How can you know if a photo is real?

That’s a question media outlets are facing with renewed scrutiny after two images released by Kensington Palace were found to have been digitally altered — the now-infamous photo of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, surrounded by her smiling children; and a 2022 image of Queen Elizabeth with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The former was killed by many photo agencies just hours after they published it. 

But the Royal Family is far from the only establishment that hands out images to the media. Politicians, businesses, governments, science agencies and the police do it regularly — just to name a few. And the royals are also far from the first to alter an official image.

“The issues around the trustworthiness of photography, photography as a manipulable technology, have existed from the advent of the medium,” Elisabeth Sherman, the senior curator and director of exhibitions and collections at the International Center for Photography in New York, told CBC News’s social team.

The fact that Kensington Palace’s altered photos were picked up by the media — including CBC News — is a good reminder that the idea of handout photos is fraught and should potentially be reconsidered, says Aneurin Bosley, an assistant professor at Carleton University’s school of journalism, who specializes in digital reporting.

The debacle over Catherine’s photo “is really only scratching the surface,” he said.

A search for “handout” in The Associated Press photo database showed 21,519 results on Monday, everything from images of the suspects in Friday’s deadly Moscow bombing provided by Russian authorities, to those of leader Kim Jong-un provided by North Korea.

There were more than 115,000 results on the Reuters database.

Altered photos are a problem for any reporting. But when they are used in “deeper” issues, “when it goes into the politics of war or the politics of running for for election and, disinformation, it’s pretty scary,” said Ken Light, a photojournalist and adjunct journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

WATCH | How easy it is to use AI to alter images: 

Making an AI-generated image takes seconds

10 months ago

Duration 0:50

CBC News put Pope Francis in a puffer jacket in less than a minute using Photoshop’s new artificial-intelligence feature.

Long history

Photo tampering has a long and storied history. Even the iconic 1860 portrait of Abraham Lincoln is a stitched image of his head on another politician’s body.

Other well-known examples include the famous, purported photo of the Loch Ness monster, first published in The Daily Mail in 1934, and later proved to be fake. In 1945, a Soviet army photographer manipulated two images of Russia’s victory over Germany, adding extra smoke in the background of one, and removing a second watch on the arm of a soldier in another. 

There’s the 1970 Kent State University massacre photo — which became a symbol of the turmoil and protests of the time — and which earned photographer John Paul Filo a Pulitzer Prize. But Life magazine altered it by removing a post behind the anguished bystander’s head, according to The New York Times, and that version has been published and republished over the years.

More recently a freelance photographer working for Reuters used Photoshop to add extra smoke and flares to a 2006 photo of the Iraq war. The incident prompted the wire service to tighten its editing procedures.

Light, who has been a freelance photographer for 50 years, has his own experience with tampering. He took a photo of U.S. politician John Kerry at a 1971 peace rally in Long Island, N.Y. When Kerry announced he was running for president in 2004, Light uploaded his photos to an online photo database.

He says a “right wing” graphic designer then downloaded the photo and added a 1972 photo of Jane Fonda, making it appear as if the two were photographed together.

“And, of course, many Republicans and folks on the right, hate Jane Fonda, Hanoi Jane, they called her. And this photo, this phony photo went viral, and people believed it was true,” he said.

The New York Times even picked it up, but ran a followup explaining the photo had been manipulated.

What’s concerning to Light is how easy it is now to manipulate photos.

WATCH | Other times people thought royal pics were edited: 

Royal Family had warnings from previous photo-manipulation instances

15 days ago

Duration 1:20

Ian Lloyd, a long-time photographer of the Royal Family, notes several past occasions where the public identified edited images of the Royal Family and says that those should have been taken as warnings. But Lloyd suggests this instance may have been meant to avoid spurring on paparazzi hunting for a photo of the Princess of Wales that could lead to a repeat of the tragic incident that resulted in the death of Prince William’s mother.

“Junior high school kids can do it. Many others can manipulate photos. And of course, now we have AI, which is even more dangerous than the ability to do these things in Photoshop. We begin to question what’s real. What’s not real? How do we know?”

Transparency matters

CBC News was among the outlets to that initially published the Mother’s Day photo of Catherine — which had arrived amid rampant speculation about her whereabouts and wellbeing. It had been picked up and distributed by three of the wire services to which CBC News subscribes: Reuters, The Associated Press and Getty Images.

CBC News later pulled the image, replacing it with one the Prince and Princess of Wales posted on X, and explained that the other had been manipulated.

“The vast majority of images published by CBC News are taken by our own journalists or provided by news partners [like The Canadian Press and Reuters] who we trust to apply the same rigorous standard of accuracy,” said CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson.

“There are occasions when we publish images provided by a third party that is not a trusted news partner, however we always make clear to the audience why the image was used and where it came from,” he added.

“That said, we refrain from publishing it if we have any indication that the image is not authentic. The source is always clearly indicated.”

It’s important for media organizations to be transparent about how they verify photos, and about the entire reporting process, says Felix Simon, a communication researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. In an age of disinformation and distrust, we need to show how we establish what’s real, he says.

It’s a way of saying: “This is why you can trust us, and this is why you should trust as an institution or as an institution in the business of producing trustworthy factual information,” he said. 

Bosley, with Carleton University, says the media has always been skeptical of handout photos, but the demand for information about notable people is high, putting added pressure on news agencies to provide it.

That said, the media should always question the motivations behind any photo coming from an institution — any institution, Bosley says.

“Why should we trust anything?”

Police in coastline tourist city Sanya have arrested seven people in a gang targeting tourists. The group allegedly forced underwater photos on victims by removing their oxygen masks underwater.

To unearth further illicit activities, the authorities have called on the public to provide any information related to the criminal activities of the gang.

Known as a beach resort, Sanya attracts numerous tourists and diving enthusiasts every year. However, recently revealed incidents of divers in Sanya, whose oxygen masks had been removed by strangers then only to be asked if they would like a photo taken, may send shivers down the readers’ spines.

In late November 2023, a woman surnamed Zheng and her family of nine visited Sanya for a vacation. Four of her family members participated in a diving activity where they were offered a photography service for 300 yuan per person. Despite the clear refusal from three of them, they found themselves isolated under the water by staff members who then forcibly removed their masks to ask the same question, according to Jimu News.

A few minutes later, another family member of Zheng surfaced, saying “The four of them got separated by the staff member, who removed his mask and asked if he’d like a photo.”

The same thing happened to Zheng’s mother-in-law. They agreed to have a photo taken out of fear.

After lodging a complaint with the hotel owner, who provided the “free diving session,” Zheng and her family were contacted by the diving service staff and refunded the photography fees of 900 yuan.

However, the refund came with a condition: They were not to discuss the incident publicly.

In early November 2023, another tourist, surnamed Lu, and her friends were attracted to a deep-sea swimming project near Yalong Bay. Shortly into their dive, they ascended to the surface and were pressured into agreeing to have photos taken, despite Lu’s repeated refusal. The resulting pictures were so unsatisfactory that they were promptly deleted, Jimu News reported.

Following these events, and without immediate evidence to lodge complaints or report to the police, the victims chose to remain silent, not wishing to mar their vacation experience. However, with the Sanya Police’s recent appeal for information on such criminal activities, victims are now stepping forward to share their experiences, hopeful that their contributions can help clamp down on these illicit operations.

Local insiders reveal that behind the police’s call for information lies the issue of unlicensed operators in the high-risk sports market. These operators lure tourists with low prices and add expensive services once they are in a vulnerable position, exploiting their fear of safety to coerce them into paying for services they initially declined.

Legal expert Fu Jian, director of Zejin Law Firm in Henan Province, advised victims to report such incidents to the local police immediately. While proving coercion without direct evidence can be challenging, maintaining records related to the diving activities, such as contracts and payment receipts, can significantly aid in defending one’s rights, Jimu News reported.

Every year, Alisa Zuniga takes a trip somewhere different to see in the New Year. Last year, she decided to stay closer to her home in Colorado, USA. “I chose to head for the southwest because it’s my favorite part of Colorado,” she says. As she was traveling, heavy snowfall transformed the landscape – including the trees, which were barely visible but still beautiful.

“My route to Ridgeway takes me up and over Monarch Pass and that moment couldn’t have been more perfect,” says Alisa. “I just knew that I had to stop and photograph these marshmallow trees that were sitting in front of the bluebird sky.”

In landscape photography, finding a suitable composition can be a challenge. “I decided that, instead of taking a photo with my wide lens to frame the landscape in a panorama, I wanted to capture as much of its beauty as I could to convey what I was seeing and feeling,” she says. Alisa grabbed her telephoto lens and shot a series of portrait frames. The snowy scene is located 3,350m above sea level at the top of the Monarch Pass, so Alisa not only had to contend with the cold but also the wind. “To avoid camera shake, I used a tripod and a fast shutter to capture the contrast of white against the blue sky.”

In post-processing, Alisa took her eight-frame panoramic shot into Adobe Camera Raw, selecting the thumbnails so that any adjustments she made would also appear on the RAW sequences. After adjusting the contrast, highlights and shadows, Alisa stitched the images together in Photoshop using Photomerge, aligning them into one image. “I cropped and merged all the layers and ended up with a large image,” she says.

Alisa Zuniga

Alisa is a passionate outdoor and fitness enthusiast who discovered her love for photography while pursuing her BA in Media Arts. Originally from Iowa, this Colorado-based landscape and wildlife photographer has backpacked in Grand Teton National Park, hiked up 27 of the 58 Colorado 14ers, and explored the inspiring landscapes of Iceland. Alisa draws inspiration from the strong bond she shares with nature and is fueled by her passion to explore. 

Tech details

Camera: Nikon Z9

Lens: Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8

Aperture: f/13

Shutter speed: 1/250 sec

ISO: 100

It was a celebration of Filipina artistry and women empowerment through art as SM Supermalls, BDO Unibank, Inc. and the Zonta Club of Makati and Environs (ZCME), announced the winners of the inaugural “Sining Filipina” art competition at an awarding ceremony and exhibition opening at SM Aura.

One of the joys of Lightroom is using it enough that you start to understand its many nuanced shortcuts, and this video from Brian Matiash is as good a starting point as any – as in this handy video he shares five lesser-known Lightroom shortcuts and tricks that will help you streamline your editing.

It’s worth noting that Matiash uses Lightroom (the non-classic version), but some of his tips do translate to Lr Classic too. 

Matiash’s tips range from quick folder and album navigation, to quickly changing crop overlays and adjusting the background colour of the active preview area, among other tips. 

One tip we really appreciated is the idea of using the single panel mode, which further simplifies the Lr interface by auto-collapsing sections of the editing dropdown when they’re not in use – perfect if you like to edit in a consistent way from start to finish.

You can see more of Brian’s great videos on his YouTube channel. 

Cover image: Brian Matiash