The release of the first official picture of the Princess of Wales and her three children since her operation was undoubtedly meant to end speculation about her recovery. But that has backfired spectacularly after the princess was forced to admit she had edited it.
Catherine apologised on Monday after the manipulation of the picture led international picture agencies to refuse to distribute it on grounds of editorial standards.
PA Media, the UK’s largest agency and an important outlet for royal news, initially left the image on its picture service. On Monday morning, a spokesperson said: “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. In the absence of that clarification, we are killing the image from our picture service.”
What are some of the problems that commentators have observed with the photograph?
The sleeve
The sleeve and the left hand of Princess Charlotte, Catherine’s eight-year-old daughter, do not align with each other. It appears part of the cuff of her jumper and part of the sleeve have been cut away, though a portion at the opening of the cuff remains, disembodied.
The hand
In the void that creates is Catherine’s left hand. Some have speculated about the blurring to her right hand, where her left appears to be sharp. Yet more have noticed she is wearing no wedding ring.
The knee
The edge of Princess Charlotte’s knee appears to be blurred, where it meets the background. Most of the background of the image is drastically out of focus, compared with the foreground, suggesting it could have been dulled – or the foreground sharpened – to make it stand out more.
The jumper
Opposite to where her sleeve appears to have been edited, Princess Charlotte’s jumper appears to blur at the bottom, and to be misaligned.