I have not read that article yet, but I will respond anyway. I think that there were obviously private photos that we know of, and that these are actually most of the ones we know and admire today. The other ones are the are the public formal photos that we don't really esteem as much as we do the private ones. These are the photos, that according to some, were politically motivated. Of course, the term and formal study of public relations is fairly modern, I admit it was present then, but it wasn't called so, nor was it as formally a strategy as later. I have read books on public relations, but maybe I get it confused with marketing, since I have read stuff on that too, a few years ago.
I think that rulers have always wanted to show themselves to the people, in their best light, but that this is often not a formal strategy. To me, Nicholas may have wanted to show his family in the best light, but he didn't have some kind of formal strategy of public relations to make the monarchy look better or be more relatable. That goes into the realm of the politically motivated- and while I do concede that certainly it might have ended up being public relations thus, ''political'', it wasn't thought of like that. I just can't be that scholarly, if you will. I can't remember specific books, but there is that one refered to by one poster, and there is another, maybe?