Watermarking your photos is a good way to (literally) stamp your ownership onto them, and help prevent copyright infringement. Unfortunately, many watermarks aren’t all that effective, and often actually just end up annoying viewers – which is probably the last thing that you want.
If you want to add watermarks to your effective photos, try to always remember the following tips and tricks.
Add the Watermark as the Final Step
Most photos go through a certain amount of postproduction, during which you’ll want to edit, improve, and resize your photo to the right dimensions – before finally publishing it.
The most important rule when you add watermarks to photos is that it should always be the final step – right before the photo is published. If you add it before that you’ll run into lots of issues as the changes that you make will affect the watermark.
Make Sure it is Subtle
Although it may be tempting to add a big watermark right to the middle of your photo so that it can’t be cropped out – don’t. All that’ll do is annoy and distract viewers.
Insofar as possible, you should make sure the watermark you add is subtle. It should not be placed on top of the subject or any other important elements, nor should it draw attention away from them.
If you want you can look at examples of good and bad watermarks to see how much of a difference it makes.
Limit the Color
The color in your watermarks should be limited, and should ideally have very little, or just one color. It is often best if the watermark is actually monochrome, as that will let it blend in more easily.
Be sure that you make it a point to avoid vivid or multi-colored watermarks. The idea is to not draw attention to the presence of your watermark.
Place it on a Composite Area of the Photo
One step that you can take to make your watermark a bit more difficult to remove is to try to place it on a composite part of your photo. If the background it is placed on is not uniform, it will make it more difficult to edit it out.
That being said you should know that no matter what you do it will still be possible for a skilled editor to remove your watermark.
Try Making it Part of the Photo
Although this isn’t easy to pull off it will be very effective if you can make your watermark appear like part of the photo. That will make it extremely subtle, and in many cases, it will go without being removed because people don’t realize it is there.
As you can imagine a certain amount of creativity is required to achieve this, and you will need to be able to edit your watermark so that it blends in and is truly part of your photo. For example, you could make it look like someone etched it into a wooden surface, drew it on a rock, or make it part of a signboard.
Suffice to say you’ll have to determine on a case by cases basis the best method to use. The one big drawback of this option is that it will be much more time-consuming.
Conclusion
See how each of these tips and tricks can help you to watermark photos more effectively? If you make it a point to remember them, most should be relatively easy to apply to your photos.
At the end of the day, watermarking photos is a necessity in many cases, and you must approach it carefully. In the long run, the more effective your watermarks are, the better they’ll be able to act protection against copyright infringement. At the same time, they’ll be less likely to annoy viewers and make them feel put off.
