HI Gang.

This month we are talking about watermarking your images for displaying on the www, be it here in the forum, on Facebook or wherever on the www.



I watermark all my photos and my photos of my LO's for two reasons.

1. To make it that little bit harder (but its not fool proof) for people to pirate your images.
2. To get my name out there. Its a way of advertising.

So lets get to it.

This tute is for Windows users. If there enough MAC users (and I use both systems) I'll post a MAC one as well.


go to
http://www.obviousidea.com/windows-software/light-image-resizer/#

this is a windows only program. they don't do a MAC version.

once downloaded, unzipped and installed
click thru the purchase window... this is a free downloaded version which is perfectly usable and I've used it for years.

I'll dot point it to make it easy to follow.
- options tab

- on the bottom left pane thats blue is an orange area with a downwards arrow. click on it. shows more options which you'll need to watermark.

set the settings as shown from the screen shot of mine from my laptop. these settings are for uploading onto www or for email. Not for print quality.


at this point save it by clicking on the save icon (floppy disc icon on right side up top.

- click on the 'effects' tab (next to general)

-tick the integrate watermark box and then click on the word 'watermark'.

for the next step watch the utube video. Easier to see rather than to explain by a bunch of words. Only takes a couple of minutes.

Its easy.

http://youtu.be/nMpKb-h1uwc

at the end of the video she clicks on dont save, I want you to save!!!!!!!

This then becomes you default setting.

I like to use 'Tiff Firth Photography' as that's the way I want to promote myself. You can use your name, or 'created by....... or your blog name.... or whatever you want to be recognised by.

I suggest your name or your blog name so you are promoting yourself and your work.

I like my opacity at 50% so it sits better on the image, in the centre and the 20 at the vertical lifts the watermark off from the bottom of the image.


Use a thicker font so it doesn't look too thin and spidery, and you may need to produce two. A white one for darker backgrounds and a black one for lighter backgrounds.

let me know if it works for you, or if u need a bit more help. That's why I'm here.

So as far as the challenge for this month,

By the end of June I'd like to see your best three images with a watermark on them in the gallery "using any one of the previous tutes, but you need to shoot the images this month. Not post older images."

These are direct links for the tutorials for your convenience.

Portraiture

Landscape

Action

Macro

Starburst

Bokeh

Sunflare

Black and White

Arpeture

how to photograph your scrapbook LO’s.

Picasa

Smart Phone Photography

Christmas

More Christmas

Christmas Lights

Mother's Day

You can pop up images here in this thread for critiquing and suggestions ie does it need to be darker, lighter, in the right spot??? (I only do this if I’m asked to, as I really don’t want to offend anyone). When you are happy with your final shots you can load up to 3 images into the Tiff's Photography challenge folder in the gallery for the chance to win a $25 Scrap Therapy Voucher that’s valid for a month upon receipt of the voucher code.

The winner will be announced in July on the Saturday after the announcement of the new Man of the Month which is the first Friday of the month.

You work is worth putting your name on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cheers
Tiff

thats just the best advice!!! great tute too!

Tiff, thank you so much, this is an awesome tute, and the program is oh so easy to use!!

any questions, ask away!!!!


and thank you Mandy and Karen.


<3

t

Time to play before Dad takes his camera back home next week

ok tiff its me again and my questions...
do we have to use that particular program?
i know somewhere in my actions i have my watermark saved, thought it hasnt been used for years so great reminder
oh and what to photograph, there is too much to pick from lol

No Gis. You dont have to use that one. If you've your own watermark action in PS, then go for it.

and lol.
I suggest having a go at photographing using a tute that you need to most practise on

t

oh cool, Tiff...I've always wanted to learn to do this!

Off to read up your tute...

***note for all***
Its your best 3 that go in the gallery and once an image is in there, it can't be swapped out for another. So use this month for practise, post them here for help, or ask for help if you need it and GO. FOR. IT.

cheers
t

Think of watermarks as discreet advertising of your name. So smaller and drop the opacity to 'meld' it into the shot.

And, unless you are a photographer by trade, don't advertise yourself as one. You are implying that your business is photography. And it would really annoy the 'real' photographers in your area.

Also have a go putting the watermark on your layouts.

use the watermark in one spot on every image. It makes it uniform and generic for your work. And less time fussing over it on your end.

***TIP FOR ALL***

You can batch your watermark onto as many images as you want, eg 100, and have them all done and resized in seconds.


All you need to do is highlight each image in that file, right click on just one of them and select the 'image resizer' program.

And its all done. So simple and so quick.

BUT....... it would be best to decide on one spot for your watermark and leave it there. Forever. Having a uniform spot on each image for the watermark looks so much better than having it at random spots on each image.

And I ususally find that white works on most images, but keep in mind the colour background that the watermark will be sitting on. If its white, then a black watermark will look better.

cheers big ears.

tiff

Hi Tiff,

I am just playing around with different watermarks and i was wondering if it is possible to remove the watermark once it is put onto an image?

I wanted a small icon as well as text and i cannot seem to get rid of the picture file either.



Thanks chick

Mel. The watermark program should have made a duplicate of the original image so you can always have that untouched.

So you should just be able to go back to the original file and have another go.

does that help??


and to answer your question, no you can't take the watermark off the image once its on, unless you want to spend time cloning it out. That's the whole idea of watermarking is to make it harder for someone to pirate your shot and call it there own.

mwah

tiff

The moon last night....

great glow around the moon babe.
did you know it was a partial lunar eclipse last night????

I'll pop up a pic here soon to show.
t


damn fine watermark too!!!