Assignment: Why Watermarks?

What is a watermark? 

Question: What is a watermark? How can I add a watermark to my photos.

Adding a visible watermark is a common way of identifying images and protecting them from unauthorized use online. Today, you're going to create an effective watermark and apply it to your digital photos or art work.

Answer: A watermark is a visible embedded overlay on a digital photo consisting of text, a logo, or a copyright notice. The purpose of a watermark is to identify the work and discourage its unauthorized use. Though a visible watermark can't prevent unauthorized use, it makes it more difficult for those who may want to claim someone else's photo or art work as their own.

Tips for Effective Watermarking

If you are going to use a watermark, care should be taken to ensure that the watermark is effective, not only for proving that an image was modified, but also for educating the would-be pirates about copyright and ownership. Ideally, the watermark should be a copyright symbol along with the name of the owner, and the URL of the owner's web site, if applicable. This not only conveys the message of copyright, but it gives others an opportunity to contact the original owner of the image. Watermark placement can be a bit of a balancing act. The watermark should be placed carefully so as not to detract from the image too much, but you also don't want to place the watermark in a area of solid color or a textured area where removal would be easy to conceal. The example on this page was designed to show an extreme example of watermarking and would be is far too distracting for a portfolio photograph. In practice, the watermark should make up a smaller percentage of the overall image area compared to this example.

     

How to Watermark Your Photos

So now that we've discussed what a watermark is and how to make them effective, you may be wondering how to put a watermark in your images. There are many methods for watermarking photos. We'll use Photoshop for today's purposes. Please open the program and open the tutorial in your Photoshop folder, watch the video in this post OR find an online tutorial that is easier for you to follow.

 Your Assignment: Create a Watermark, save it on a transparent layer (PNG file) so you can use it again, as well as pasting it to one of your photos. POST your watermarked photo on your blog. 

POST YOUR COMPLETED WATERMARKED PHOTOGRAPH TO YOUR BLOG FOR CREDIT FOR TODAY'S CLASSWORK. We will Critique your Painting Parody tomorrow as I am out today unexpectedly.