Always Watermark Your Photography (Part 1)

I always watermark my photography.  Whether it’s a client’s photo that I’m showcasing, a general professional photo that I’ve taken or just a quick snap shot of my family,  I throw a watermark on it.  Some might find this annoying.  Others might find it egotistical (“boy, she thinks even her lousy snap shots are something worthy of a watermark”).  I actually have two important reasons for doing this and neither is to annoy or offend anyone.

In this blog, part 1 of two, I will discuss the first reason.   The first is SAFETY.  I think EVERYBODY should be putting watermarks on their photos – no matter what the quality and no matter who takes the photos.  I have seen several stolen pictures, usually of children, that people post and claim the children as their own!  So I apply my watermark on all photos of children to protect the children (I’ve seen it happen with teenagers, women, couples, and pets, too.)   The watermark provides a little bit of protection.  It will deter some people from stealing the photo.  It’s much easier to steal a non marked photo than to have to take one that has a watermark on it and attempt to cover it or crop it out.  If someone  does go ahead and steals it and removes the watermark, unless they are a professional, you will be able to tell that a watermark or something was cut out. It’s usually pretty evident that it was cropped (it just doesn’t look right) and it brings attention to it, which alerts others.

A few years ago in an online group I belong to, a new user came on with some outrageous stories.  We were all pretty skeptical of her.  But what really allowed us to confirm she was a fraud were some pictures she posted of her “daughter”.  They were cropped in an odd way and it looked like a watermark or some sort of writing had been there.  So someone in our group did a little searching and found that it was indeed a picture of somebody else’s little girl and the poster had stolen it.

Watermarking photos is easy, even for the non-professional.  It does not require any fancy software. Most computers come with some basic editing software.  Every PC I’ve owned has come with the basic Paint program.  So I am going to provide a quick tutorial for watermarking your photos using Paint. For my test photo, I opened up my photo of strawberries in Paint.

Then I clicked on the Text button and simply wrote in text.  You can write your name, nickname, business name, pet’s name or anything you want.

Then I clicked “Save As JPEG”.  That’s it.  I now have an identifying mark on my photo.

I hope you found this blog helpful.  Please stay tuned for next week’s part 2 on reasons to watermark your photography.