photograph of the Princess of Wales and her children to Mark mothering Sunday now there’s nothing unusual in that but it turns out rather late in the day after newspapers and TV channels had all started publishing it uh that the photo has been subject to digital manipulation Dave can you take us through this a bit what is it about this apparently very happy Jolly photo where everyone’s deliriously excited what is it that’s raised
suspicions well this is absolute chaos I mean the picture was obviously issued with the uh you know sort of show the family looking happy uh the palace having made the unprecedented step of sort of issuing a statement last week trying to put to bed some of the S conspiracy theories about Kate’s health and yeah a closer look at the picture they issued yesterday there’s certainly some question marks about it there’s um there’s an issue I think around Charlotte’s hand uh and around the I think with around her sleeve yeah that’s yeah you can see it
there so for those on podcast what we’re looking at now is a an image of Princess Charlotte’s hand with a cardigan over it in which part of the cardigan
focus on it looks slightly different so it kind of looks like this is perhaps a different photo this has been taken from a different frame than the uh than some of the some of the other aspects of that image yeah well one of the things that strikes me there is that uh one of George has got his arms around Kate’s neck and he’s put his hands together in front of her cuddling her and his knuckle seems to have quite a little bit of light on it on the right hand side there whereas Charlotte’s sitting in
front of him so it shouldn’t have any light on it you’ve also got Charlotte’s skirt which doesn’t appear to be connected to her body there I mean it’s there’s loads of stuff going on there’s some things I suppose you could look at there and go well that is perhaps she just sitting funny and the skirt just looks a bit odd but then there’s other bits of it you go there’s something why have you and here we’ve got a photograph of Charlotte’s hair which um it seems to have been just hacked off by by well frankly
me when I’m for a school run go just quickly just cut it there that’ll do kind of thing and that doesn’t happen to a princess’s hair she’s got bits that are longer than other bits and a bit that seems to just been hacked off probably because it looks like something else was there originally and it’s just kind of been chunked there I mean this is how hair Falls naturally over a a a shoulder like this viewers podcast just going to have to imagine things whereas if you actually just cut it off there and then it
it don’t I suppose the question is Dave we’ve got a lot of these things here that bit odd um but we’ve also got the fact that it was actually issued on mothering Sunday which can happen but it’s also usually when they issue an official photograph they can issue it a bit sooner because to get in the Sunday papers if that’s the point of the dam photograph or to you know on someone’s birthday that kind of thing but there are a lot fewer staff knocking around on a on a on a Sunday for a Monday newspaper
aren’t there that’s right yeah know the picture AG as well I mean obviously it’s you know it’s quite telling that this took you know a few hours for some of these big picture agencies that would obviously you’d expect to be sort of taking a close look at this to sort of all collectively recognize that there was something wrong but yeah you’re right I mean the the kind of snap timing of the release of it like you say sort of with a bit more planning you’d possibly expect that this would be a picture that would be
sort of sent out widely under embargo on a Saturday night and then could feature in the Sunday papers uh run big so yeah it was kind of it was a snap release um for a picture that was apparently taken last week yeah that’s another thing you know it’s taken I mean you can see there in that picture of uh of Charlotte’s skirt looks very odd on her right hip you’ve got Kate and Kate’s not wearing her wedding or engagement rings you’ve got George there with his fingers crossed you know nothing here except questions to ask
about whether all four people were in the photo at the same time and whether they were all as deliriously happy in the same shot now it’s entirely possible because it’s really difficult professionally speaking to get four people or looking straight down the camera all going ha at the same time as opposed to you know blinking or looking the other way or you know flicking their hair or something and so it’s possible perhaps they had you know two or three people doing it right and one person blinking they decided to kind of Smash Two Shots together
but the issue here I suppose isn’t it I mean it wasn’t our finest moment obviously the picture did get through lots of newspaper picture desks and it I think it was the the general public really on Twitter that started noticing there was things a bit a Miss with it which then raised concerns picture agencies then issued what’s known as a kill notification which is basically like a correction that you put out on the wires and you say don’t use that one it’s it’s a it’s a dodgy one but you know generally speaking newspapers don’t like
using digitally altered images do we Dave why not no you I mean it’s a issue of trust with the readers when you put something out you the reader will expect to look at this and think this is an image that we’re publishing with Integrity it’s not being manipulated to make it appear in a in a different way uh you know sort of the the scene that we photographed was true to what was to what you see in the final image the camera doesn’t lie that’s that’s what we’re what we’re supposed to be doing although obviously
you know celebrities use Photoshop all the time don’t they and they put stuff out on Instagram St and we we rerun it the media reruns that although it’s got to be said that’s often a lot more professional than what you’ve just seen come out from Kensington Palace and that’s why there’s a lot of people who genuinely think that is what Madonna now looks like now Mike says you’d have thought if they’re going to tart up the image they’d have put a wedding ring on her other questions of course being asked so this is not the
first time that the Royals have had sort of Photoshop allegations there was another official picture of the family I think it was uh late last year which appeared to have one of Williams feet missing um a child’s hand wasn’t quite doing what it should um and again it looks slightly uh a little bit just off in a few places and it you’d think as well because part of the reason for these pictures being issued is to quell speculation about Kate’s Health since she’s had uh abdominal surgery and has uh retired sort of away from public
life for a little bit while she recovers and that’s led to loads of horrible unpleasant speculation online uh most of it completely Bonkers it’s got to be said and this kind of picture is a way of issuing kind of you know the palace is no no everything’s fine we’re all healthy and well look how great everything is shut up everybody but actually you know this has raised more questions than answers why would the palace just with your journalist hat on for a bit why would the palace do this it’s so obvious and it’s just made
the story exactly what they didn’t want it to be yeah I mean this is a complete disaster I mean like you say I think it’s uh and the way it’s been handled as well has been absolutely horrendous because they’ve allowed of when the question started emerging sort of yesterday afternoon last night is you would have expected then if they wanted to try and knock this on the head for there to have been a statement at that point from the from the palace just saying oh you know we made some cosmetic changes or we you know
they they really need to go into detail now and explain what’s going on because obviously this has been done at a time when you know the the family is fac in some horrendous uh you know sort of Internet conspiracy theories and this has clearly been put out with an intention of kind of knocking that on the head and has achieved the exact opposite because once one thing gets spotted then obviously everyone’s going to start asking what else has and I mean my suspicion is that you know kind of a lot of the changes were made
within with the intention of being fairly innocuous yeah but it’s snowballed into something that you know really the palace in a direction that the palace really doesn’t want it to have gone in and they’ve thus far failed to tackle this head on by explaining what’s happened I mean now I think if they’ve merged several images I think if they want to uh you know if they if they want to try and address this they’d need to really issue what these images were and how they’ve been merged together well that uh would be interesting wouldn’t it
if they started showing actually what the the the reality was there and S of telling something perhaps explaining a little bit why this happened because this isn’t just about you know tabloids and the media go the royal family we’ve got the world’s most respected photo agencies here which which supplied this whose own reputations would be under attack if they didn’t withdraw them I mean you’ve got organization like the Associated Press which put out a statement saying on closer inspection it appears the source has manipulated the image in other words the royal family has manipulated the
truth now it’s not the first time in history that’s happened and it’s certainly not the first time with uh with William and Kate and the modern Raw family either they he’s got um a very understandable I think most people would think desire to control the image of his family and to limit the public scrutiny that his his wife and his children are subject to and considering his background absolutely fair enough is I don’t think anyone would question that but um Julianne on Twitter is talking about control freakery and um it’s well known that um William’s
sort of attitude to this is very very Hands-On this isn’t something that would have happened without his approval he would have seen those shots he would have approved those shots he would have said those shots had to go out now he might not be an expert photographer apparently he took this photo or you know one of them whichever was used um but he will have okayed all this to go out so it’s it’s he will be aware that that’s not the original photo he has okayed it for publication he has okayed fooling and manipulating the
some of the world’s most respected photo agencies and photojournalists who he relies on to get his message across about other things all the time Dave says was this just an attempt to make an average photo better or something more Sinister it could be either Dave we actually don’t know but it’s the fact that there’s been this manipulation and an attempt to cover it up and I suppose Dave if they said look you know when when they put the photo out a composite image right so you’ve got you’ve got three small children and someone who’s not
on the best of health and you just you’ve say it’s a composite image because not everyone was looking at the camera at the same time it’s a chaotic photo shoot everyone fair I mean if it was uh I mean this does all seem very strange because it was if it was a digitally taking image if you’ve got a group I mean it’s only four people it’s not like you’re taking a picture of a sort of line up of footballers or you know you’re taking a picture at a wedding or something like that where you’ve got
s 20 25 people that children aren’t uh you know aren’t toddlers there’s no you know you’re not trying to take a picture of any animals or anything like that that are going to PR to looking in another Direction I mean you’d think four people all of their age can simultaneously look at a camera at the same time you take enough shots yeah and then you would expect in a situation like that certainly for family uh viewers you’d kind of expect them you know for family images you’d expect them to kind of choose the best one
from that but the issue is they’ve deliberately sent out a misleading picture which may not have been done for sinister reasons we just don’t know but because they’ve done it this obviously raises the questions about kind of you know why have they done this why is you know there there was clearly a deliberate attempt to mislead orbe it may have been innocuous but you know this does raise a lot of questions and like you say if they’re putting these things out but uh you know of they’re expecting you know sort of picture agencies newspapers to
take on trust and now that trust has been found to have been breached it does raise some qu you know it does raise some questions so this is where you’d expect the kenson palace operation to be sort of very visible very uh you know very clear on what’s happened yeah so what do you think everybody do you think this matters do you think this is just it’s a storm in a teacup and people need to calm down or do you think there’s something um a little bit more questionable going on here regardless of what the
picture may or may not be hiding is the fact that a future head of state is intentionally misleading which I think is going to be of concern to many people obviously every time there’s a royal photo issued of anything or every time they walk down the street all right there are people who are paid to go out and speculate on who’s doing what and the the metaphysical meanings of what color shoes they’re wearing right for hours at a time I find it incredibly boring and we would have exactly that on this kind of shot on
the fact that Kate’s not wearing her wedding ring and engagement ring as she usually does George has got his fingers crossed stuff like that um if you’ve had major abdominal surgery you you do have your jewelry taken away from you until your body because your body will swells up afterwards it’s entirely possible as well considering the size of that goddamn ring that she wears she doesn’t wear it every day um because it can it can probably get snagged on stuff and you know just that you want to keep it for special who knows um she
doesn’t have to some of that stuff may be completely innocuous but it’s the it’s the manipulation of things which seems to be odd Mike says Kensington Palace have refused to comment which doesn’t help their image as it were no it doesn’t Mike it also implies that they’re having a bit of a head in the sand moment so if Prince William wanted this photo is the one that was released a press officer who knows their stuff should be able to look at that and once you’ve you’ve seen any of this stuff it’s really glaring the obvious
and say yeah your highness we can’t issue that one it’s a bit of a mess um we need to go again on the Photoshop at least or can we have a look at the originals and try to let’s start again with something do it better um so someone has not been able to tell him that’s not a good idea sir we we shouldn’t do that he’s not listening to advice if he’s getting the advice um the photo obviously isn’t perfect in some regard Liz uh 3399 possibly not hurry on name says they should have just
released an old photo of her with the kids instead of this overly Photoshop one take something that’s just more candid as well you know don’t ask them all to stare at the camera and look like they’ve just inhaled some crack uh just ask them to sort of look at their mom something that’s easier to take the shot of perhaps would would also be helpful and then it doesn’t matter if they’re blinking does it stuff like that um now part of the reason for all this is that um you know this isn’t the first time that
the roers have had these Photoshop allegations as we’ve said it just kind of tends to raise more questions than answers and they wanted to settle all this unpleasant internet gossip we’ve had about Kate’s Health uh Williams recent cancellation of an appear public appearance about 45 minutes before it was due to start um I’ve done it so badly there’s actually more speculation and William is due to attend a commonwealth event today uh and all eyes are going to be on him for entirely different reasons now it’s been said several times Dave he’s a bit of a
control freak about his family are perceived do you think maybe that’s just gone a bit too far and he’s understandably wants to take control of that process but maybe it’s blinded him a bit to how the public are actually going to react to this because even the non Royal lunatic public are going to think you can’t you can’t do that yeah well potentially I mean I think this is one of the big arguments about the royal family I mean the sort of you get these people by birth by S virtue of who their parents are
whose every aspect of their lives is uh you know sort of open for public scrutiny in a way that must be really difficult to try and handle on a day today uh you know when you’re Prince William and Kate and you’ve you know you are releasing periodic pictures of your children and wanting them to uh sort to be in the Limelight because of their roles but also not wanting to sort of impose too hard you know too much on their uh personal privacy it’s a really difficult balance to try and strike and you think you
know when they’re making conscious images about what they’re going to release of course they’re going to try and show things in the you know in the brightest light and I think the wider public recognize it I mean I think the issue around this is just that we now know that we’ve been show you know we’ve been showing something that isn’t real for whatever reason yeah and and it’s also been done so badly they seem to care so little that you might know um not everyone’s impassioned about this on Twitter John says this is not news
it’s irrelevant literally it’s new John therefore It’s News um Lin Joe says I’m sick of these horrible people trying to make trouble I think she’s talking about us just enjoy the photo if we’re horrible people in then trust me we’re enjoying the photo because it’s causing all this kafuffle if we’re not horrible people then we’re just having a sensible discussion Andy said it couldn’t care less about the Royals but I so will stand up for the point of view that editing is an essential part of the photographic process and like all elements of Photography some
good some bad some need practice obviously the photoshopper on this one needs a lot of practice Doran says she’s not wearing her wedding ring and there are leaves on the trees so the photo isn’t recent uh it could be that the thing behind her is freshly embur there’s a few things in Leaf in my garden I can’t quite see what kind of tree it is they do seem to be wrapped up relatively warm when the children are kind of the right age so I don’t think it was taken like last summer I don’t think it’s
uh that much of a conspiracy Dorene um but it does seem to be that you know there obviously people are going to be split doesn’t matter if it’s edited like we said Dave I mean the thing to do with this if you’re at the palace now really is to just issue those images unedited and then we can see well look all you’ve done is you’ve moved Charlotte’s arm a bit because it was in the middle of her mom’s face you know fair enough I think another issue as well going forward is how this is going
to impact on their relationship with the wider press and with the with the uh picture agencies who ultimately they are going to be reliant on to spread these images I mean certainly everything they release from now on is going to have a higher degree of scrutiny and perhaps will take longer to issue because people will be checking it for issues like this now Mack on Twitter says typical Daily Mirror anti monarchist rant it’s a family photo in capital letters still it’s making headline news so of course jump on the bandwagon earn your wages while they
enjoy their privacy they’ve literally got less privacy this morning Mac than they did before they issued this photo and it’s because of the photo that they’ve issued they’ve actually gotten trying to control the scrutiny they’ve got more scrutiny it’s it’s Madness in a way you need to employ Madonna Photoshop bloke because she’s they’re obviously top of their game and this one is still learning so of course you’ve got the media reaction Dave there’ll be even more distrust now between Palace and the Press um more scrutiny not less of it talk about why Kate’s not wearing
her rings we saw from doring there various conspiracy theories starting to come out um constitutionally though with your sort of political hat on has a line been crossed here or are we edging up perhaps to that line one where you’ve got you know a potential head of state who is maybe lying about something innocent or otherwise um to his people and it’s not it’s not a privacy thing because this is a photo he’s issued in a way it’s not like he’s saying not your business he’s he’s saying here you are you can have this and
it’s not the truth no exactly I mean I think this is where it’s such a nuanced issue because you know you do expect the standards of uh in public life I mean you know this is our future head of state and you know potentially you know another Head of State in the uh another future Head of State in the picture as well we you know there are certain standards that the British public should be able to expect uh you know people um as you say this is an image that they themselves have put into the
public domain uh to give an impression of their life as a family and you know you do expect honesty within that and in this case it’s very obviously been shown not to be the case uh that’s not to say that you don’t expect a flattering image to be issued but yeah I think in this one it is going to raise some questions because a decision has been made to very uh you know to to very deliberately put an image that’s been manipulated into the public domain and even if it was done for innocent reasons that
does raise questions about where the acceptable line lies yeah and there’s obviously there’s a way of issuing your photographs that make yourself look good Megan and Harry do it all the time I don’t think they’re using quite so much Photoshop and if they are they’re using it much more wisely and a bit more professionally um and they don’t have this kind of kafuffle as a result they do get blamed for you know manipulating their image I suppose by issuing that photograph but the photograph itself is the truth of that moment in time Trudy says they
stated Kate would be out of action till Easter I’m thinking she’s still not well but because of all the speculation they felt they had to put something out so that all seems normal um Kate’s been sit out and about she’s been in Windsor she’s not like she’s in a coma or something um and you know we’ve just got all this talk now about about things that if she wants her privacy and she wants to get well she really shouldn’t be exposed to and if William is caring for her in the way that he should he
should have just put out the sensible photo kill this dead all this speculation and silliness and let her get back to getting well again um if that’s what’s happening a no comment from the palace is not going to wash it because it’s only going to make things more stressful for all of them I would have thought so as Dave Burke said say your highness if you’re listening um please issue the actual photos that were taken tell us that it was all very innocent and everyone can shut up and move on to other more important things
such as a May election um right thank you everybody for taking us through all that
