Should You Watermark?

Tom Potter

Do you watermark your images?

From everything I've read, I'm leaning toward NOT
watermarking.

denisegoldberg

I recently removed right click (non)protection from my images because based on discussions here on dgrin and on my own observations I thought it was preventing my images from being indexed on Google image search. I have seen an uptick in the photos that are found since I removed right click (non)protection.

At the same time I thought about removing the watermark but I decided to leave it for now. My watermark is on the edge of the photo and I'm aware that if someone grabbed an image they could easily remove the watermark but I left it anyway. (I chose to place the watermark on the edge because I usually don't spend much time looking at photos when the watermark is splashed across the image.) I may remove it at some point but for now the images are watermarked.

Is the watermark protecting my image? I don't think it is.
I do have a copyright statement embedded in the photos (files).

--- Denise

kdog

Tom Potter wrote: »

From everything I've read, I'm leaning toward NOT
watermarking.

Why not?

arodney

IF someone really wants that (low rez) sRGB Web image, watermark or not, they will find a way to get it and remove the watermark. Seems like a lot of work for little if any gain. And do we really think these web images are worth stealing?

AceCo55

I would be in the camp of least popularity. I watermark slap bang in the middle along with diagonal lines!
Why? I shoot sports - a LOT of it youth sports. The teenagers just take screen shots, then crop and then post on their FaceBook pages.
With my watermark in the middle I and they know it hasn't been obtained the right way, has my web address so others can see where it came from.
Also means if they want a clean image, they will need to come to me.
Very, very few of these kids will have the means to remove my watermark so I'm confident only labelled screenshots will be taken out of my control.

If I were taking landscapes etc then I can see it might annoy some to have a watermark in the middle. Not applicable to me.
And finally ... my photos, my time, my equipment - so I will decide if I watermark and how I will watermark.

David_S85

I'm not a pro, but I don't like to find my images all over the place without my permission. I can't keep anyone from heisting my images, but I can make it more difficult for them to claim credit for a stolen image. I'd at least rather have my name on the thing if it is also on someone's Facebook page.

Just this week, I have created 27 different watermark files for targeted placements for all my images. I can place them in particular coordinates of an image so as not to distract from the content (much). I do try to place them in a somewhat off-center and contrasting location so they are noticeable if you look for them, and in a way that makes them a little less likely to be cloned out if the photo is heisted. The process of re-watermarking all my photos is arduous since it involves making a choice on placement for each shot where before it was more or less a global procedure.



My old watermark was large, centered, intrusive and ugly and it looked very bad on the new Smugmug (which hasn't gone live yet). Besides that, it was a crap shoot watermarking with one type of watermark file. On some photos it was beyond terrible looking, and others it was hardly noticed and too easily cloned off. After finding my images in Russian and Chinese forums with attributions to people other than myself, I know it is important to do this. I also have right click protection turned on.

Example of new watermark:

JonaBeth Russell

I like to have a small corner watermark. It's great advertisement. Want to steal my pics and plaster them all over without permission? Have at it! Just might help me get another booking

Hikin' Mike

I use a watermark on the photos I post on my blog, but not on my "for sale" galleries.

afsharjavan

artin afsharjavan
honestly I hate watermarks on photos. especially on product images. for pics posted on a blog you could add a small sign/logo in the corner. anyway, the photo's credits and other details are stored with the pic, why adding extra info?

Gary752

As was stated earlier, watermarks can be cloned out, as well as exinf/metadata can be removed. We had some of our product images stolen by one company, then they tried to use the same images to sell the same products to us. What I started doing is zoom the image in to like 300% and using the smallest size font possible type the company name or just initials in at a spot I can remember, and set the color slightly lighter or darker than where I'm typing. Now when viewing normally you can't see it. I still enter the copyright info in the metadata for all images, and only watermark them if they are going on the web. This only keeps honest people honest though.

GaryB

ian408

Watermarking always draws passionate responses. Do what makes you happy. When you see others have chosen differently, ignore it-the argument isn't worth it.