Which watermark for portraits?

~Jan~

I obsess WAY too much over such things. But, which do you prefer? Right now, all of my clients' proofs are watermarked w/ a blue ribbon URL like this:



But I today made this, as my Smugmug site is almost 100% black/white/gray. Which do you prefer?


For the record, I'm a plain-Jane and prefer the simplicity of the ribbon w/ URL...

jdryan3

~Jan~ wrote:

For the record, I'm a plain-Jane and prefer the simplicity of the ribbon w/ URL...

Aren't you actually a plain Jan

Since that is the style you want, I prefer the gray, but it should be half again as opaque (or would that be twice as transparent). It seems just a little too dark.

~Jan~

jdryan3 wrote:

Aren't you actually a plain Jan

Aren't you cute. Thanks, I'll try lightening that up!

~Jan~

Okay take 2 on the gray:

jdryan3

~Jan~ wrote:

Okay take 2 on the gray:

... And yes, I was cute. Or so they said...



...30 years ago

Angelo

I would use neither because neither make proper use of a copyright indicia.

These look like advertising postcards.

If your intent is to secure your images from improper copying and unauthorized use I would put a big ole' "PROOF" stamp across the face of them. Barring that, you should use proper copyright markings to best protect yourself.

ShepsMom

I would make opacity even lower, to the point where you can still see it, but not too obvious, so not to distract with your image too much, and have it going across the entire image, vs. just on the bottom of it. Preferably from corner to corner, across the shot.

~Jan~

Okay here's another go.




I'll make it more official once my business is, well, actually a real business.

urbanaries

~Jan~ wrote:

Okay here's another go.

I'll make it more official once my business is, well, actually a real business.

you do not need to be incorporated to enjoy copyright protection of your work AFAIK. I'm sure the others can fill you in on details, or correct me.

Angelo

~Jan~ wrote:

I'll make it more official once my business is, well, actually a real business.

Yea, I don't understand this statement either.

bham

~Jan~ wrote:

Okay here's another go.

I'll make it more official once my business is, well, actually a real business.

You should put ©2007 Jan Scott, doesn't matter if you have a real business or not. Joe Blow pics up his camera and takes a picture, he has a copyright to the picture, whether he is a teenager, an engineer, a bum, or a photographer.

If you really want to ensure people don't copy the picture or copy and crop you should look at the thread from an experience a fellow dgrinner had and some recommendations for watermarks that ensure that people can get a usable copy.

Here is an example of what I recommended.



Here is the thread
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=62279

ShepsMom

I agree with bham, i like this type of watermarking myself. Wanna make me one??

Angelo

bham wrote:

You should put ©2007 Jan Scott, doesn't matter if you have a real business or not. Joe Blow pics up his camera and takes a picture, he has a copyright to the picture, whether he is a teenager, an engineer, a bum, or a photographer.

If you really want to ensure people don't copy the picture or copy and crop you should look at the thread from an experience a fellow dgrinner had and some recommendations for watermarks that ensure that people can get a usable copy.

Here is an example of what I recommended.



Here is the thread
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=62279

bham

ShepsMom wrote:

I agree with bham, i like this type of watermarking myself. Wanna make me one??

It's really not hard, I'll be glad to do it or explain how to do it.

jh4wvu

bham wrote:

It's really not hard, I'll be glad to do it or explain how to do it.

That would be great. I was trying to get my copyright to repeat down the center but it is a different size on verticals vs the horizontal photos in Smugmug. Granted there isn't that much of a difference but it still would be nice to know how to make them look the same.

Any ideas as to how I should go about design it in photoshop so it is the same size.

Here is an example of the wartermarl on the horizontal vs vertical photo....

Horizontal
Vertical

I wouldn't mind knowing how to have one similar to the example above if this was done in Smugmug.

Thanks,
Chris

bham

Yes you create the watermark similar to any other watermark in photoshop.

In photoshop create new file 200 pixels by 200 pixels, 100dpi (the smaller the size of the watermark the more it will repeat)

change the background layer to a regular layer, then make black

create empty layer

Put text in white in empty layer, mine was one line of text © 2007 Scott McLeod

Rotate the text layer -45 degrees using edit > transform > rotate

edit text font size to fit nicely diagonally

Save as a psd so you can easily edit it later (and so you can see when you are browsing the thumbnails in the folders what is there, a png looks empty and the text gets flattened and is uneditable)



delete black layer, then save as .png (I make file name same as psd with an extra letter p behind it so the psd and png are located in folders next to each other when listed in folder

Upload to smugmug, set to tile and set opacity. I actually create a 50%, 60% and 75% opacity and use different ones for various images for various reasons. You can try different ones and see what you like.

ShepsMom

Thanks bham! I tried to make one before, but for some reason it doesn't cover entire image My size actually was larger then 200x200, and dpi was at 72. I'm guessing size does matter?

jh4wvu

Thansk for your help...it's just going to take me awhile to switch out all my watermarks.

Chris

bham wrote:

Yes you create the watermark similar to any other watermark in photoshop.

In photoshop create new file 200 pixels by 200 pixels, 100dpi (the smaller the size of the watermark the more it will repeat)

change the background layer to a regular layer, then make black

create empty layer

Put text in white in empty layer, mine was one line of text © 2007 Scott McLeod

Rotate the text layer -45 degrees using edit > transform > rotate

edit text font size to fit nicely diagonally

Save as a psd so you can easily edit it later (and so you can see when you are browsing the thumbnails in the folders what is there, a png looks empty and the text gets flattened and is uneditable)



delete black layer, then save as .png (I make file name same as psd with an extra letter p behind it so the psd and png are located in folders next to each other when listed in folder

Upload to smugmug, set to tile and set opacity. I actually create a 50%, 60% and 75% opacity and use different ones for various images for various reasons. You can try different ones and see what you like.

Angelo

additional resources here: http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=39259&highlight=watermark

bham

ShepsMom wrote:

Thanks bham! I tried to make one before, but for some reason it doesn't cover entire image My size actually was larger then 200x200, and dpi was at 72. I'm guessing size does matter?

Yes, if you did one at 100 x 100, then it would be even smaller (but harder to read) but repeat more. I found a good balance was at 200 x 200. Also fonts can make text realitively larger or smaller so play with that also.

leaforte

Off track. I really like the dog in your first post.