So did Kate use a ‘clone tool’ to alter the image?

THIS picture hasn’t been altered to fool anyone. instead, it bears all the hallmarks of having been ‘ tidied up’ using something called a ‘clone tool’ on the software Adobe Photoshop.

The reason we can see it so clearly, i’m afraid, is because it’s been done so amateurishly.

What a cloning tool or clone stamp allows you to do is copy any part of an image and then reproduce it somewhere else, effectively pasting over and removing an unwanted detail with a couple of clicks of the mouse. it’s especially blatant on Charlotte’s knee, where someone has tried to correct something – perhaps her tights were a bit baggy or there was a speck of dirt – but has left it blurred, with no hard edge.

The anomaly on Louis’ jumper is another classic example, and a good illustration of how easy it is to get it wrong when you’re dealing with a repeating pattern. The motif on his right arm is disrupted, with two vertical lines where there should be one, because it’s been pasted on without enough care.

There are several kinds of ‘brushes’ you can use with this tool, either with hard or soft edges, and you can tell, on the hair especially but on her hands too, that the Princess of Wales has mostly opted for the soft brush. Professional photographers will often use it for taming flyaway or wispy hair, but they’ll be careful not to alter hairstyles too much.

We know from the picture’s metadata – the code embedded in a photograph that tells you how the image was created and edited – that it was taken on a Canon camera. it will have been a simple job to send the picture from the camera to the princess’s Mac or PC. We also know she used Adobe Photoshop twice.

Whatever the online conspiracy theorists would have you believe, however, i can categorically say no one’s head or hands have been replaced! i don’t blame the princess for not being an expert on Photoshop, but i do think Kensington Palace should have let someone who is look at it first.