Everyone from influencers to celebrities – and now, even the British monarchy – have been caught altering their photos shared online.
Experts say it is becoming increasingly difficult with AI and photo-editing apps – but there are still 10 giveaways that you should be aware of.
These include checking the edges of people and objects, investigating shadows and inspecting the background for curves.
The tips comes as multiple major news agencies withdrew Kensington Palace’s first photo of Princess of Wales Kate Middleton on Sunday, after picture editors noticed at least 16 different details that did not look right.
Kensington Palace yesterday released the first picture of the Princess of Wales since surgery. Major news agencies quickly pulled the photo after editors noticed more than a dozen details that suggested it had been altered.
It’s easier than ever to alter photographs with photo editing software – or even generative with AI systems like MidJourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
But according to experts, there are some telltale signs that a photo has been altered, and with sharp eyes you can spot them.
Multiple major news agencies withdrew Kensington Palace’s first photo of Princess of Wales Kate Middleton on Sunday, after picture editors noticed at least 16 different details that did not look right.
Kate’s wasn’t the first photo to be altered, as many public figures – including her fellow royals – have been accused of doctoring their images.
We laid out 10 of the simplest ways to tell that an image has been altered, to help you avoid falling prey to visual disinformation.
1. Check the edges
One of the first things you should do is look at the edges of any people or objects in the photo.
This way, you can tell whether something – or someone – was inserted after the photo was taken.
If a person used PhotoShop’s Quick Select or Magic Wand tool, there may be jagged edges around the outline, according to MakeUseOf.com.
Even if the edges aren’t misshapen, they can appear too sharp, like they were trimmed with scissors.
This is the case for several features in Princess Kate’s family photo, including number 12 in the graphic below.
Photo editing software can make edges appear sharp, which was an issues spotted where the number 12 sits in the photo above
On George’s right arm, the edge of his sleeve looks artificial. It should not appear so sharp, experts said.
2. Look for blurry areas or ‘noise’
Sometimes photo editors will try to account for the unnatural sharpness that comes with adding people or objects into a photo.
The trimming technique can make the edges look unnaturally smooth, which can make it stand out starkly against the background.
Or if someone tries to compensate for the edge oddities by ‘feathering,’ they can look unnaturally blurry.
3. Inspect the background for curves
Bachelorette star Jake Ellis was caught altering his photo to make his bicep look larger. Experts quickly noticed that the doorframe behind him was a bit curvier than it should be.
This is perhaps one of the most common ways celebrities have been caught altering their photos.
If someone wants to make part of their body slimmer or rounder, it’s fairly easy to use a photo editor like FaceTune to change these proportions.
But making one’s rear end or bicep jut out farther will also often change the background of the photo, creating a noticeable wave or curve.
That is what happened with Bachelorette star Jake Ellis in 2017.
4. Investigate the shadows
When a photograph is altered, sometimes the part that was added will look different from the background.
Even for an experienced photo editor, adjusting the shadows to match all parts of an altered photo can be difficult, according to the photography experts at ShotKit.com.
In addition to the abnormal shadows on Queen Elizabeth II’s hands, both she and the Duke of Edinburgh have abnormally sharp edges around them, suggesting that their images were pasted onto another photo.
Oftentimes, a photo editor will use an automatic shadow tool called ‘drop shadow’ to add a bit of shadow to an edited image.
This technique has the added effect of hiding some of the jagged edges that can remain when cutting a person or object out.
Unfortunately, this automated tool is not very ‘smart.’
It can’t account for the lighting conditions in the original photo, nor can it easily change the shadows enough to make an additional element match the shadows on a wall or floor, for example.
That gives one more way you can tell a photo has been altered: Look for the shadow, and make sure it fits with the angle of light sources and with the rest of the photo.
In a suspect photo of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh from 2020, observers noted that the Queen’s hands were lit much differently than her bright surroundings, leading to accusations that Buckingham Palace had altered the photo.
5. Inspect for normal human anatomy
This one may sound obvious, but a surprising number of photo editors seem to miss key details when altering photographs.
In a famous example, Kim Kardashian seemingly removed her belly button from a photograph she shared to social media – possibly due to her efforts to smooth the appearance of her skin.
Model and influencer Kim Kardashian’s belly button seemed to disappear due to photo editing in 2022.
It is not the first time the Waleses’ photos have come under the spotlight. Most recently, in December, the family’s Christmas portrait was hit with criticism from around the world
In 2019 fans noticed that Married at First Sight star Ines Basic appeared to have no knee – an artifact of photo editing intended to make her leg look slimmer.
So if you have questions about the authenticity of an image, inspect the people in it to make sure their proportions are what one would expect.
In Princess Kate’s family photo, observers noticed that one of Louis’s fingers seems shorter than it should be, a possible sign of manipulation.
Louis was also missing a finger in a previous family Christmas photo, fans spotted.
6. Try zooming in
There could be key details in a manipulated photo that are not obvious unless you look closer.
Repeated patterns or sloppy edges could be distorted by their small size at normal viewing size.
So take a moment to zoom in on a photo if you have questions about it, advised the experts at MakeUseOf.com.
You may see some things that you didn’t expect.
7. Check the person’s surroundings
It’s not just warped scenery that can give away an altered photo.
When someone’s photo has been manipulated, unexpected artifacts of that alteration can be left behind.
This 2014 photo of Beyoncé raised eyebrows as fans noticed the wonky angle of the step between her legs
This can be either due to a lack of skill on the part of the editor, or because they assume the viewer won’t notice.
It’s not clear which one was at play when a photo of Beyoncé descending the stairs was clocked as edited.
In a photo she posted for her birthday in 2014, one of the stairs between her legs was clearly at a different angle than the others.
8. Inspect clothing and jewelry
Another telltale sign that a photo has been altered is less about forensic photography and more about thinking like a detective.
Inspect to see if a person’s clothing and jewelry are unusual.
In Kate Middleton’s suspect photo, neither the Princess’s wedding ring nor engagement ring is visible.
Princess Kate’s hand is wrapped around daughter Charlotte, but neither ring is on her finger – just one of the signs that the photo was ‘off.’
In another famous example, Khloe Kardashian unveiled a ‘new look’ that many suspected was surgery but turned out to be mostly PhotoShop.
A key clue: Her necklace had no chain on one side of it, making her butterfly pendant appear to float, defying gravity.
In this image from Khloe Kardashian’s Instagram account, her necklace seems to float magically
9. Look at the lighting
This one is more subtle than inspecting the shadows.
If someone adds a person or object into a photo, they may not look like they are meant to be there.
The reason for this? Often it is lighting.
If one subject is brighter than the other, that is a clue.
Even a skilled editor may have difficulty perfectly matching different people to the lighting, so keep an eye out for this sign, warn the experts at ShotKit.com.
Khloe Kardashian eventually admitted that this photo was altered, after fans spotted that something was off
This can also include differences between the subject and the background.
Fans forced Khloe Kardashian to admit that her daughter True had been PhotoShopped into a photo of her at Disney Land with her cousin, shortly after the Travis Scott Astroworld disaster.
In that photo, True’s outlines are abnormally sharp, but her lighting is also oddly uniform compared to her cousin’s.
With lighting, sometimes you don’t notice that lighting is the problem, but something feels off or unsettling.
If a photo gives you that feelings, you can investigate further.
10. Use image verification tools
This is the last tool in our list, but it could be your first strategy for detecting a fake or altered image.
There’s a number of tools that journalists use to verify photographs, according to the International Journalists’ Network.
Fotoforensics, for instance, conducts an in-depth analysis of images.
It won’t give you a ‘real’ or ‘fake’ rating, but it will show hidden pixels, metadata details that can reveal clues about inconsistencies, and error level analysis.
Another tool is TinEye, a reverse image search tool.
When you put a suspect photo into the tool, it will show you where else the photo can be found on the internet – or if it can’t be found anywhere, a clue that it was altered.
Amid fears that altered and AI-generated photos and videos can be used to spread disinformation about political figures, there is an increasing interest in using tools to identify them.
The incident with Kate Middleton’s Mother’s Day photo is not the first case of a celebrity or institution altering photos for public consumption, and it surely won’t be the last.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
