Watermarking

[Gromguitar4]

Hey peoples!

My father and I got into a discussion about putting our shots on the web and watermarking came up. How important is this, especially on a site like flickr, because I know none of you guys would take any pics :D ? Also, just for my purposes, how would I go about it in PS?
Thanks for the help guys!

[NaturesPixel]

I water mark most of mine... cause i have been ripped .. and am still in a battle to get some of my images taken down... watermarking does not stop people from claiming as their own... but at least if some one sees it .. they will still know its mine...lol

now how i do it is... All in PS..

New layer
i type out what i want..
i then lower the opacity to 0% in Blending Options
add a drop shadow.. with all settings default bar distance, 2 size 2
i then go ok .. lower the the opacity to 24% in the layers Palette
and then click EDIT, and Select Define Brush Preset... and save as a brush...then when i want my watermark i select it as a brush.. and stamp away.. sometime you cant see the brush in your photo.. if so i up the opacity in my layers palette

i hope this helps...

Example...
http://static.flickr.com/122/297540242_c570b880ff_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturespixel/297540242/)

.

[henryscat]

I make it a rule not to upload any images that would be big enough to use commercially.
If you are concerned and feel the need to watermark then I will go over it quickly:

1) Find an image and size it for uploading to Flickr.

2) create your watermark image on a new layer and size appropriately.

3) on the watermark layer, set a transparency that suits you (maybe 20-30%).

4) On the watermark layer, SELECT ALL and COPY

5) go to FILE > NEW and leave the dimensions as is.

6) PASTE the watermark and then save the file somewhere handy so you can copy it onto your files before upload.


A more detailed tutorial with screenshots etc can be made up if there is enough demand from forum users!

Any questions just give me a shout!

[henryscat]

Ahh a brush - another excellent idea!

[Nicole]

Just for any Mac users out there looking for an easy way to watermark photos, I really like PicMark (http://www.digitalcalamity.org/software/applications/picmark/) for quickly adding a watermark to a batch of photos. It's freeware, so that is pretty good.

As for adding a watermark to my pictures on Flickr, I've thought about it, but I can't say that I actually do it. I think that in some ways it's a personal preference. Anyone could steal my photos if they tried, so I just prefer to leave my flickr pics without watermarks. If I were trying to sell my photos, it might be a different story though.

[christian]

I think this tutorial on watermarking (http://www.dphotojournal.com/photoshop-tutorial-creating-custom-copyright-brush/) is very useful. It shows you how to create a custom signature-brush in Photoshop. The great thing about this is that you can resize at any time, without any difficulty. The transparency can also be modified, of course.
It's made my work a lot easier.

[Fraggleroxer]

I think this tutorial on watermarking (http://www.dphotojournal.com/photoshop-tutorial-creating-custom-copyright-brush/) is very useful. It shows you how to create a custom signature-brush in Photoshop. The great thing about this is that you can resize at any time, without any difficulty. The transparency can also be modified, of course.
It's made my work a lot easier.

and if u are familiar with actions, you can turn that tutorial into an action and just automaticly put a watermark on before you save.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/tt/actions-mov.html
here is an awsome video

[Gromguitar4]

Wow guys! Thanks for all of the tips! I really liked the action video Fraggleroxer, I am going to have to try it.

[smc1377]

Another very useful technique is to create a psd file of many layers of useful watermarks. This single file, say watermarks.psd would then be minimized in Photoshop and moved to a bottom corner of your screen.

So, once you're done messing with your photo that needs a watermark, click on the minimized watermark.psd file and then in the layers window, just drag over the appropriate watermark by clicking on the layer in the window and dragging that over to your new photo and dropping that layer right in that window.

There you go, you've just added the watermark.

Let me know if that didn't make sense, I can better explain it. But you are simply taking one layer from one file and transferring it over to another file by dragging and dropping.

This is especially helpful if you have multiple watermarks you want to use. Say for example, you want a watermark of the event itself ("Christmas 2006" for example) and your personal watermark ("(c) John Doe Photography"), you can simply drag each layer over one at a time and resize if necessary.

[RainPacket]

I use Apple's Aperture, which lets me set specific watermarking options; when I export a picture to Flickr, I also pick which corner I want my watermark in (or if I want a watermark), and which watermark, and so on... and voila, it handles it automatically.

Suffice it to say, there are dozens of methods for watermarking; the best one will depend on your platform, and your export method.

As for the necessity of it, my instructor was the one who sold me on it. He said at best, if you lose a watermarked print and someone finds it and likes it, they can track you down to ask about getting a bigger copy or whatever. At worst, if someone steals your work and crops it down or edits out the watermark, you can show the watermarked one and -- if you have a strong history of watermarking your stuff -- you can legitimately point out and say, "Look, I always watermark my stuff when I show it around, and the watermark is gone from this... someone deliberately removed the watermark to defraud me," and that actually apparently generally stands up pretty well.

I haven't (that I know of) had anyone steal any of my work and claim it as their own -- though, originally I was Creative Commons'ing it and not watermarking it, and I've changed over more recently -- but it actually has come in handy. On the instructor's urging, I watermarked all my prints for class; now that the portfolio in question is no longer needed, I handed my class-portfolio prints out to the various businesses by where I took the pictures. Since my watermark has my e-mail in it, I actually came home from dinner to find an e-mail from one of the employees at one business who saw the print, and asked if I could sell him a bigger print of the image.

So, hey, I'm a convert! :)

[Liacs]

Thanks for all this information. Comes in handy. Not that I think my works are worth being stolen, but I like the professional touch of a watermark / signature!

Lia

[RandomConnections]

I've had a couple of my photos "claimed" by someone else and posted on another website as his own work. I know what a pain it can be to address photo theft. That being said, I've got over 2000 images on Flickr. The thought of trying to watermark ALL of those, then re-upload them is just mindboggling. Adding a signature at the bottom, whether boxed or not, will keep some from stealing, but a determined person will just crop that out.

I may add a signature to some of my best work, but I've decided not to do it for all of my Flickr images. Instead, I have made it so that the larger and original sizes are not available to the casual browser. You can change that in your security settings in Flickr.

[MarcoM]

I just found this and wish to thank everyone for all the info and help! I just recently removed all my photos from the flicker web site. It seems that one of the members there had another site and was takeing the photos to redistribute as wall paper sets! I personaly would not have a problem with someone using my photos in this way....
1) as long as my permission was asked for in advance, in this case it was not! and
2) I was given proper credit for the photo, again in this case it was not!
I know that watermarks can be removed using photoshop or other image editing programs, it is a good first step though! The best that I have found if you are going to put photos on a public access site, where they are able to both view and download, is to resize them to like 680 on the longest side. It makes inlarging them very ugly! The only other option I found is making them private and unavalible for puplic viewing, but then why would I have them on the site in the first place?
Anyway enough of my ranting...
Thanks for all the cool tips!