Watermark program issues (file size/quality)

lkbart

I just got a watermarking program to batch watermark photos (Panaglobe Watermarker - was $10). The original sizes of the photos were between 3-6MB, but after they were processed with the watermark, they ranged from 3-600k. Pixel peeping, I can hardly tell a difference. What am I missing? I'm planning on putting these photos on a CD & want them to be printable at least to an 8x10. The program has an option to resize the images, but I didn't pick that option, and it doesn't have any other options for image quality - it's a really simple program. Do I need to ditch this program & find another?

Here is a sample (not the best photo,but I couldn't resist - my daughter sticking her tongue out at me - in character!)



And I can't figure out why these shots have a "PROOF" watermark from Smugmug across them, when my gallery is set to have my watermark on it. I've turned the watermark off, and then back on (twice), and it still shows the "PROOF". Suggestions for how to get that removed/changed would also be helpful for me!

sara505

lkbart wrote: »

I just got a watermarking program to batch watermark photos (Panaglobe Watermarker - was $10). The original sizes of the photos were between 3-6MB, but after they were processed with the watermark, they ranged from 3-600k. Pixel peeping, I can hardly tell a difference. What am I missing? I'm planning on putting these photos on a CD & want them to be printable at least to an 8x10. The program has an option to resize the images, but I didn't pick that option, and it doesn't have any other options for image quality - it's a really simple program. Do I need to ditch this program & find another?

Here is a sample (not the best photo,but I couldn't resist - my daughter sticking her tongue out at me - in character!)



And I can't figure out why these shots have a "PROOF" watermark from Smugmug across them, when my gallery is set to have my watermark on it. I've turned the watermark off, and then back on (twice), and it still shows the "PROOF". Suggestions for how to get that removed/changed would also be helpful for me!

There's a girl sticking her tongue out in this photo? Really?

Dan7312

My guess is that what this software does is to read your image, convert it into a bitmap, that is uncompressed image, add the watermark to the bitmap, then generate a new jpeg file from that bit map. Jpeg doesn't support layers so they is no way to just add a watermark to it.

There are two things going on here. One is that the software is expanding your jpeg into a bitmap then compressing that bitmap into a new jpeg. Something will be lost when this is done, though it's hard to say how much and it will vary from jpeg to jpeg.

When then compress the bitmap into a jpg their software has a pick a quality level, that is compression level, and unless they let you set it in the software's configuration you will be stuck with whatever quality level they pick.

lkbart wrote: »

I just got a watermarking program to batch watermark photos (Panaglobe Watermarker - was $10). The original sizes of the photos were between 3-6MB, but after they were processed with the watermark, they ranged from 3-600k. Pixel peeping, I can hardly tell a difference. What am I missing? I'm planning on putting these photos on a CD & want them to be printable at least to an 8x10. The program has an option to resize the images, but I didn't pick that option, and it doesn't have any other options for image quality - it's a really simple program. Do I need to ditch this program & find another?

Here is a sample (not the best photo,but I couldn't resist - my daughter sticking her tongue out at me - in character!)



And I can't figure out why these shots have a "PROOF" watermark from Smugmug across them, when my gallery is set to have my watermark on it. I've turned the watermark off, and then back on (twice), and it still shows the "PROOF". Suggestions for how to get that removed/changed would also be helpful for me!

denisegoldberg

I can't answer your watermark program question, but I have one for you.

I see that you have a smug pro account. Are you applying watermarks to your photos for display in a place other than smug?

In a smug pro account you can use smug to apply the watermarks and you don't need to watermark the photos before uploading them to your account. You would need to upload a watermark, but not watermarked photos. A watermark applied by smug would not be on the printed photo, where one that you apply to the photo outside of smug will be. Maybe that's what you are after though.

--- Denise

lkbart

sara505 wrote: »

There's a girl sticking her tongue out in this photo? Really?

That's really why I like this shot - it's not supposed to be obvious (maybe it's a mother/daughter thing - besides, a flash backstage is a quick boot out the door with no hope of return), plus this shot has the full range of being partially blown (under her arm) to being too dark (her face), to being an okay exposure (his face) - some of the things you have to deal with when taking photos backstage.
[EDIT: If you really can't even see her eyes, you might try adjusting the angle of your screen slightly. I can see her eyebrows & eyes & her mouth just looks weird because her tongue is sticking out of the side of it.]

Dan7312 wrote: »

My guess is that what this software does is to read your image, convert it into a bitmap, that is uncompressed image, add the watermark to the bitmap, then generate a new jpeg file from that bit map. Jpeg doesn't support layers so they is no way to just add a watermark to it.

There are two things going on here. One is that the software is expanding your jpeg into a bitmap then compressing that bitmap into a new jpeg. Something will be lost when this is done, though it's hard to say how much and it will vary from jpeg to jpeg.

When then compress the bitmap into a jpg their software has a pick a quality level, that is compression level, and unless they let you set it in the software's configuration you will be stuck with whatever quality level they pick.

Thanks for this - I didn't think about the program converting it & back again, but even so, what I don't get is that the end result doesn't appear to me to be that much lesser quality, even though the file size is around 1/10th of the original. I did send a message to the contact on the program website to find out what they say.

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I can't answer your watermark program question, but I have one for you.

I see that you have a smug pro account. Are you applying watermarks to your photos for display in a place other than smug?

In a smug pro account you can use smug to apply the watermarks and you don't need to watermark the photos before uploading them to your account. You would need to upload a watermark, but not watermarked photos. A watermark applied by smug would not be on the printed photo, where one that you apply to the photo outside of smug will be. Maybe that's what you are after though.

--- Denise

I do use a watermark on most all my Smugmug photos - & can't figure out why these two photos show a "PROOF" across them when the gallery setting is supposed to have my "Bartlett PhotoArt" watermark across it (I suppose I need to ask Smug Support about this, but for now I've turned the watermark off on that gallery). In answer to your question though, I have been requested to make a photo CD to sell to other Nutcracker parents or dancers and I want the photos to have a small watermark on them rather than the full name splashed across the photo, so they can print them if they want. The smaller watermark is on the lower right of the first photo & is not supposed to be big or obvious, just a small reminder of who took the photos. I'm not aware if there is a way to get the photos from my Smugmug galleries onto a CD with the watermark. If this is a possibility, it may be a route I could take. & just out of curiousity, how do you tell if someone has a pro account?

I may end up manually watermarking these, but there's 212 photos & I'd much prefer to batch process them (& I'm really glad I didn't choose the option to save over my originals!). Any other thoughts or suggestions - or experience with a different batch watermarking program?

Thanks for the suggestions so far, but I'm still not understanding the huge size reduction versus the minimal visual quality reduction that I'm seeing. If it's helpful, here is another set of photos & in the gallery I placed them, I changed the settings so you can view the original size if that is helpful at all. This photo is a crop (maybe 50%?) & I see a little more difference, but not as much as I would expect for the file size reduction. I guess the bottom line is whether there is going to be a noticeable difference when printing?

denisegoldberg

lkbart wrote: »

In answer to your question though, I have been requested to make a photo CD to sell to other Nutcracker parents or dancers and I want the photos to have a small watermark on them rather than the full name splashed across the photo, so they can print them if they want. The smaller watermark is on the lower right of the first photo & is not supposed to be big or obvious, just a small reminder of who took the photos. I'm not aware if there is a way to get the photos from my Smugmug galleries onto a CD with the watermark. If this is a possibility, it may be a route I could take. & just out of curiousity, how do you tell if someone has a pro account?

The footer on your smug site says "Powered by SmugMug Pro".

You're right, the watermark wouldn't be on the images that are downloaded or placed on a CD. If you were printing on Smug you could use a printmark, but that doesn't cover handing a CD to the parents.

And the help page at http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-watermark indicates that "At this time Printmarks can be applied to prints only, not digital downloads."

--- Denise

sara505

denisegoldberg wrote: »

The footer on your smug site says "Powered by SmugMug Pro".

You're right, the watermark wouldn't be on the images that are downloaded or placed on a CD. If you were printing on Smug you could use a printmark, but that doesn't cover handing a CD to the parents.

And the help page at http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-watermark indicates that "At this time Printmarks can be applied to prints only, not digital downloads."

--- Denise

If you have LR, you can apply a watermark of your choosing upon export. I think those watermarks are on the original image.