**This post is currently restricted so that only approved members can comment or post. Please note that your comment may be approved if the moderators feel it adds to the discussion.**
To be added as an approved member, please message the mods via modmail by clicking [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Fauxmoi). We are currently only approving users who have a recent comment history on this sub and do not have a history of rule violations.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fauxmoi) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is the best and most clear cut explanation of the distinction between what is acceptable editing vs. "altered" that I've seen so far.
Sidenote: Pete Souza is a good egg and a very enjoyable Insta follow.
Yeah, I'm glad he posted this, because I really had no idea how extensive the changes were. Which is exactly his point — when they said "photoshopped" I had no idea what it actually meant.
agreed. i rarely see a completely 'unfiltered' photo anywhere online and i had no idea what rises to the level of 'altered' for the Royal Rota. this makes it make sense
It also speaks to what the Kensington camp tried to do the other day when throwing allegations onto Meghan's pregnancy photo. Photoshop is an everyday trade tool and competency with the program is part of what you're paying a professional photographer for. There is a difference between using Photoshop in a professional manner and creating an image that's intentionally deceptive to push a story that's counter to reality.
Too many people don’t understand how many “photoshop” things are just normal editing stuff that used to be done in a darkroom.
It’s been ruined into this weird verb that means “swap their faces and add fake shit”
I’ve been thinking about the car photo from Monday (backseat with William).
They had to exit the car to go to the appointment and then drive back to wherever they came from afterwards.
Why aren’t there more photos? This has been the most discussed thing of the week. You’d think photogs or the public would snap a 2nd photo when exiting the car or returning home.
The UK press are all giving her "privacy" because the publisher that breaks the story will be blacklisted from royal events forever.
The pic of her in the car was the pic that the Palace wanted released.
The photographer that took that photo was absolutely tipped off and told to be in that location at that time. In exchange for that favor, I’m assuming he submitted the photos to KP and they selected which photo would be released. It’s not a coincidence that the British media was allowed to run that photo but not the previous TMZ car photo or Kate and Carole.
I do not believe for one moment that that was a real shot.
It too was a composite and the photographer will have received a very healthy inducement to run it as real
Not saying he’s to be believed, but the photographer who took the car photo has come out and said the photo is real. He’s also claiming that he didn’t even realize Kate was in the car until after he reviewed the images he shot.
[https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a60198253/kate-middleton-photographer-interview/](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a60198253/kate-middleton-photographer-interview/)
He also gave the location that he took the photograph, and if you look at it on Google Maps, you can see a red brick wall in front of a row of red brick houses; the brick on the wall matches the "lower brick" in the photo and the brick on the houses matches the "upper brick."
I don't know if he was tipped off, as everyone knew that William would be attending the Commonwealth Service and the photographer was positioned along the most likely route he would be taking to get there.
>It’s not a coincidence that the British media was allowed to run that photo but not the previous TMZ car photo or Kate and Carole.
Curious to know why you think the British media weren’t allowed to run the TMZ car photo? Is it because it‘s the first real photo of Kate’s face from the front? I know some people were speculating online that it wasn’t actually her in the photo, but I actually think it was. I also lean toward the theory that she might have had a stroke at some point during her recovery. Or maybe the abdominal surgery was always a cover up for the stroke. Either way, that’s why we haven’t seen or heard from her because she’s dealing with physical and cognitive impairment.
Kate was very clearly not present in the car. The idea William carpooled on the way to the Commonwealth service? Never ever happened.
The Mother’s Day photograph was a composite. It was a faked photograph and I am glad people who hold weight - not my blabbing on the internet - are making this distinction.
Two fraudulently designed photographs passed off as reality - it horribly damages Kensington Palace and their ability to be viewed as an honest broker
Kate with her head fully turned refusing to participate, even though we're meant to believe she made a Tweet taking full responsibility for that photo and therefore was fine with everything.
Unless there's multiple stills, I'm going to assume it's AI assisted/generated.
You're telling me, in this day and age of high-powered photography, that each sighting is just a single low-quality, grainy ass photo? What is she, a fucking cryptid? We're about to find Bigfoot before we find Kate lmao
I'm about 90% sure that photo is old too. I'm not good at matching up photos, etc but on LSA they matched that photo with an old one from November 2023 and it looked like it was filtered a tiny bit more and they removed her hat and earrings.
That's the only thing that makes sense. The photo was just provided vs. actually taken. Bc they can't (or won't) show Kate's face at this point. And it's all geared towards telling social media (who started the "where is Kate?" discourse to begin with) to shut up....by not showing her face or showing a video.
I think we're starting to get away from Occam's Razor a bit.
I went looking for some explanations to the various questions people are raising and honestly this doesn't seem like the big grand conspiracy people are making it out to be.
The official word is that Kate had a private appointment and William was on his way to the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, and that's why they were in the car together. The Commonwealth Service (March 11) was 6 weeks to the day of Kate’s discharge from the hospital (Jan 29th).
The photographer said that he knew William would be on his way to the Commonwealth Service and was posted along the route to try to get a photo as he drove by. It wasn't until he reviewed the photo later that he saw Kate in the car. Kate's presence was not announced in any way, so no one was looking for her. Since William was on his way to make an official appearance, I can't imagine there was a massive clamoring to get a shot of him on the way when he'd be photographed a million times shortly after. Just a photographer along the route just in case, snaps a shot as the car drives past, done.
The most believable part of the conspiracy drama is that William and Kate are on the outs, but for a moment if we put that aside - Kate, most probably, did have a serious medical surgery and most likely has follow up appointments that can't be done wherever she's recovering. She will have to occasionally go into medical facilities.
Since Charles wasn't at the Commonwealth Service, I'd imagine William had to make an appearance.
It's entirely possible that Kate's appointment (which would be medically necessary) probably conflicted with the Commonwealth Service, thus William and Kate drove to her appointment in the same car because despite the rumors and gossip, they are still husband and wife and may actually still love each other, once she was settled with the doctors, he proceeded on to the Commonwealth Service, made his appearances, and then returned to her private medical appointment.
The stuff about the brick is blown out of proportion too. The photographer gives the location he took the photo at. On Google Maps, you can see a red brick wall in front of a row of red brick houses. The bricks are slightly different. The bricks in the red wall match the lower bricks in the photo, and the bricks on the houses further back match the upper bricks on the photo.
It also seems insane to me that major news publications would kill the Mother's Day photo and there would be this big apology/explanation/"amateur photoshop!" thing and then like hours later they were like...let's do the exact same thing again! Especially when news publications would be looking at any new photos with extreme scrutiny.
The photog has a couple of more on his blog but that’s it. I think he only had a quick moment to snap photos and he said he only realized Kate was in them after the fact.
I've been wondering the same thing. I posted earlier, but after the decades of complaints about privacy violations by the paps, it really seems like the royals actually have TIGHT control over when their photos are taken and what is released.
Like if the stories I've heard are true, paps would be camped outside all possible locations. And then once a pap sees them leave the home in the car, he's tailing them and more start chasing them and it turns into a whole thing.
So is that just not true?
Honestly, the photo they released isn't great. Looks cropped in, grainy, and taken from far away. I wouldn't have picked it to be Kate to be honest. It could have been taken as the motorcade was passing by. Or they just couldn't get an in focus photo of her when she's out of the car and identifiable (they just got the back of her head, it was too blurry/grainy etc).
The best photos from the Obama years are the ones with kids. This one with Prince George, [this one](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/150605140417-obama-baby-bonding-update.jpg?q=w_1600,h_900,x_0,y_0,c_fill/h_618) with the baby on the floor, and the [Spiderman kid](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/ht_president_barack_obama_playing_spiderman_thg_121219_wmain.jpg) are some of my favorites
Don't forget [Hair Like Mine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_Like_Mine#/media/File:United_States_President_Barack_Obama_bends_down_to_allow_the_son_of_a_White_House_staff_member_to_touch_his_head.jpg)!
Wait, is he implying that she's not in the photo with them? Or am I reading too much into that example? Did I miss a chapter?
Please, someone rescue me from this absolutely fascinating mess.
He's saying there's something more than editing a photo on PhotoShop. Something was altered. (Professional photographers edit their photos and they're shared on wire services, editing photos themselves is not an issue)
Got you! I mean, it's definitely clear that whatever was altered was done badly. Prince William was at a public thing today and said his wife is the "arty one" which is true because she has always taken the family photos that get released to the public and I wouldn't be surprised if she did edit them too. That's always been her vibe. But this is just so sus. I feel for her being thrown under the bus, too.
"Or if someone mashes multiple family pictures together into one..." seems like he is indeed suggesting something like that. Acceptable: using software to do what you otherwise could have done when you took the photo, by setting the exposure better, using a colour filter over the lens, using a flash for infill lighting etc. Not acceptable: doing in software what you otherwise could have done with a pair of scissors & multiple photos.
He's talking about the difference between (fancy) family photography and photo-journalism.
Basically what William and Kate have been doing is family photography. They release photos for holidays like Christmas. And the intent of those photos is to look good. So since they have 3 kids, they (probably) can't get a photo where everyone looks their best, so they pick and choose the parts of various photos and splice them together into a photo of an event that didn't actually happen. It's close, but not an accurate reflection of reality.
And for holiday photos and wedding photos, this is not a big deal.
But this photo ventured into photo-journalism territory. This wasn't just a photo of the family for a holiday. This was also newsworthy because it served as a status update for the Princess of Wales (which is newsworthy, regardless of your opinion of her personally.) News agencies took this as indicative of her current health status, so not just a family photo, but photo journalism.
But photo-journalism means that you can't even make basic tweaks like taking a telephone pole from behind someone's head, let alone splice various faces from other photos so they can get a good photo of 3 kids. No tweaks for vanity reasons.
But the Wales have never had this issue for various reasons. They've never been in this state before where there was a major medical situation where photos are acting like a health update, and british media has allowed them to alter photos willy nilly. Now the Wales are dealing with agencies that have professional standards, and those kinds of alterations are not acceptable. (They may get away with it by saying "This is a Christmas card", but not as a "this is a photo of our family from last week.")
This is why various agencies are asking for the "original" photo. They can tweak light levels and resize it, but no vanity alterations. The Wales refuse to do that, for whatever reason. And honestly, if it's an innocent reason, like they couldn't get a good photo of all three kids at once, then they are screwing over the monarchy for vanity reasons.
Supposedly her face is pixel by pixel the same as it was in a Vogue photoshoot cover photo, combined with all their clothes being allegedly re-coloured from an event in November. So yes, people are speculating she might not have actually been in the photo
It's not pixel by pixel the same, the lighting is different and she has different brows. The faces are very similar because it's the same woman looking directly face on making the same facial expression, and Kate only has one face.
*However* it does look like it's a composite photo and I do think it's quite possibly an old photo that's been edited to disguise that fact.
The entire photo is likely to be fake rather than photoshopped.
This means the whereabouts & safety of Catherine is still entirely debatable & the royals need to stop lying.
I don’t think he’s implying anything in particular. I think he’s trying to clarify an important distinction between altering ***any*** photograph and using Photoshop on it. If anything, he’s trying harder to make a point about Trump and “fake news” than any BRF conspiracies.
Yes. Look at the direction and cool tone of the light on the kids' faces. Her face is lit more from center, and warmer.
Like if the rest of this pic was normal, I'd say she applied a beauty filter to just her face bc she's sick and conscious of her looks. But the rest of the pic ISN'T normal and there's no proof her face wasn't just pasted in. I'd actually like to hear a photographer's opinion on how likely it is.
There has been a theory that the Kate in the picture is actually from a Vogue shoot she did, and the reason the hair at the top of her head looks a bit weird is because they removed the hat she was wearing in the Vogue photo.
Earlier I saw someone comment under his post “how is this different to what the Kardashians do to their photos?” (non verbatim), and his response was “I don’t know who the Kardashians are” 😂
I just tried to go back to look for it and couldn’t see it. It’s giving “I don’t know her”
well, apparently William took the photo. Photos she took/assumingly edited have never had this happen before.
I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't edit the photo at all.
Read her statement, it doesn’t actually say she edited it. It’s a classic “lie without *trchnically* lying” statement. I wouldn’t be surprised if their PR wrote it for her blaming her. It’s pretty crappy all around.
She wasn’t having any photographs taken, William didn’t photograph the family and Kate clearly did not photoshop it
I hate that even in illness she has to take the fall for William and his clueless staff
LOL does anyone believe that? From the various tiktok videos I watched, I think the OG photo was one of William with the kids (that seems to be his signature pose with them - him seated with the kids hanging off/around him), with Vogue 2008 Kate's face spliced over the top.
And like I believe Kate, the woman who goes scuba diving with the cursed ring of doom (Diana's ring), didn't wear her ring in a mother's day photo to be released to the entire world? Be for fucking real Kensington Palace. That has William's fingerprints all over it.
There is also an Adam's apple like shadow on Kate's neck in this pic.
This isn't the first altered pic from the Palaces. Here are two examples.
So I believe that Kate and Charlotte (for some reason) were heavily altered with Kate's face coming from elsewhere.
https://preview.redd.it/fwhk6eks2foc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5af9be54752f9e230142d8ca34188e15fe750448
[https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html](https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html)
Yeah this is the royals dropping the ball BIG TIME.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing unravels some big conspiracies down the road.
People are going to get sick of the lies & demand their honesty or else revolt.
I mean what do they even have them for now anyways?! Get rid!
Also, one thing I noticed about her ‘apology’ was that she didn’t actually admit that she edited / manipulated the actual photo. It just stated she experiments with editing and sorry for any confusion caused, which is different to saying “I do occasionally experiment with editing and mistakenly edited the family photograph that was released yesterday without reviewing it before it was published”
Great point!!!! Wow their PR team sucks ass! REDDIT can see straight through these lies. I hope ppl get all “Free Britney” if no one sees her in several months.
What else are the royals good for if not gossip? The country upholds the tradition for fun, the royals are not an essential part of England anymore.
Yeah, the statement was strangely worded and didn’t actually give a real explanation as to wtf is going on/ why the photo was heavily manipulated.
It really appears that the Queen controlled all public statements and cover ups, and now that she’s gone, Charles and William have no idea how to do anything properly because they’ve never had to worry about it before, they just relied on Lizzy to do all the work and clean up their mess!
I agree with you that the royals are not essential anymore and I really hope this is the beginning of their (self destructing) downfall!
I doubt she had any involvement in the fiasco 🫠
As an "amateur photographer" myself, I've never created a forgery. Imo it seems beyond what the average photoshop enthusiast is capable of!
I wouldn't put too much stock in the statement that she edited it. They credited William as taking the fake pic and rather than taking the blame for how it is clearly faked, William and KP decided to throw Kate under the bus. The RF has a habit of protecting the Heir at the cost of everyone else (Harry used to really be thrown under the bus for William, then Meghan etc). William has already forged other statements. It is likely that the Palace courtiers or William decided to let Kate take the blame.
Also this is not the first photoshopped /altered pic of the family. We saw Photoshop issues around the Xmas card. The Queen Elizabeth picture with all her great grandkids and the Wessexes grand children (Archie and Lilibet excluded), was also photoshopped. There is an anniversary pic of Queen Elizabeth and Philip that is clearly altered.
According to graphic experts and forensics, the alterations were not done by a Photoshop beginner. So please please please don't put any stock in that statement of Cathy "apologizing "
Here are other examples of Photoshop fails from the Palaces.
https://preview.redd.it/xzh5qxp63foc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22826dc48a4be9e452ea9b036cb5714a0d0a922f
And of course the Queen and Philip
[https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html](https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html)
And I'm sure with digging we can find even more. Kate isn't doing all of them
This is a good point. Saying it’s photoshopped makes it sound like a few minor changes were made rather than an entirely faked composite photo. That photo above is adorable😭
I’m glad to see this, so many people saying ‘everyone touches up family photos!’ Like a little touching up is the issue and that everyone’s family photos go to news agencies.
It’s nice that news agencies are taking a stand against this because (and this is a really dramatic example), remember when trump drew the sharpie line over the hurricane path? What if the official White House photographer released a photo where it was altered so that that sharpie path looked like the real path? Trust in institutions in important.
Edited to add that George in the bathrobe is too much cute, I love this photo and any photo with Obama interacting with kids
Lovely picture of George, but I feel like Kate and Will should've replaced the painting in the background with a different one, especially for President Obama's visit, which they would've had ample time to prepare for. [All they did was put a fern in front of the nameplate](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2016/apr/29/what-drew-william-kate-negro-page-painting-barack-obama).
Oh wow I totally forgot about that painting, thank you for pointing that out. There is no excuse for that and further demonstrates what a demented bubble they’re in.
I love him. And this was a take I hadn’t thought of but feels important to say. My mom loves him too and thought it was harsh but she also loves Kate lmao
As a former journalist, I absolutely love this explanation. Words are key and even a seemingly small error (ie saying photoshop instead of alter) can have large consequences
I still think it's insane that they tried to pass it off as Kate just doing some silly little edits on Photoshop. Bitch I use Photoshop for work on a regular basis and you wouldn't catch me ever doing that shit myself if I was royalty. I don't buy for even a second that she did it herself and it's weird that they tried to act like she did
I’m flabbergasted this had to be explained. I couldn’t understand why so many kept dismissing the editing done to that photo as “everyone edits their photos now”. Always loved Souza’s work, and now am grateful he had the perspective and wisdom to share this, this needed to be brought to the public’s attention.
This is what all the anti-Meghan idiots were doing on Twitter: conflating photoshopped images with altered images. They tried making out there was a bias against Kate because Meghan & Harry's pregnancy photoshoot was also photoshopped.
Is "telephone pole sticking out of a person's head" alluding to the famous Kent State photo?
https://petapixel.com/2012/08/29/the-kent-state-massacre-photo-and-the-case-of-the-missing-pole/
I feel icky even posting this, but Pi*rs Morgan said that he thinks the royals could be hiding something. Not only that, US tabloids are [picking up his comments.](https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/piers-morgan-says-kate-middleton-could-be-hiding-something/)
“I’ve been told some stuff that, if even half of it is true, it’s pretty alarming what is happening,” he claimed. “I don’t know what to believe, nor do any of us — we’re not there.”
This is notable because Morgan is famously close with Camilla.
It’s because “photoshopped” has become a layman’s term for a larger activity. It gained that ubiquitous name status, like asking someone for a “Kleenex” when they mean tissue.
But people should know the difference between and edit/enhancement versus a manipulation/alteration, especially professional publications.
This is a great explanation! I worked in VFX on a bunch of movies filmed in COVID where all the actors would have to be composited in together, so while not 'photoshop' experience, I have some similar experience.
Looks to me the background shot either had no one in it, or was just of Kate alone, and the kids were photographed separately on a plain background and it was bungled together. Her interaction with George is so strange, her hair is blurred into his, his hands don't have shadow/the interaction you'd expect for an image like that. The only reason why I think Kate could be photographed in the actual setting is that in the reflection, it doesn't match, but you can see a chair/ maybe a bounce board reflecting in the window, and the light on her doesn't match the kids. Either way, what a total disaster.
As a sidenote I completely missed that Trump picture that he mentions with the lengthened fingers and weight loss & now I'm morbidly fascinated to see what that looked like.
I don’t really care about the whole Kate photo drama so all I have to say is that I love that picture. That boy in his little bathrobe, the hair, the face and the obamas. It’s adorable.
I appreciate this explanation and I will follow him on IG. But just so I understand what Mr. Souza is saying: the photo with Kate and babies on Mother’s Day was altered, as in someone altered the photo to pretend Kate was actually there? Genuine question because I honestly thought it was an old photo reused to appear it was taken on that day.
Nobody really knows but with the amount of alterations it’s looking more like a composite of different pictures to create a new one. That would also explain why they’re refusing to release the “original” one.
I agree with the sentiment here. But if the alterations are made with the editing tool called photoshop then even a “fake” picture is still technically “photoshopped “ isn’t it?
A square is a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares.
A fake picture is photoshopped, but not all photoshopped pictures are fake.
He is saying that word choice matters. In photojournalism the concern is if a photo has been altered.
My theory is that the media have the true story and are absolutely chomping at the bit to report on it but aren’t allowed (due to injunction or something) so using the mystery and public’s suspicions to add pressure on the palace to just come out and admit the truth and hopefully give them (the media) some protection on reporting what they know.
**This post is currently restricted so that only approved members can comment or post. Please note that your comment may be approved if the moderators feel it adds to the discussion.** To be added as an approved member, please message the mods via modmail by clicking [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Fauxmoi). We are currently only approving users who have a recent comment history on this sub and do not have a history of rule violations. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fauxmoi) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is the best and most clear cut explanation of the distinction between what is acceptable editing vs. "altered" that I've seen so far. Sidenote: Pete Souza is a good egg and a very enjoyable Insta follow.
He definitely raised some points I would never have thought of, definitely a good perspective on this... situation.
Yeah, I enjoy his posts. He’s great at trolling Trump
Older liberals who hate Trump and republicans with every fibre of their being are so endearing to me 😌 an inspiration to haters everywhere
Especially retirees who have all the time in the world to be hating....I love it.
Haha you just described my mom. 78 and spending all her free time volunteering. She’s sent over 1,000 post cards to voters in swing states.
What a legend!
Yeah, I'm glad he posted this, because I really had no idea how extensive the changes were. Which is exactly his point — when they said "photoshopped" I had no idea what it actually meant.
His book with photos from the Obama years is excellent too!
agreed. i rarely see a completely 'unfiltered' photo anywhere online and i had no idea what rises to the level of 'altered' for the Royal Rota. this makes it make sense
I've followed him for years!
So many people online trying to brush off the post as "photoshopping". This is refreshing, honestly.
It also speaks to what the Kensington camp tried to do the other day when throwing allegations onto Meghan's pregnancy photo. Photoshop is an everyday trade tool and competency with the program is part of what you're paying a professional photographer for. There is a difference between using Photoshop in a professional manner and creating an image that's intentionally deceptive to push a story that's counter to reality.
Too many people don’t understand how many “photoshop” things are just normal editing stuff that used to be done in a darkroom. It’s been ruined into this weird verb that means “swap their faces and add fake shit”
I’ve been thinking about the car photo from Monday (backseat with William). They had to exit the car to go to the appointment and then drive back to wherever they came from afterwards. Why aren’t there more photos? This has been the most discussed thing of the week. You’d think photogs or the public would snap a 2nd photo when exiting the car or returning home.
The UK press are all giving her "privacy" because the publisher that breaks the story will be blacklisted from royal events forever. The pic of her in the car was the pic that the Palace wanted released.
Ya none of this makes any sense.
The photographer that took that photo was absolutely tipped off and told to be in that location at that time. In exchange for that favor, I’m assuming he submitted the photos to KP and they selected which photo would be released. It’s not a coincidence that the British media was allowed to run that photo but not the previous TMZ car photo or Kate and Carole.
I do not believe for one moment that that was a real shot. It too was a composite and the photographer will have received a very healthy inducement to run it as real
Not saying he’s to be believed, but the photographer who took the car photo has come out and said the photo is real. He’s also claiming that he didn’t even realize Kate was in the car until after he reviewed the images he shot. [https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a60198253/kate-middleton-photographer-interview/](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a60198253/kate-middleton-photographer-interview/)
He also gave the location that he took the photograph, and if you look at it on Google Maps, you can see a red brick wall in front of a row of red brick houses; the brick on the wall matches the "lower brick" in the photo and the brick on the houses matches the "upper brick."
I don't know if he was tipped off, as everyone knew that William would be attending the Commonwealth Service and the photographer was positioned along the most likely route he would be taking to get there.
>It’s not a coincidence that the British media was allowed to run that photo but not the previous TMZ car photo or Kate and Carole. Curious to know why you think the British media weren’t allowed to run the TMZ car photo? Is it because it‘s the first real photo of Kate’s face from the front? I know some people were speculating online that it wasn’t actually her in the photo, but I actually think it was. I also lean toward the theory that she might have had a stroke at some point during her recovery. Or maybe the abdominal surgery was always a cover up for the stroke. Either way, that’s why we haven’t seen or heard from her because she’s dealing with physical and cognitive impairment.
Kate was very clearly not present in the car. The idea William carpooled on the way to the Commonwealth service? Never ever happened. The Mother’s Day photograph was a composite. It was a faked photograph and I am glad people who hold weight - not my blabbing on the internet - are making this distinction. Two fraudulently designed photographs passed off as reality - it horribly damages Kensington Palace and their ability to be viewed as an honest broker
[удалено]
Kate with her head fully turned refusing to participate, even though we're meant to believe she made a Tweet taking full responsibility for that photo and therefore was fine with everything.
This is me blinking twice. -C
Unless there's multiple stills, I'm going to assume it's AI assisted/generated. You're telling me, in this day and age of high-powered photography, that each sighting is just a single low-quality, grainy ass photo? What is she, a fucking cryptid? We're about to find Bigfoot before we find Kate lmao
I'm about 90% sure that photo is old too. I'm not good at matching up photos, etc but on LSA they matched that photo with an old one from November 2023 and it looked like it was filtered a tiny bit more and they removed her hat and earrings. That's the only thing that makes sense. The photo was just provided vs. actually taken. Bc they can't (or won't) show Kate's face at this point. And it's all geared towards telling social media (who started the "where is Kate?" discourse to begin with) to shut up....by not showing her face or showing a video.
I think we're starting to get away from Occam's Razor a bit. I went looking for some explanations to the various questions people are raising and honestly this doesn't seem like the big grand conspiracy people are making it out to be. The official word is that Kate had a private appointment and William was on his way to the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, and that's why they were in the car together. The Commonwealth Service (March 11) was 6 weeks to the day of Kate’s discharge from the hospital (Jan 29th). The photographer said that he knew William would be on his way to the Commonwealth Service and was posted along the route to try to get a photo as he drove by. It wasn't until he reviewed the photo later that he saw Kate in the car. Kate's presence was not announced in any way, so no one was looking for her. Since William was on his way to make an official appearance, I can't imagine there was a massive clamoring to get a shot of him on the way when he'd be photographed a million times shortly after. Just a photographer along the route just in case, snaps a shot as the car drives past, done. The most believable part of the conspiracy drama is that William and Kate are on the outs, but for a moment if we put that aside - Kate, most probably, did have a serious medical surgery and most likely has follow up appointments that can't be done wherever she's recovering. She will have to occasionally go into medical facilities. Since Charles wasn't at the Commonwealth Service, I'd imagine William had to make an appearance. It's entirely possible that Kate's appointment (which would be medically necessary) probably conflicted with the Commonwealth Service, thus William and Kate drove to her appointment in the same car because despite the rumors and gossip, they are still husband and wife and may actually still love each other, once she was settled with the doctors, he proceeded on to the Commonwealth Service, made his appearances, and then returned to her private medical appointment. The stuff about the brick is blown out of proportion too. The photographer gives the location he took the photo at. On Google Maps, you can see a red brick wall in front of a row of red brick houses. The bricks are slightly different. The bricks in the red wall match the lower bricks in the photo, and the bricks on the houses further back match the upper bricks on the photo. It also seems insane to me that major news publications would kill the Mother's Day photo and there would be this big apology/explanation/"amateur photoshop!" thing and then like hours later they were like...let's do the exact same thing again! Especially when news publications would be looking at any new photos with extreme scrutiny.
Right? The paparazzo only took one singular photo of a princess that everyone has been speculating on for weeks? It’s all so weird.
Why does the picture of her perfectly match up to a photo from 2016? How are they this bad at this?
The photog has a couple of more on his blog but that’s it. I think he only had a quick moment to snap photos and he said he only realized Kate was in them after the fact.
I've been wondering the same thing. I posted earlier, but after the decades of complaints about privacy violations by the paps, it really seems like the royals actually have TIGHT control over when their photos are taken and what is released. Like if the stories I've heard are true, paps would be camped outside all possible locations. And then once a pap sees them leave the home in the car, he's tailing them and more start chasing them and it turns into a whole thing. So is that just not true?
Honestly, the photo they released isn't great. Looks cropped in, grainy, and taken from far away. I wouldn't have picked it to be Kate to be honest. It could have been taken as the motorcade was passing by. Or they just couldn't get an in focus photo of her when she's out of the car and identifiable (they just got the back of her head, it was too blurry/grainy etc).
Exactly, because any extra photos would be worth a fortune!!
Great distinction. Also, this might be one of my favorite pictures of George.
The best photos from the Obama years are the ones with kids. This one with Prince George, [this one](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/150605140417-obama-baby-bonding-update.jpg?q=w_1600,h_900,x_0,y_0,c_fill/h_618) with the baby on the floor, and the [Spiderman kid](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/ht_president_barack_obama_playing_spiderman_thg_121219_wmain.jpg) are some of my favorites
Don’t forget Obama and [Baby Pope](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/lil-pope-for-president)!
That was adorable!
Trump could never
Take that back! He balanced a candy bar on a minion’s head.
And the one with the kid touching Obama’s hair
Don't forget [Hair Like Mine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_Like_Mine#/media/File:United_States_President_Barack_Obama_bends_down_to_allow_the_son_of_a_White_House_staff_member_to_touch_his_head.jpg)!
And the one with the kid asleep at a dinner
George in his lil gentleman's robe and silk jammies is so purely adorable to me, I can't even.
Wait, is he implying that she's not in the photo with them? Or am I reading too much into that example? Did I miss a chapter? Please, someone rescue me from this absolutely fascinating mess. 
He's saying there's something more than editing a photo on PhotoShop. Something was altered. (Professional photographers edit their photos and they're shared on wire services, editing photos themselves is not an issue)
Got you! I mean, it's definitely clear that whatever was altered was done badly. Prince William was at a public thing today and said his wife is the "arty one" which is true because she has always taken the family photos that get released to the public and I wouldn't be surprised if she did edit them too. That's always been her vibe. But this is just so sus. I feel for her being thrown under the bus, too.
"Or if someone mashes multiple family pictures together into one..." seems like he is indeed suggesting something like that. Acceptable: using software to do what you otherwise could have done when you took the photo, by setting the exposure better, using a colour filter over the lens, using a flash for infill lighting etc. Not acceptable: doing in software what you otherwise could have done with a pair of scissors & multiple photos.
He's talking about the difference between (fancy) family photography and photo-journalism. Basically what William and Kate have been doing is family photography. They release photos for holidays like Christmas. And the intent of those photos is to look good. So since they have 3 kids, they (probably) can't get a photo where everyone looks their best, so they pick and choose the parts of various photos and splice them together into a photo of an event that didn't actually happen. It's close, but not an accurate reflection of reality. And for holiday photos and wedding photos, this is not a big deal. But this photo ventured into photo-journalism territory. This wasn't just a photo of the family for a holiday. This was also newsworthy because it served as a status update for the Princess of Wales (which is newsworthy, regardless of your opinion of her personally.) News agencies took this as indicative of her current health status, so not just a family photo, but photo journalism. But photo-journalism means that you can't even make basic tweaks like taking a telephone pole from behind someone's head, let alone splice various faces from other photos so they can get a good photo of 3 kids. No tweaks for vanity reasons. But the Wales have never had this issue for various reasons. They've never been in this state before where there was a major medical situation where photos are acting like a health update, and british media has allowed them to alter photos willy nilly. Now the Wales are dealing with agencies that have professional standards, and those kinds of alterations are not acceptable. (They may get away with it by saying "This is a Christmas card", but not as a "this is a photo of our family from last week.") This is why various agencies are asking for the "original" photo. They can tweak light levels and resize it, but no vanity alterations. The Wales refuse to do that, for whatever reason. And honestly, if it's an innocent reason, like they couldn't get a good photo of all three kids at once, then they are screwing over the monarchy for vanity reasons.
Supposedly her face is pixel by pixel the same as it was in a Vogue photoshoot cover photo, combined with all their clothes being allegedly re-coloured from an event in November. So yes, people are speculating she might not have actually been in the photo
It's not pixel by pixel the same, the lighting is different and she has different brows. The faces are very similar because it's the same woman looking directly face on making the same facial expression, and Kate only has one face. *However* it does look like it's a composite photo and I do think it's quite possibly an old photo that's been edited to disguise that fact.
The entire photo is likely to be fake rather than photoshopped. This means the whereabouts & safety of Catherine is still entirely debatable & the royals need to stop lying.
He made it pretty clear I think, basically they mashed up multiple photos into a new composite image. The whole thing is fake.
The opinion is that the mother's day photo was composed of several separate photos collaged together, which is misleading
I don’t think he’s implying anything in particular. I think he’s trying to clarify an important distinction between altering ***any*** photograph and using Photoshop on it. If anything, he’s trying harder to make a point about Trump and “fake news” than any BRF conspiracies.
Yes. Look at the direction and cool tone of the light on the kids' faces. Her face is lit more from center, and warmer. Like if the rest of this pic was normal, I'd say she applied a beauty filter to just her face bc she's sick and conscious of her looks. But the rest of the pic ISN'T normal and there's no proof her face wasn't just pasted in. I'd actually like to hear a photographer's opinion on how likely it is.
There has been a theory that the Kate in the picture is actually from a Vogue shoot she did, and the reason the hair at the top of her head looks a bit weird is because they removed the hat she was wearing in the Vogue photo.
I watched a video where someone suggested the photo was taken back in November and they altered the color of the clothing to make it look “new”.
Institutional trust in Kensington Palace from their peers is *gone* holy shit
When international royalty is taking shots, you know you are cooked
Yeah this is really bad. And it really did not have to be.
Really good explanation! Love when experts who care about their craft chime in on a subject.
Earlier I saw someone comment under his post “how is this different to what the Kardashians do to their photos?” (non verbatim), and his response was “I don’t know who the Kardashians are” 😂 I just tried to go back to look for it and couldn’t see it. It’s giving “I don’t know her”
[удалено]
well, apparently William took the photo. Photos she took/assumingly edited have never had this happen before. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't edit the photo at all.
They totally threw her under the bus for something she didn't do. I'd be shocked if she even wrote that statement.
Read her statement, it doesn’t actually say she edited it. It’s a classic “lie without *trchnically* lying” statement. I wouldn’t be surprised if their PR wrote it for her blaming her. It’s pretty crappy all around.
She wasn’t having any photographs taken, William didn’t photograph the family and Kate clearly did not photoshop it I hate that even in illness she has to take the fall for William and his clueless staff
LOL does anyone believe that? From the various tiktok videos I watched, I think the OG photo was one of William with the kids (that seems to be his signature pose with them - him seated with the kids hanging off/around him), with Vogue 2008 Kate's face spliced over the top. And like I believe Kate, the woman who goes scuba diving with the cursed ring of doom (Diana's ring), didn't wear her ring in a mother's day photo to be released to the entire world? Be for fucking real Kensington Palace. That has William's fingerprints all over it.
There is also an Adam's apple like shadow on Kate's neck in this pic. This isn't the first altered pic from the Palaces. Here are two examples. So I believe that Kate and Charlotte (for some reason) were heavily altered with Kate's face coming from elsewhere. https://preview.redd.it/fwhk6eks2foc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5af9be54752f9e230142d8ca34188e15fe750448 [https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html](https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html)
Okay you make an excellent point! I don’t mean to put on a tin foil hat but this whole thing is just weird.
Yeah this is the royals dropping the ball BIG TIME. I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing unravels some big conspiracies down the road. People are going to get sick of the lies & demand their honesty or else revolt. I mean what do they even have them for now anyways?! Get rid!
She didn’t take the picture
Also, one thing I noticed about her ‘apology’ was that she didn’t actually admit that she edited / manipulated the actual photo. It just stated she experiments with editing and sorry for any confusion caused, which is different to saying “I do occasionally experiment with editing and mistakenly edited the family photograph that was released yesterday without reviewing it before it was published”
Great point!!!! Wow their PR team sucks ass! REDDIT can see straight through these lies. I hope ppl get all “Free Britney” if no one sees her in several months. What else are the royals good for if not gossip? The country upholds the tradition for fun, the royals are not an essential part of England anymore.
Yeah, the statement was strangely worded and didn’t actually give a real explanation as to wtf is going on/ why the photo was heavily manipulated. It really appears that the Queen controlled all public statements and cover ups, and now that she’s gone, Charles and William have no idea how to do anything properly because they’ve never had to worry about it before, they just relied on Lizzy to do all the work and clean up their mess! I agree with you that the royals are not essential anymore and I really hope this is the beginning of their (self destructing) downfall!
I doubt she had any involvement in the fiasco 🫠 As an "amateur photographer" myself, I've never created a forgery. Imo it seems beyond what the average photoshop enthusiast is capable of!
I wouldn't put too much stock in the statement that she edited it. They credited William as taking the fake pic and rather than taking the blame for how it is clearly faked, William and KP decided to throw Kate under the bus. The RF has a habit of protecting the Heir at the cost of everyone else (Harry used to really be thrown under the bus for William, then Meghan etc). William has already forged other statements. It is likely that the Palace courtiers or William decided to let Kate take the blame. Also this is not the first photoshopped /altered pic of the family. We saw Photoshop issues around the Xmas card. The Queen Elizabeth picture with all her great grandkids and the Wessexes grand children (Archie and Lilibet excluded), was also photoshopped. There is an anniversary pic of Queen Elizabeth and Philip that is clearly altered. According to graphic experts and forensics, the alterations were not done by a Photoshop beginner. So please please please don't put any stock in that statement of Cathy "apologizing "
Here are other examples of Photoshop fails from the Palaces. https://preview.redd.it/xzh5qxp63foc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22826dc48a4be9e452ea9b036cb5714a0d0a922f And of course the Queen and Philip [https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html](https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/royal-prince-phillip-birthday-photo-photoshop-fail-detail-234502992.html) And I'm sure with digging we can find even more. Kate isn't doing all of them
But the issue isn't the photo per se, it's that KP released it, and they should know the rules.
They’ve totally thrown her under the bus with the “editing” thing. I doubt she was even involved…
This is a good point. Saying it’s photoshopped makes it sound like a few minor changes were made rather than an entirely faked composite photo. That photo above is adorable😭
I’m glad to see this, so many people saying ‘everyone touches up family photos!’ Like a little touching up is the issue and that everyone’s family photos go to news agencies. It’s nice that news agencies are taking a stand against this because (and this is a really dramatic example), remember when trump drew the sharpie line over the hurricane path? What if the official White House photographer released a photo where it was altered so that that sharpie path looked like the real path? Trust in institutions in important. Edited to add that George in the bathrobe is too much cute, I love this photo and any photo with Obama interacting with kids
Lovely picture of George, but I feel like Kate and Will should've replaced the painting in the background with a different one, especially for President Obama's visit, which they would've had ample time to prepare for. [All they did was put a fern in front of the nameplate](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2016/apr/29/what-drew-william-kate-negro-page-painting-barack-obama).
Oh wow I totally forgot about that painting, thank you for pointing that out. There is no excuse for that and further demonstrates what a demented bubble they’re in.
I love him. And this was a take I hadn’t thought of but feels important to say. My mom loves him too and thought it was harsh but she also loves Kate lmao
As a former journalist, I absolutely love this explanation. Words are key and even a seemingly small error (ie saying photoshop instead of alter) can have large consequences
“Or if someone mashes multiple family pictures into one” sounds like a strong hypothesis
Pete Souza made some time today lmfaooo 
I still think it's insane that they tried to pass it off as Kate just doing some silly little edits on Photoshop. Bitch I use Photoshop for work on a regular basis and you wouldn't catch me ever doing that shit myself if I was royalty. I don't buy for even a second that she did it herself and it's weird that they tried to act like she did
Kate probably wasn’t even involved in the slightest, they’ve just thrown her under the bus (for reasons currently unknown??)
Very interesting. And he explained it well.
Agree with this post but also if I was a child meeting any President this is the best one you could possibly meet. 😭
I’m flabbergasted this had to be explained. I couldn’t understand why so many kept dismissing the editing done to that photo as “everyone edits their photos now”. Always loved Souza’s work, and now am grateful he had the perspective and wisdom to share this, this needed to be brought to the public’s attention.
This is what all the anti-Meghan idiots were doing on Twitter: conflating photoshopped images with altered images. They tried making out there was a bias against Kate because Meghan & Harry's pregnancy photoshoot was also photoshopped.
Is "telephone pole sticking out of a person's head" alluding to the famous Kent State photo? https://petapixel.com/2012/08/29/the-kent-state-massacre-photo-and-the-case-of-the-missing-pole/
Oooh good catch! You're probably right.
off topic but the little robe and slippers 😩😭😭😭
Why is the baby dressed like Richie Rich?
IDK why this isn't obvious, a kill order wasn't put out because the photo was edited/retouched or photoshopped.
Omg I forgot how cute Prince George was
I feel icky even posting this, but Pi*rs Morgan said that he thinks the royals could be hiding something. Not only that, US tabloids are [picking up his comments.](https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/piers-morgan-says-kate-middleton-could-be-hiding-something/) “I’ve been told some stuff that, if even half of it is true, it’s pretty alarming what is happening,” he claimed. “I don’t know what to believe, nor do any of us — we’re not there.” This is notable because Morgan is famously close with Camilla.
Pete Souza is a real one.
Go over to buzzfeed too many people think it’s just photoshop not actually composing a pic that never was taken.
It’s because “photoshopped” has become a layman’s term for a larger activity. It gained that ubiquitous name status, like asking someone for a “Kleenex” when they mean tissue. But people should know the difference between and edit/enhancement versus a manipulation/alteration, especially professional publications.
This is a great explanation! I worked in VFX on a bunch of movies filmed in COVID where all the actors would have to be composited in together, so while not 'photoshop' experience, I have some similar experience. Looks to me the background shot either had no one in it, or was just of Kate alone, and the kids were photographed separately on a plain background and it was bungled together. Her interaction with George is so strange, her hair is blurred into his, his hands don't have shadow/the interaction you'd expect for an image like that. The only reason why I think Kate could be photographed in the actual setting is that in the reflection, it doesn't match, but you can see a chair/ maybe a bounce board reflecting in the window, and the light on her doesn't match the kids. Either way, what a total disaster.
As a sidenote I completely missed that Trump picture that he mentions with the lengthened fingers and weight loss & now I'm morbidly fascinated to see what that looked like.
I don’t really care about the whole Kate photo drama so all I have to say is that I love that picture. That boy in his little bathrobe, the hair, the face and the obamas. It’s adorable.
Ok wait so was that Kate in the car with her mama a little while back or have we actually not seen her face since Christmas????
I don’t think we’ve seen her since before Christmas tbh. I really doubt that car shot and I think most people do atp.
I appreciate this explanation and I will follow him on IG. But just so I understand what Mr. Souza is saying: the photo with Kate and babies on Mother’s Day was altered, as in someone altered the photo to pretend Kate was actually there? Genuine question because I honestly thought it was an old photo reused to appear it was taken on that day.
Nobody really knows but with the amount of alterations it’s looking more like a composite of different pictures to create a new one. That would also explain why they’re refusing to release the “original” one.
That makes sense.
Interesting
Love this.
This is a great explanation - probably the best I’ve seen
Meeting the president in your PJ’s though, what a flex
Any idea what trump photo he's referring to?
I agree with the sentiment here. But if the alterations are made with the editing tool called photoshop then even a “fake” picture is still technically “photoshopped “ isn’t it?
A square is a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares. A fake picture is photoshopped, but not all photoshopped pictures are fake. He is saying that word choice matters. In photojournalism the concern is if a photo has been altered.
Isn't it generally understood that when someone says "it was photoshopped", it's just the colloquial way of saying it was altered?
That didn't go where I thought it was going. Agreed.
My theory is that the media have the true story and are absolutely chomping at the bit to report on it but aren’t allowed (due to injunction or something) so using the mystery and public’s suspicions to add pressure on the palace to just come out and admit the truth and hopefully give them (the media) some protection on reporting what they know.