How to question-Water mark or signature on pics

[p.j. petiniot]

I have a question that is probably simple, but hey, sometimes I am simple!

I have been getting better at taking outdoor picture over the past few years. I have also posted a few on the web. I figure I should probably figure out how to either put a water mark of some kind or a signature on the really cool pics.

Any advice or ideas would be welcome.

Thanks in advance, P.J.

[anonymous]

P.J., there are several ways to put a “watermark” on an image. I am sure some of the others here will give you more specifics. Many photo editing software programs now have tools which automate the process. Other more difficult ways involve putting in the text and then brushing away a layer behind. You have to do this manually on each image. Suggest you do a search on the help menu of your software on “adding text” or “batch processing” if your editor does not have a tool to do it for you.

Probably more important is controlling the image reolution and size for the web. I usually do not put up anything bigger than 600×600 pixels and at 72 dpi. Keep it all low resolution. Big images look great, but open you up to more problems because they are easier to edit and crop.

The problem is, if you want to share it, you lose control once you post it. So post it in a format you feel comfortable giving away.

From one simple person to another,
Scott

[John Bennett]

As Scott said if your concerned about people using the images upload low res images.

As for watermarking the images I use “actions” in PS, which are basically recorded macros. I “record” two sets for each corner of an image one in black and one in white. The process itself is pretty simple but its repetitive so.

Assuming you use PS.

Choose the text tool, choose your font, choose your colour. Click on the location you want to embed the text, type away, flatten layers.

Activating the pre recorded “Action” for whichever corner of the image and in which colour is a mere click an then the macro runs through the process in about1 second.

[Anonymous]

I am glad someone posted this question…was wondering the same thing.

First, Scott- that was some helpful stuff.

[Chad Simcox]

As a photoshop alternative you could try the freeware program called GIMP. http://www.gimp.org
I’ve never used it, but I’ve seen great results from photographers using the software.

I’ve used multiple techniques for watermarking my images. Typically I now add ©200x Chad Simcox to my image in the corner. This does leave the image open to easy theft by cropping. I’ve gone so far as to ad a logo pattern (created in photoshop) to my image. This made it harder for someone to clone out the watermark and cropping it out would be impossible.
This image uses both techniques.

By the way, that was shot last fall on the Big Thompson River in Colorado. Don’t you hate hiking in to a spot to find the run is already occupied?

If you have photoshop, play around with your transfer modes of your watermark. Also include your copyright info in the metadata of the file. It’s good practice to get into and it can help prove ownership of the file if you need to prove it. Just make sure you do not use the save for web option. That option will remove your metadata (someone using your photo could do the same thing by the way).

I post images to my portfolio site at a height of 275px at 72dpi. It is a size that is still usable for web but not large enough to tempt others to use. Plus I think it’s large enough for people to see the photo. Of course all the details wont be there, but if someone is interested in licensing a photo I can send them a larger file or direct them to my stock portfolio to download a comp.

http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.

http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram

[anonymous]

Seafood asked,

Second, can you put a watermark/signature on photos without Photoshop?  I dont have it and probably never will.  Any other possibilities?

ACDsee Pro offers pretty good control of batch signitures on images. You can also create flash slide shows for web use, which is another tool to help prevent image theft. Of, course, it’s primarily a workflow, database tool. But one of the best for the price.

Sadly, I don’t think Picasa has the feature.

Adobe Lightroom also lets you add a batch sig, but there is no control over location or fonts of the sig. You have to fill in the copyright info first in the metadata for the watermark option to work, but that can be done automatically with the import feature and a copyright preset.

Having used both ACDSee and Lightroom, I really like the feature set of ACDSee and the price, but Lightroom makes it so easy to import, backup, export and convert files, plus it uses Adobe Camera Raw. If you are a photoshop user, you would probably want Lightroom. But you can do an awful lot with either program even without a photo editor.

Metadata is pretty useless for image protection since 1) if the image displays, it can be copied to the clipboard as a Bitmap totally bypassing the metadata, and 2) Windows picture viewer in Explorer allows you to easily change the copyright metadata with Properties.

There are lots of watermark shareware programs out there for around $30. If you are looking for free options, I would try the GNU program Chad mentioned.

[kendal larson]

I subscribe to a daily email from these folks – looks like today’s offering fits perfectly with what many folks would like to do with watermarking their photos.

http://www.bitsdujour.com/index.aspx?page=index.aspx%3freview%3d195

Anyway – thought I’d post it, as someone might find it useful.

Kendal

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