Royal visit: Photoshopping Prince George

Prince George appears airbrushed on the cover of US Weekly. Photo / Twitter / @Femail

Tabloid magazines are no strangers to digital enhancement, but the industry's latest work may raise a few eyebrows after an American magazine allegedly Photoshopped the face of Prince George in preparation for his latest cover.

Gallery: Royal Visit: Prince George's tour of Australia and NZ

Image 1 of 18: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George of Cambridge arrive at Wellington Military Terminal. Photo / Getty Images

The nine-month-old appears to have had his brown eyes changed to green, his hair lightened to a strawberry-blonde, and his lips and cheeks reddened by US Weekly.

The young prince is set to grace the next cover of the magazine following his tour of Australia and New Zealand with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The image in question: George visiting Taronga Zoo with his parents last Sunday.

The third in line to the throne is less of a stranger to digital enhancement than you might think however.

Royal visit: Ethics row over princely picture

Earlier this month an image of him playing with a wooden bead frame was altered to remove an inscription on the toy stating that it belonged to the Tawa-Linden Plunket Toy Library.

Toy Library Federation president Ester Romp said toy libraries and Plunket were excited to see one of their toys featured with the Prince. She said she was surprised the inscription had been removed from the Majesty picture.

"Kate had asked for a genuine Kiwi experience. Toy libraries and Plunket are part of that. We were very proud to be involved. How the British press use the images doesn't take away from our experience."

The original image taken by Marty Melville.

The modified image on the cover of Majesty magazine.

The royal tour of Australia ended on Friday with Prince George once again stealing the show - by snubbing the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

-additional reporting from The New Zealand Herald