‘Multiple frames were likely used’: the royal photo’s telltale signs of editing

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.”

The Guardian imaging team has since conducted its own annotated analysis of the image and has found as many as 20 anomalies with the image that may require further inquiry.

David McCoy, the imaging manager at the Guardian, said: “The first step in analysing this image is reading through the file’s embedded metadata to determine the photographic settings of the base camera image. In this case, we can see that a Canon 50mm f1.2 lens was used for this initial image, set to an aperture of f3.2, which will give moderately shallow depth of field.

“This leads me to believe that no one image would have had optimum sharpness across the required detail areas, so multiple frames were likely used to composite a more intended final result. Naturally, this also allows for idealised expressions from all members of the group.

“Once these technical photographic limitations of the image are determined, we can then zoom in as closely as possible to every edge of the sub

Guardian Design/Kensington Palace The changes in the photo of Catherine and her children only fuelled speculation about her recovery after a recent operation. Illustration: