‘Kate-Gate’ continues: Getty says image of the Queen was also manipulated at source
Mar 19, 2024
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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Just when we thought we were over ‘Kate-Gate’, it seems as though the Princess of Wale’s Photoshop skills are coming under scrutiny again. The debacle last week saw major news outlets pulling a photo of the Princess and her children after they noticed evidence of image manipulation.
Getty Images has added a tag saying “digitally enhanced at source” to a photograph published by the Palace last year. The photo is of the late Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her grandchildren. The photo was also taken by Princess Catherine.
The picture agency says it added the editor’s note to the image, which was shared by Kensington Palace in April 2023, on what would have been the Queen’s 97th birthday. The original caption of the photo says that the image was taken at Balmoral Castle by the Princess of Wales.
According to Sky News, Getty said in a statement, “Getty Images can confirm that in accordance with its editorial policy, it has placed an editor’s note on a handout image stating the image has been digitally enhanced at source.”
Forensics expert
Sky News also apparently asked a forensic photo expert (whatever that means) to take a look at the photo. The ‘expert’ said that they thought the two images had probably been edited by different people. The reason was that the photo of the Queen was a far superior editing job than the one of Princess Catherine.
After the initial image of the Princess and her children had been taken down by the press, it was revealed that Kate herself did the Photoshopping. Unfortunately, this then ignited a host of new conspiracy theories around the Princess’ whereabouts after her abdominal surgery in January.
Why the fuss?
It may all seem like an overreaction. What’s the big deal if a mother photoshopped her children to create the best composite photo? I mean, it’s done all the time in family and wedding photography, and fashion photographers such as Annie Leibovitz have literally built careers on composite shots.
However, the biggest difference is that none of those photographs are sent to the world’s news organisations to share. The press has to adhere to very strict rules regarding image manipulation, with very little editing being allowed. Aside from cropping and colour correction, everything else is forbidden.
This has always been the case, and is important to make sure that there is trust in the veracity of a photograph. This is especially important now in these days of deepfakes and artificial intelligence. The press was simply upholding their rules on image manipulation, albeit with a fairly inconsequential photo of a woman and her kids, who just happens to be royalty.
Perhaps it’s about time for cameras to have that Content Authenticity code built in.
[via sky news]
Alex Baker
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
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5 responses to “‘Kate-Gate’ continues: Getty says image of the Queen was also manipulated at source”
99% of photos are edited and manipulated some degree and have been since the first ever photograph was taken to make them better in some way. everyone does it, to some extent, from making it brighter, to removing a spot, some are better at editing than others! Those who are moaning about Kate trying editing have either tried it themselves as well or are so professional that their photos are spot on every time that they never need editing in any way! So what’s all the fuss about she does claim to be an expert photographer and had never claimed any photos had not been edited.
Tiktok now doesn’t believe yesterday’s video of Kate is the real Kate. 🙄
Ultimately who really cares if the photos were edited in any way. In my opinion no harm, no foul. Stop making a mountain out of a mole hill.
And Google is selling their latest camera phone with this sort of manipulation as the main selling point.
Folks, please understand the “My house, my rules!” concept. If news outlets do not accept doctored images, news outlets do not accept doctored images. That is a lesson Steve McCurry had to learn (and – as expected – he dealt with it pretty poorly, first claiming the assistant did it and later rebranding himself as “visual storyteller”), the Princess of Wales will learn it as well.
And I honestly don’t care a flying f* who ‘shopped the images or if she’s currently recovering from abdominal surgery. Being a person of the public life comes with certain privileges and certain responsibilities as well.
So please don’t tell me, Kate didn’t know – with all the 1’001 consultants, lawyers, PR people orbiting the royal family. Bonus tip: If you don’t want to be bothered, don’t post images in the first place. It’s as simple as that. And “everybody does it” has never been a proper excuse.