Will Adobe Photoshop CS5 promote Photography Theft?

[dharmit]

Hi,

Adobe Photoshop CS5 is just around the corner (or it may be out, as I haven't been following it closely) and there are some interesting upgrades in it. The one that struck me most is the content aware Deleting. There are some good videos for this as well.

My jaws dropped when I watched how CS5 was able to remove that tree and that road and the lens flare and other things from the photo. I guess, now only if it can start taking photos, there wont be any need for us Photographers

My question is, will this new toy Adobe Photoshop CS5 and its latest techniques allow people to steal someone's work by just deleting the watermark that normally is placed on the photo.

I know that people here will say that you can always write information to the IPTC or EXIF section of the photo as to who the photographer is and the copyright etc etc but latest Aperture 3 from Apple can overwrite IPTC data and it can modify EXIF data as well. If you are not using apple, EXIFtools can do this for you.

How safe are photos now??

[Nicole]

Eh, I've been less than impressed so far with the trial version of it. It definitely doesn't work quite as well as they demonstrate in those videos right out of the box. I'm sure that it gets easier to use, but somehow I think that it's just as likely people will get rid of watermarks with CS5 as they were to get rid of them with CS4 or lower considering (a) it's not that hard to remove a watermark without the technology unless you put something just beyond terrible on there and (b) it still requires a bit of effort to learn how to use the technology effectively enough to remove the watermark.

[dharmit]

Nicole,

I do agree that removing Watermark in CS4 or lower versions or for the matter of fact with GIMP was possible and any trained professional could do that, but what I wanted to convey is that CS5 makes it so easy that any newbie can do this without any effort.

As far as I know, any trained professional will not steal someone's work, but you can't trust a newbie.

This was just a thought and I wanted to share it with others and get a feel of what others feel about this.

Cheers

[Nicole]

Have you tried using the content aware fill on CS5? That's where I was going with my response because in my experience it doesn't actually work as well as the videos show. I've tried replacing large sections and complicated sections, and the result was not something that was without flaw. Does it work better than what was there before? Yep! But, by experience with it says it's not a 1 click removal tool. Just my 2 cents of course.

[kirbinster]

Its not a big deal, I have automated software that will remove a water mark with a click of a button and downloaded it off the net for free. This product is just better advertised.

[tasmo2]

nicole is right.. I have CS5, although I can't compare it to the others as I just went from Microsoft Digital Suits to CS5 (and never looking back! LOL), it doesn't work as well as the videos show. When I remove a tree or something, I end up going back with the healing brush and the cloning brush to make it look good. Now, CAN it be done? yes.. But it CAN be done with any program. Is the average person going to have CS5? I doubt it, the only people I know that have it are photographers. I have no idea yet how they make it look so easy on the videos. LOL

[zappo]

In short: No. You can remove nearly every watermark in PS7 with the clone stamp tool in less than 30min.

Read this, especially tha part about how watermarks make pictures ugly :
Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Blog » Photoshop & Digital Photography Techniques, Tutorials, Books, Reviews & More » Blog Archive » I Can Remove Your Watermark with No Problem…

There are also a lot of usefull tips in the post how to protect your images from theft.

[dharmit]

zappo,
I guess you wanted to say "in less than 30 sec" instead of "in less than 30 mins". coz 30mins to remove a watermark is a bit too much time being spent and than CS5 would be a great bargain.
Well, I got the point and I know that a professional can do that easily, it was just something that struck me while thinking how easy it was to remove the contents by CS5.
Thanks all.
Cheers
Dharmit

[zappo]

Well yes you're right I got that wrong. Let's say it this way: On most pictures you really can remove the watermark in less than 30sec. You now, if there is a giant watermark right over someones face, this might actually take longer.

In my opinion there is only one way to protect your images, by not posting them on the internet. That's really no option to me, so I prefer showing my images in the best possible quality. If I can't prevent theft, I want the at least the best viewing experience.