When to Watermark

[carlyfan]

Hi everyone!
I hope this is the right place for this; nowhere else looked suitable.

My friend let me take pictures of her the other day so I could get some practice doing portraits. I'll be sharing the images with her of course, but I don't know if I should watermark them first. I know she's planning on using them for facebook; I don't know if she'll be printing them. I've never watermarked anything before, but I've also never put anything on the internet before (except here on DPS of course). What do you think?

For all you pros out there, when do you watermark? When a client orders prints, are those printed with a watermark? (Just curious about that part; I have no intention of starting a business anytime soon!)

Thanks!
Lisa

[Rentham]

What do you hope to accomplish with the watermark? If it is to stop people from stealing your work, save your time and don't bother. If it is a form of marketing, ask yourself if it would be more effective to simply ask the client to link, mention, or tag you when they post the images.

I personally find the vast majority of watermarks and photographer logos to be almost unbearably lame. I like the way Zack Arias does it (subtle, mixed in with the actual content of the image, almost part of the image itself). But you have to ask yourself if you want to go through the trouble of doing that for every image you post.

When I think of prints with watermarks, I think of awful school photos with the photographer's name written in a golden freeware script font. Gross.

[carlyfan]

Thanks Rentham; you're probably right. Basically I just wanted people who see them to know that I took them. I guess I could ask her to mention that I took them; it just seems kind of snobbish and arrogant (to me), but I guess sticking a watermark on every picture wouldn't be any better. I know that you pros have to market yourselves, but I'm just a normal person (I just like to take pictures).

Lisa

[Rentham]

I think if you're honest with people, it doesn't come off as snobbish and they are more than happy to help out. I'm not asking them because it feeds my ego, I'm asking because word of mouth is so critical to most photographers. If they are happy with the product and service, they can become advocates for you and actively spread the word. That can be much more effective than a watermarked image buried deep in someone's Facebook profile. Whether you shoot for money or fun, people can't ask you to photograph them if they don't know you exist.

[Blitzkrieg]

I m not sure about that one either.Nowadays I tend to use a custom logo on a corner of my photos,
but I m sure I ll change my mind about it in the future,so no...I m not sure about marking your photos...
N.