It is becoming more and more of a problem for us photographers with image borrowing…errr “stealing”. While you can never completely stop someone from stealing your online images, you can at least watermark them so that no one may claim them as their work. Here’s a tip to watermark your images.
What Type Of Watermark
You will need to decide on what type of watermark you will use for your images
- Generic text watermark – This is the type that does not connect the photo to you in any way, but does still protect the photo and inform potential photo-nabbers that it is not up for grabs. You would use a text watermark with a basic term like, “Sample,” or “Demo” or “Do not use.”
- Specific text watermark – This is where you use a simple text watermark, but you identify yourself or something about the image. Sometimes this can automatically be made the file name. You can also use your own name, or the have it advertise your Web site.
- Date watermark – This is pretty self-explanatory. It serves a purpose: marking the photos. It doesn’t say much about you, the photographer, but it can be handy for organizing photos. This type of watermark isn’t used very frequently.
- Copyright watermark - This is probably one of the best methods of watermarking. It informs users you have declared a copyright to the image. Many watermark programs have copyright symbols you can add. Your keyboard also should have a copyright symbol.
- Image watermark- This is more elaborate. The good news is you only have to create the watermarking image once. This can be nice if you have a business logo.
Applying Your Watermark
- Isolate your originals – Before you do anything, be sure all of your originals are in a safe place (preferably with a secondary backup, such as on CD or DVD). You will want an original version of all images that are the proper size and are without the watermarks.
- Copy all images you want watermarked – Figure out which images you intend to watermark, and make a copy of them from those originals. It can be a good idea to create a folder just for those copied images, perhaps calling it “watermark.”
- Batch or one-by-one watermarking? – This is a decision you will want to make before you start marking. If you only have a few images, do it one at a time. This allows more quality control, and you can see if a watermark is in a bad spot. If you have dozens of photos, batch watermarking is much more convenient.
- Pick the watermark’s features – In the last step, you decided on the type of watermark. Now, decide how large you want the watermark. Do you want to center the watermark, or tile it across the entire image? How transparent do you want it? Play with each of these options. Keep in mind, the more intrusive the watermark, the better the photo is protected. The downside is the image gets harder to view.
sources: http://cameras.about.com
Other Watermark How-To Recommendation: photoshop911.com ephotozine.com
