Social media users have accused the royals of photoshopping an image of Queen Elizabeth II and a group of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, released to mark the late monarch’s 97th birthday on April 21.
The image, officially distributed through Kensington Palace via the Press Association, was taken by Kate Middleton—the Princess of Wales—during a summer family gathering at the queen’s Scottish retreat of Balmoral Castle in 2022.
Showing the monarch surrounded by her two youngest grandchildren and eight of her 12 great-grandchildren, the image was published on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ official social media channels with the caption: “Today would have been Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s 97th birthday. This photograph—showing her with some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren—was taken at Balmoral last summer. The Princess”
Soon after the portrait was released, eagle-eyed social media users alleged it showed traces of photoshopping, including a visible seam running vertically through the image and apparent digital enhancements around the figure of Prince Louis, standing to the right-hand side of the frame.
A number of Twitter users posted their thoughts in the comments section of the prince and princess’ upload of the portrait.
“Holy Photoshop Louis and at the left of the Queen. What happened?” one asked.
“Shame that it was photoshopped. Not everything needs to be perfect. Authenticity is far preferable for a public function,” posted another.
One tweeted: “The royal family releasing an obviously photoshopped photo of the late Queen and some of her grandchildren is such a bad move. TikTok peeps are already going back through old photos and analyzing them. No one will look at a photo of the RF again without wondering if it’s been edited.”
A technical analysis of the image was also given by event photographer Angie Dubé on her TikTok channel, who suggested that owing to the differences in “light sources” and direction of light reflection, she believed that Louis “wasn’t in the room” with the wider group.
“I know people are going to come for me and be like ‘Why does it matter?'” she explained. “It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, no. But, when everyone who is into the royal family is obsessed with who’s lying and who’s being truthful and what’s genuine and what isn’t, this is a moment that didn’t actually happen. If your photoshopping people into pictures this picture isn’t genuine.”
Though some social media users pointed out the potentially negative repercussions of releasing a digitally enhanced image, others highlighted the challenges of having a group of children all cooperate to get a cohesive image in one frame.
Christopher Bouzy, the founder of the social media analytics tool, Bot Sentinel, wrote on Twitter: “Please stop criticizing this photo; it’s a beautiful photo. Yes, they Photoshopped it, and so what? It isn’t easy to get the perfect photo with 10 children. It appears they took multiple shots and then edited the photo to make it perfect. I would’ve done the same.”
He then added that the queen, who was 96 at the time and who would pass away soon after the image was taken, was “probably exhausted and didn’t want to sit through a long photo-shoot.”
