Adding a watermark?

Question

I would like to protect my pics taken on my camera. Is a watermark the same as a copywrite? Got some great ideas for pics that I would like to offer to sell. Other similar ques reviewed in "Answers" didn't quite leave me with confidence that the watermark cannot be removed by using some "program"? And what about using photoshop to simply overwrite or erase the watermark. Has anyone out there sold pics and know what I'm talking about. Any help would be great!!! Have a SAFE New Year!!!

Answer 1

Comparison watermarking and image protection methods:
http://www.watermarker.com/how-to-ptotect-digital-images.aspx

Answer 2

Adding a watermark is always a good idea for things you post on the web. It provides some protection from folks downloading or printing your photos for use you did not intend them to. That being said I am guilty of not doing it all the time myself. It can be set up to do easily in most photoediting software. You still own the copyright even if you don't watermark them or put copyright notices on them. That will protect you if someone uses them in a way you don't want to and you find out about it. The problem there is you often may not find out or it may not be worth the cost to persue it if you do find out. Metafiles provide some protection but again may not be foolproof and if you "save for the web" in some programs it strips the metafiles. Hope this helps

Answer 3

Hi
Every picture you take you automatically own the copyright to, as does everyone else who has shot that same scene from the same vantage point. Your camera will record the time and date when the pic was photographed in the EXIF file attached to your pic, so you can prove copyright. Photoshop (and probably other software) allows you to add a copyright notice into the IPTC Core file (along with contact details such as address, telephone number etc.) this is added when you upload the images to the computer from the camera or via a card reader, like the EXIF file this is part of the image data and is included whenever an image is downloaded or taken from a CD etc.. The Exif file is not always shown (depends on the software used) but it is always there. This is not foolproof as the EXIF file can be edited by specialist editing software, the IPTC Core file is not shown on most editing software and someone who is stealing your image might not even know its there. There is Digital Watermarking available where you 'register' all your images, this puts an identifying number encoded in the pic, but these come with a subscription price though this 'Watermark' is less easy to edit. Posting (a reduced size) image on one of the many Photo sites e.g. Flikr, can prove your ownership of copyright as they keep an independant track of when you uploaded the image, or offering your pics for sale with one (or more) of the photo library sites e.g. istockphoto, photolibra etc. as you will authenticate your images on upload.

Hope this helps, have a great New Year, Chris

Answer 4

The most common solution is to place a very large watermark in the center of the image to make it as difficult as possible for thieves to photoshop it out.

This is usually done for internet display samples, not for the images delivered to a client. Possible misuse and unauthorised copying by clients is expected and should be a factor in setting price and conditions of sale.

Answer 5

Supposing you publish the pictures in a standard jpeg format and with a watermark that either covers the picture or is in the center of the picture, it isn't possible to remove it outside of intense editing. Editing a photo with a large watermark would require a ton of effort and the quality of the photo would not be equal to its original quality.

Answer 6

A watermark is simply a personal emblem (Sometimes a picture, or it can just be your name) printed lightly over your picture. If there is a copywrite symbol in your watermark (there should be) then yes, it will protect it as copywrite. You can use software like Adobe photoshop to put a watermark on your picture.
If your software has layering, make a new layer (on top of your picture) then insert whatever you want your watermark to be, and pull the opacity down until it's really light on top of the photograph.

I'm not sure if this is the official way of doing it, but this is how I would go about it, and it should work.