Watermarking Pictures.

Lensmeister

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Hi,

I'd like to know what everyone thinks on water marking pictures both for online and for prints.

I use two programs for watermarking. First I used Picture shark but with it I have no control over size etc. Now I have used a couple of tutorials I use Paint Shop Pro 8 to do it.

When you look at someones gallery or submission do you block the watermark out mentally or what? I've looked at a load of them and so long as the watermark is not a big bold and dense logo in the middle I tend to ignore it.

As for prints. I was thinking that I will be using a watermark but scanning any saleable prints on my laptop descretely in the corner add the watermark then getting them printed. Mainly I want people to not rip off my photos and I'd like to think that people will be able to see the watermark and think of who did the pic for them.


Any views ?




 
Hi Lensmeister,

This is a subject I've had quite a lot of exposure to, as I run a website which showcases photographers and I need to provide a guarantee to them that their work will not be stolen from me, whilst maintaining a pleasurable viewing experience for our guests.

Many people do object very strongly to any kind of watermark on an image. Personally, I expect good images to have some kind of copyright on the internet, whether visible or otherwise, BUT, it can be very difficult to objectively look at a picture from someone when it has a horrid bit of clumsy text over the middle.

For final print work, I believe that the risk of being duplicated is less than the putting-off factor of infringing on a good photo with a mark.

My answer for the web was to use a semi-transparant corner mark which isn't difficult to remove, but is a definite sign that the image is owned. My answer for prints is to offer to sign it and make it "limited" if people want to buy framed art. Some people like a signature in the corner, as they can say it was by an expert for them.

Good luck - let me know if there's any more specifics to your conundrum.

Rob
 
If its online I think a small thing in one of the corners eg "d.wilson" is on but has to be very small.

With prints I think it's a bad idea. It will detract alot from the look and probably the value someone is willing to pay.

I wouldn't buy a print if it had a watermark on it.
 
If I have something large and really special, I'll put a basic watermark on it. For prints, I never use a watermark, unless it's something small in the corner.

As far as online stuff, I generally use heavy compression (Jpeg 60-80) and limit the size to x by 640, I don't think anyone will want to grab it for commercial purposes.
 
RBMKAlpha said:
<skipped>As far as online stuff, I generally use heavy compression (Jpeg 60-80) and limit the size to x by 640, I don't think anyone will want to grab it for commercial purposes.

You're wrong. Russian boys can do it. They have stealed my 640x480 picture:) And they're making money with it.
 
i like to use them. photoshop or illustrator text and then just change the transparency. could get a little daunting if you have to watermark like 300 pics though.
 
I have tried My Picture Marc. I wonder how can I track images and apply multiple watermarks? uhh.. it is so expensive for amateur.
Also I have tried Visual Watermark. And it is quite nice!
I really don't know what to prefer: visible or invisible watermarks?
 
Hi,
You can use a program as Batch Watermark Creator for this!

em01.gif
 
RBMKAlpha said:
As far as online stuff, I generally use heavy compression (Jpeg 60-80) and limit the size to x by 640, I don't think anyone will want to grab it for commercial purposes.

That's what I used to believe until I found one of my photos being used on a website.

I never use a watermark on prints. I will generally sign prints by hand (Unfortunately, I'm still trying to find the 'perfect' matte-print compatible pens - any suggestions?).

As for watermarking, I use Photoshop. A good step-by-step for how to watermark in Photoshop can be found here.

As for size and location, I try to make the watermark large and centrally-located enough to make removal and use of the photo very difficult (never say impossible), but unintrusive enough so that it doesn't (completely) distract from the image. You can see some examples at my site http://www.photointrigue.com.
 
First, nothing stops a determined thief. However, if the image is genuinely copyrighted, then the force of the US Gov. can come down on top of whomever is copying the images. The fines can be substantial.
For the US:

http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html

Someone correct me if I am wrong:

I seem to remember that a certain major software company had been coping many photos off the internet some time back. Many of the photos they had copied they in tern copyrighted themselves. It led to a lawsuit, and was supposedly stopped. So it seems that virtually no one is above it.

I came across a suggestion once, and tried it out:

By putting the image first into Word, Excel or whatever, you can then overlay a clear window/raster image on top of your previous image. This seems to have the effect of blocking a cut and paste attempt. All they get is a white window. It has worked for me in the past, but I am not 100% sure how to do it mainly because I haven't posted too much in the way of the kind I stuff I don't want to loose and I have not done this in some time.
 

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