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Adding a watermark/signature

crazydrummerdude

advrider.com
I'll do the usual crazydrummerdude intro, by telling a story.

At a shooting competition last fall, a team member hired a photographer (girlfriend of his roommate). Previously, I was essentially the teams photographer in between my own competing. While I was running the registration table in between my skeet and trap shooting, she arrived. She laid down her stack of "cards," an excellent 3x5" picture with her information, pricing, etc on it. The picture was mine. I took it. I was there the previous winter trudging through the snow to get some shots of my teammates. It was my camera. The original is on my computer with all the related pictures. I don't know her. She didn't ask. After confronting her (boy, was she surprised at how small of a world it was!), I took the stack.

So, what I'm getting at is; Assuming I have access to the common photo editing software (I've actually never edited a single picture I've taken), what method can I use to add a professional looking watermark to my pictures?
 
By creating your "watermark" in just about any program such as photoshop, photosuite, after you save it as a file, you would just copy and paste it into your image.

Make sense? hope so.

460
 
Tell us what software you are using today and maybe someone will have an idea on an easy way for you to add a watermark without changing your workflow too much.
 
So your gonna make that poor girl go get another program just to take the watermark off of the pictures she steals from you?

:bolt
 
Nate, what do you have for programs on your computer?

It would be pretty involved explaining over the internet, but post up what programs you have on your computer, and I'd be happy to either call you or provide a number where you can call me and walk you through it.

460
 
Nate, something tells me you are a student, am I correct? I am taking a Photo editing class and just learned that Adobe has a program for student purchases. The photoshop suite is pretty cheap ($200 as compared to upwards of $800).

Let me try to find the info.
 
Sort of a watermark

I'll do the usual crazydrummerdude intro, by telling a story.

At a shooting competition last fall, a team member hired a photographer (girlfriend of his roommate). Previously, I was essentially the teams photographer in between my own competing. While I was running the registration table in between my skeet and trap shooting, she arrived. She laid down her stack of "cards," an excellent 3x5" picture with her information, pricing, etc on it. The picture was mine. I took it. I was there the previous winter trudging through the snow to get some shots of my teammates. It was my camera. The original is on my computer with all the related pictures. I don't know her. She didn't ask. After confronting her (boy, was she surprised at how small of a world it was!), I took the stack.

So, what I'm getting at is; Assuming I have access to the common photo editing software (I've actually never edited a single picture I've taken), what method can I use to add a professional looking watermark to my pictures?

Hi,

This was done in Photoshop (CS2), but I think it can be done in any Photoshop program. It is not a water mark, but the text is imbedded in the document. If you are interested in this process, drop me a PM and I can walk you through this process. It is very simple.
 

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Hi,

This was done in Photoshop (CS2), but I think it can be done in any Photoshop program. It is not a water mark, but the text is imbedded in the document. If you are interested in this process, drop me a PM and I can walk you through this process. It is very simple.

As nice as his work is... The idea is to not be so intrusive.
I do this when I want to sell something. Subtle but visible.

He he needs a digital mark and then post that they are so protected and will prosecute theft.
 

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He he needs a digital mark and then post that they are so protected and will prosecute theft.

Sometimes it's easier to stop the theft in the first place instead of prosecuting the theft after the fact.

I agree that a real digital watermark is the way to go, especially if a professional. A small mark on the corner of an on-line image can also help. Both are not unreasonable. And add copyright info to the embedded metadata, too.

The majority of my photos are simple snapshots (someday I'll learn to take a good picture by intent instead of accident) stored on a website at a resolution which is fine for web viewing, but not that great for printing. Even then, I found a few images were borrowed -- one of my R69S images was being printed on a T-shirt sold on ebay. Adding a visual mark in the corner of my images has been enough to stop image borrowing (that I am aware of).
 
Another thing to consider is placing a copyright notice either on the web page where the images are displayed or within the image itself as a watermark.

from
http://www.whatiscopyright.org/

What is a copyright
"Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. If it is an essay, if it is a play, if it is a song, if it is a funky original dance move, if it is a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it. "

When does Copyright Protection begin, and what is required?
"Copyright protection begins when any of the above described work is actually created and fixed in a tangible form."
"The proper way to place a copyright notice is as follows: Copyright ?® (first date of creation) (name of owner).
Like this: Copyright ?® 2007 John Smith."

that's all you need to copywrite a work, but unless you register it with the copyright office you can not sue for monetary damages, but you can assert a claim as the true owner.

I had to go after someone who used my work without permission (a written work), I just contacted the hosting service and after providing evidence it was my work they removed it and killed the account hosting it.

At least by using a copyright notice they can not claim ignorance.

RM
 
As nice as his work is... The idea is to not be so intrusive.
I do this when I want to sell something. Subtle but visible.

He he needs a digital mark and then post that they are so protected and will prosecute theft.

I agree, it is so easy to steel someone elseÔÇÖs work today. Many years ago, long before digital cameras, Photoshop, etc., I shot weddings for a profession and had my own studio. I gave up that profession after 10 years to return to college and become an engineer.

My proofs were 5x5 and were permanent copies, that is they were processed so they would not lose their color, etc. rapidly. When I delivered the proofs I charged my normal price for them, what I had in shooting the wedding (film, processing, book itself, minus my down payment). I made my money on selling reprints and enlargements and the large wedding album, not on the proofs.

After a few people said that is all they want and left with the proof book, I decided to mark them with a rubber stamp that said PROOF, followed by my name and phone number. After I started doing that I never lost the large album sale because no one wanted their only copies stamped PROOF, etc). This is why I made my recommendation, however I agree that they should copywrite their work to keep honest people, honest.
 
Watermark Freeware photo editor GIMP

I know this question was posted a while ago but if you still need an answer...

I am not an expert in photo editing by far, but when I do use an editor I have been using "GIMP" an open source photo editor. It is similar to, but some may say not as polished as, PhotoShop.

I found a tutorial on http://www.scottphotographics.com that walks you through creating a simple watermark.

Hope this helps

Calvin
 
I know this question was posted a while ago but if you still need an answer...I found a tutorial on http://www.scottphotographics.com that walks you through creating a simple watermark.

Yes. But all one has to do is clone it out or even just crop it.

A digital watermark is encoded 'non-visually' into the file.
The software can then read it. Even if the source is printed in a magazine/newspaper.

The data is in the image.
 
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