Picture agencies pull Kate (Princess of Wales of the British royal family) photo amid 'manipulation' concerns
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I don't believe in any conspiracy stuff, I think it's silly that people care about this enough for it to have made the news but holy shit some of the content its generated is hilarious
"C is for Corpse" in this thread alone had me nearly crying on camera during my Monday morning Teams call with the rest of my team
"C is for Corpse" in this thread alone had me nearly crying on camera during my Monday morning Teams call with the rest of my team
The royal publicist talking to the photographer/graphic designer
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofv63miNU1g
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofv63miNU1g
The cuff on Charlotte's arm has been poorly photoshopped, if you zoom in you'll see the remnants of a cuff. Her hair kind of melts into her shoulder weird, and around her knee is a fuzzy undefined edge
Under Kate's face you can see a faint line that cuts through her jacket, and half the zip is lost so one side of the jacket has a zip and the other doesn't. Also with the hair again, it kind of melts into...I don't know the oldest son's name, into his chest
Then over on Louis' side, Kate's hand is blurry and out of focus despite the rest of Loius' jumper and everything else in that plane is properly in focus, and then a bit further in the background the step he's leaning on warps with a bump in it that could be a photoshop thing or just some uneven masonry.
Basically, it looks like a piss poor photoshop job and the reason it's causing an uproar is that this is the first 'official' photo of Kate since before she went in for abdominal surgery in December and there were a lot of conspiracy theories swirling around about why she's been missing for so long, from stuff as benign as she had a bowel resection and currently has a colostomy bag, to the domestic abuse and/or divorce allegations, to Kate being dead or in a coma. So releasing poor photoshop jobs where it looks like they may have stitched Kate's face onto someone else has just fanned those flames.
Honestly, I replied on that message and a flood of royalists certainly came out in their droves with their displeasure.
If she had abdominal surgery surely she shouldn't be dabbling on photoshop of all things during a time where the speculations were growing about said Catherine's health for a mothers day image William took?
If she had abdominal surgery surely she shouldn't be dabbling on photoshop of all things during a time where the speculations were growing about said Catherine's health for a mothers day image William took?
Taking away the absurdity of Kate editing the official photograph her husband supposedly took while convalescing, stripping the EXIF data, and then handing it to the press...
Why on earth would anyone edit the hell out of a photo that's intended to quell speculation and conspiracy theories? The only explanation I can come up with is that the intent was to deceive, but to what end, I have no idea.
This is a huge PR blunder for the royals. They've basically admitted here that they have been dishonest!
Why on earth would anyone edit the hell out of a photo that's intended to quell speculation and conspiracy theories? The only explanation I can come up with is that the intent was to deceive, but to what end, I have no idea.
This is a huge PR blunder for the royals. They've basically admitted here that they have been dishonest!
Because the subject of the photo is currently unwilling or unable to be photographed.
I don't suspect any foul play. It's 3 kids who are going to be messing around, pulling faces, etc, so they took a bunch of photos and merged them. Google have a whole feature on Pixels designed for this. It's just a poor photoshop job in the seams.
The real problem here is the Royal Marketing Machine's inability to be open & honest - if they just said that was the reason, it'd be mostly fine.
Come on, these aren't normal children. If there are three children on earth who know how to pose for a photo it is these three. Charlotte and George in particularly are old enough to have done this plenty of times and behave appropriately.
I don't know what's going on but I am pretty sure this isn't just a bad editing job, at least until somebody finds a previous photo with anything resembling similar edits.
I'm 99% sure she's just a bit unwell still, and they don't want her to be seen until she can project a "perfect" image or whatever -- or maybe that's even how she feels, she doesn't want to be seen right now. Photographers do routinely edit photos like this all the time, and a mistake like that could easily be overlooked.. regardless of how well trained the kids are, taking a photo of groups is a three body problem - the more people you have, and the younger they are, the harder it is to get the perfect picture, especially if you have limited time with the subject(s). Sometimes photographers knowingly just take a bunch of bad photos knowing they can mash em up and fix things in post.... I don't believe for a minute that she 'shops her own photos though. That's just the Palace PR machine being hilariously out of touch and thinking that's what the plebs do or something. This whole thing is hilarious!
If AP and Reuters decided to scrap the photo, they clearly thought is edited beyond the regular photo editing in such circumstances, so maybe we cut on the "it's just a kids photo" argument? Not saying that it's anything nefarious about it, but it's clearly a misstep for the PR.
This makes things seem so much worse than they would just being honest
This is ultimately the worst part of all this, the ineptitude of the PR and treating the public with utter contempt.
You'd have thought that after Charles revealed he had cancer (after also initially trying to hide it by claiming his hospital booking was for a routine bowel exam) and the general outpouring of support he received from people after, that the Palace would have learned that being honest and showing that bit of vulnerability actually endears them to a lot of the general public.
It's when they throw up this veil of secrecy and do bizarre PR stunts like this that they make themselves look inhuman and soulless. Which is probably why the conspiracy nuts think they're a cabal of reptile people.
The thing is that there are actually 2 PR teams - all of William and Kate's PR is handled by Kensington Palace, whereas Charles and Camilla are handled by Buckingham Palace. That's partly why things are a little odd because Buckingham Palace have been very open recently about Charles' health issues, but Kensington Palace have been very opaque about Kate. There is a very good article here with the former Royal editor of Buzzfeed News about how the 2 teams have differed in the last few months - https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/t...leton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/
Yeah if anything it should be as candid as possible. Hire someone to spend an hour with Kate and her 3 children playing in the garden or something, to get the pictures they need. They should have included William too just to disperse any marriage troubles. Instead they said he was the one taking the picture lol
It has to be something they consider embarrassing. If it was anything serious and not embarrassing they would absolutely tell everyone because they love sympathy. Charles cancer was made public quickly. My guess is that she had some plastic surgery and it either went wrong or it went right but it needs to heal.
This is hilarious, this has made my entire week already.
Funny looking at the Father's Day photo from last year in comparison.
Please get rid of these fucking clowns and the drain that they are on our economy.
'Like any amateur photographer'. Howling. They really do think we're still peasants from the 1700s don't they.
Funny looking at the Father's Day photo from last year in comparison.
Please get rid of these fucking clowns and the drain that they are on our economy.
'Like any amateur photographer'. Howling. They really do think we're still peasants from the 1700s don't they.
That would be a very innovative divorce reason, considering the twitter post.
This is fantastic haha
But no seriously if she were dead that shit would have leaked immediately
Thoughts and prayers! It's just sad that this is where people choose to spend their time. Honestly not much different than Qanon's fever dreams about Kennedy coming back to save them.
Eventually celebs/organisations/companies might learn to just keep their traps shut and not stir the pot like this. Just stop talking, let people gossip and theorise amongst themselves until they get bored and move onto something new. Then make a statement when things have settled.
I have absolutely no interest in the UK Royal Family (or really any royal family) and had just kinda been "Who cares?" when the "Where's Kate" questions came up, but with this photoshop twist suddenly I'm a bit more invested. They managed to Streisand themselves, in other words.
This whole story is dumb as shit but this alone makes it worthwhile.
Oh damn lmao. Kate's secret surgery being to have an arm replaced with a blade would be pretty badass tho ngl
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