Watermarks?

anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
edited November 4, 2008 in Technique
Not sure if this is the right place to post this question. Mods, please move if inappropriate.

So here's my question: Being a newbie to the hobbie of photography, should I bother with watermarks on my photos that I post on the web?

I never thought of doing this until noticing all of you putting watermarks on your photos.
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  • CatoCato Registered Users Posts: 287 Major grins
    edited November 3, 2008
    anonymouscuban wrote:
    Not sure if this is the right place to post this question. Mods, please move if inappropriate.

    So here's my question: Being a newbie to the hobbie of photography, should I bother with watermarks on my photos that I post on the web?

    I never thought of doing this until noticing all of you putting watermarks on your photos.

    I guess it depends on a couple of things: A) Are you concerned someone may take your photos and represent them as their own work and not yours and B) Do you have an objection if someone likes one of your shots and uses it as their PC's desktop background.

    I don't use watermarks because A) my photos aren't very good, so who would want them? and B) I remember how things used to be when there was an Internet but no World Wide Web, and there was a sense of honor and trust.

    Oh yeah, and C) I'm a hippie! wave.gif
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  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited November 3, 2008
    Cato wrote:
    I guess it depends on a couple of things: A) Are you concerned someone may take your photos and represent them as their own work and not yours and B) Do you have an objection if someone likes one of your shots and uses it as their PC's desktop background.

    I don't use watermarks because A) my photos aren't very good, so who would want them? and B) I remember how things used to be when there was an Internet but no World Wide Web, and there was a sense of honor and trust.

    Oh yeah, and C) I'm a hippie! wave.gif

    Feel the same about points A and B. thumb.gif

    Point C... can't say the same. ne_nau.gif
    "I'm not yelling. I'm Cuban. That's how we talk."

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  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited November 4, 2008
    anonymouscuban wrote:
    Not sure if this is the right place to post this question. Mods, please move if inappropriate.

    So here's my question: Being a newbie to the hobbie of photography, should I bother with watermarks on my photos that I post on the web?

    I never thought of doing this until noticing all of you putting watermarks on your photos.

    If you don't need watermarks, you certainly don't want them on your images because they do NOT enhance the viewing experience. Your viewers will enjoy your images more without watermarks.

    So, under what conditions would you "need" watermarks. The two reasons I can think are as follows:

    1) You are a professional and are selling your images and you believe it is better for your business to compromise the viewing experience a bit with watermarks in order to keep as many people from taking your images without paying. Keep in mind that some people will still take them even with a watermark in them and they will either try to remove the watermark or they will just simply use them with the watermark.

    2) You are not a professional and don't sell your images (so there's no money lost when an image is taken), but you just hate the thought of somebody else using your image so you want to try to stop it, even if you have to compromise the regular viewing experience some.

    The first issue is merely a business decision. Which way will generate more sales. With watermarks or without. An analogy in the software world is do you sell your software with or without copy protection.

    The second issue is an emotional need. I personally try to talk people out of the second issue. There's no money to be lost here. When somebody else uses your image, you haven't really lost anything. But, when you put a watermark on your image, you are compromising the viewing experience. I feel like the whole purpose of a non-professional images is the viewing experience in the first place so I don't want a watermark on them which compromises that. But, this is an emotional decision as much as anything else so everyone must make it for themselves.
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  • anonymouscubananonymouscuban Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 4,586 Major grins
    edited November 4, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    If you don't need watermarks, you certainly don't want them on your images because they do NOT enhance the viewing experience. Your viewers will enjoy your images more without watermarks.

    So, under what conditions would you "need" watermarks. The two reasons I can think are as follows:

    1) You are a professional and are selling your images and you believe it is better for your business to compromise the viewing experience a bit with watermarks in order to keep as many people from taking your images without paying. Keep in mind that some people will still take them even with a watermark in them and they will either try to remove the watermark or they will just simply use them with the watermark.

    2) You are not a professional and don't sell your images (so there's no money lost when an image is taken), but you just hate the thought of somebody else using your image so you want to try to stop it, even if you have to compromise the regular viewing experience some.

    The first issue is merely a business decision. Which way will generate more sales. With watermarks or without. An analogy in the software world is do you sell your software with or without copy protection.

    The second issue is an emotional need. I personally try to talk people out of the second issue. There's no money to be lost here. When somebody else uses your image, you haven't really lost anything. But, when you put a watermark on your image, you are compromising the viewing experience. I feel like the whole purpose of a non-professional images is the viewing experience in the first place so I don't want a watermark on them which compromises that. But, this is an emotional decision as much as anything else so everyone must make it for themselves.

    I'm not a professional and I would actually love it if someone used one of my photos as wallpaper or what have you. It's one of the biggest reasons I take pictures... so other's can enjoy them as much as I do.
    "I'm not yelling. I'm Cuban. That's how we talk."

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  • jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited November 4, 2008
    anonymouscuban wrote:
    I'm not a professional and I would actually love it if someone used one of my photos as wallpaper or what have you. It's one of the biggest reasons I take pictures... so other's can enjoy them as much as I do.

    Same here. That makes it easy for us to know that we don't want watermarks.
    --John
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