Do I need to put watermarks on my photos?

[TNH]

Hi everyone, I have a question and I was wondering what all of you thought.
I am a beginner photographer, and I have a Flickr photostream. I've heard that people can just steal your photos from Flickr, and that you should put a watermark on your photos so that they can't. What I am wondering is this:
Do I need to put watermarks on all the photos in my Flickr stream? Because, would anyone really steal photos from a beginner like me? My photos are definitely not professional, but would someone still try to steal them?
I have been wondering this for awhile. Thanks for your thoughts on my question.

[ishootRAW]

Depends, on the pic. I only WM a few of my best ones. In looking through your stream, I see lots of rather random shots that I don't think anyone would steal. If it where me though, there are two or three in your stream that I would WM.

That's my $0.02

[Tito87]

If you are concerned about people stealing your pictures, you should watermark them.

[NicolaB]

I watermark everything. Like you, I can't see that people would want to steal my 'work' but jic it may be a deterrent and hey it is good advertising

[UlpilotSC]

Im with you guys. I watermark stuff just because if someone does steal it.... I want it to be trouble for them to remove, and other people to at least no they stole my pictures if the watermarks are still there.
It's not going to stop theft, but it's a deterrent, if a small one.

[TNH]

Originally Posted by ishootRAW

Depends, on the pic. I only WM a few of my best ones. In looking through your stream, I see lots of rather random shots that I don't think anyone would steal. If it where me though, there are two or three in your stream that I would WM.

That's my $0.02

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Tito87

If you are concerned about people stealing your pictures, you should watermark them.

I think I will...then I won't have to worry as much.

Originally Posted by NicolaB

I watermark everything. Like you, I can't see that people would want to steal my 'work' but jic it may be a deterrent and hey it is good advertising

That's probably a good thing to do, put it on everything, just to be safe. lol, that's true!

Originally Posted by UlpilotSC

Im with you guys. I watermark stuff just because if someone does steal it.... I want it to be trouble for them to remove, and other people to at least no they stole my pictures if the watermarks are still there.
It's not going to stop theft, but it's a deterrent, if a small one.

Thanks for your comment. After what all of you have said, I think I will watermark my pictures, just to be safe.

[radams]

WATERMARK!!!!! I recently found one of my images on a web site in Poland, they did credit the image to me, but it shouldn't have gotten there in the first place.....

[TNH]

Originally Posted by radams

WATERMARK!!!!! I recently found one of my images on a web site in Poland, they did credit the image to me, but it shouldn't have gotten there in the first place.....

Wow...why did they do that without asking you first?! Did it have a watermark on it?

[corry]

THANK YOU so much for that Fastsone software tip, that is sooo much quicker to batch edit with watermark, wasn't doing it before now I will for sure.

i realize that people will rip off your work if they want and can easily remove a watermark or I suppose they can edit your exif data but it might deter some so....