Watermarks

[ShootHoops]

I'm trying to decide if I should plaster my picture with watermarks or not. I'm in need of your opinion!

Would your watermarking look like this?

Or this?

I wouldn't post a picture on the forum with a bunch of crazy watermarks. But I plan on selling prints to parents. If I show them digital proofs, I don't want these crazy kids taking these pictures without paying for them and not having anything that says they're MINE. Does that make sense?

Opinions? Help me out! I'm eager to learn more.

Thanks!

 

[Aquarium Dreams]

I plan on doing something like this with my work, too. I'm going to do the second option, a nice, big, easy to read watermark, right across the main figure of the image. Let's face it, if you put a discreet, inobtrusive one in the corner, they could easily chop it off. The first example is too distracting, imo. One or two repeating diagonals would do the job, and not look so tacky.

 

[ShootHoops]

Thanks a bunch, Aquariam Dreams. I've seen some proofs where a logo or the word "PROOF" is plastered everywhere, and I wondered if that worked for people. I definitely plan to avoid putting a watermark in the corner and making it easier on people who want to pass my images off as their own. Thanks again.

 

[DeepSpring]

You still will run into a problem with people taking them, especially on myspace and places like that. All the kids I know on sport teams have their team photo with a big old watermark across the middle and no one cares how low quality or how marked up. To many people who aren't photographers quality isn't an issue.

But it can't hurt to try, at least they can be printed professionally with one. I say the second

 

[ShootHoops]

Thanks DeepSpring.

 

[Alex_B]

that is a tough one!

it is always a two sided thing .. a watermark certainly spoils the image in a way. .. but without it anyone can use it for any purpose ...

I used to place one large-ish watermark right dead centre onto my higher-res images. However, since that destroys too much of the image, I no place it in the lower third these days. That is the best compromise I found for myself.

if you repeat it as you did it above, I would make it more faint.

 

[ShootHoops]

Thanks for the input, Alex!