One of the first things any photographer or artist should do before posting an image of their work online is create a watermark bearing the copyright symbol and the artist/photographer‘s name/logo.
This is a rather simple process you can do in Photoshop in less than two minutes once you get the hang of it. I’ll guide you, step by step through the process I use.
* First, create a brush. This can be your logo, the copyright symbol with your business name, or the copyright symbol with your name. This is a one-time step. Once you name and save your brush, you’ll be able to go straight to the next step the next time you have an image to watermark. Huzzah!
* Second, open your selected image and resize it for use on the internet. A smaller image with a smaller resolution is good to not only keep loading time low but also discourage theft by making any enlargement of the image pixilated.
* Third, create a new layer. A NEW layer, not a duplicate of the original layer, a NEW layer.
* Fourth, on the new layer, use your newly created brush in black. The size of the brush is up to you, just make sure it’s big enough to be legible!
* Fifth, apply the “emboss” filter to this layer. You can play around with how pronounced you want the shadow of your watermark to be by changing the angle, height, and amount settings. Typically, I use an angle of 180, a height of 3 pixels, and an amount of 80%. Experiment until you find something you’re happy with.
* Sixth, go to the “layers” palette and set the blending mode to either “soft light”, “hard light”, or “vivid light” depending on how pronounced you want your watermark to be. I typically go with “hard light” as my watermark blending mode.
* Finally, save your image as a new file. This step is important or you’ll end up losing your original file, but you folks are smart cookies so I’m sure you already know this! But, when saving your image, make sure you choose a medium to low quality. Something under 100kb is best. Again, this is to discourage theft by making any enlargements of the image too pixilated to be of any use.
If you look through any of my galleries, you’ll see the watermark I created for myself. It’s not a bad idea to create other brushes to use in this process for when you get bored with the first one.
Good luck, and happy watermarking!
Until next time….
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~A.M.
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Audrey May Photography 