Or get someone to clumsily manipulate an image for you?
Of course I’m taking about the Mother’s Day photo issued by Kensington Palace. I looked at the photo having read the news that the image had been pulled by various agencies and it screams “fake” to me. Not just for the weirdness of Princess Charlotte’s left hand that has had the most attention, but there are a whole load of other issues too. What doesn’t worry me that much is the lack of a wedding ring. People who have been ill often remove rings because they’re uncomfortable if their fingers become swollen due to the illness or drugs that they’re prescribed, so I don’t see that as necessarily a big deal.
What I do find odd are other details:
The pattern on the shoulder of the jumper worn by the younger prince (I don’t know their names, I have to admit — the royal family aren’t normally a big thing for me) is messed up.
The same pattern is in sharp focus, but the hand around his side is in very poor focus as is the area around it.
The shadow on the back of the elder prince’s wrist from Kate’s hair just doesn’t look right. In fact her hair at that point looks completely wrong too and the quality of lighting on his sleeve doesn’t convince me either.
The elder prince’s left thumb looks very skinny and weird, as does the little finger on the same hand, in fact. I’m not saying it’s an AI-created image, but I know people who have worked on AI image-creation software who say fingers are one of the things that are hard to get right.
Charlotte’s skirt is doing something quite odd in front of the little finger knuckle of the same hand and the ribbing on her cardigan seems to have completely disappeared.
Other things I question but am less sure about:
The blurring on the zip of Kate’s jacket. In places the individual teeth are visible and then they aren’t.
I’m sure it’s warmer where they are than it is here, but there seem to be an awful lot more green leaves on the plant growing up the wall in the background than there are on any trees I’ve seen around here.
The hair on the right side of Kate’s face appears blurry, whilst that on the left is much better defined.
Something odd appears to be going on with the ankle of the boot on Kate’s left foot. There’s a piece that appears to be sticking out of the back.
Either the elder prince is standing with his feet unusually close together, or his left foot has gone missing.
So, I’m convinced it’s a fake, whether generated by AI or patched together in something like Photoshop. Which raises a couple more questions. Firstly why do it in the first place? I don’t imagine anyone would have batted an eyelid if they’d not released a photo. After all, that’s apparently Kate’s thing (I’ve got to admit I don’t actually know that and just read it in a news article) and she’s been ill (that much I was aware of). The second is, if you’ve decided to release a fake, why make such a poor job of it?