Copyrighting Photos

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Miss Hamilton

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Name
Charlie
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi everyone,

Just getting into photography .. and although my pictures aren't amazing enough that someone would want to steal them .. I just want to still know what software is best to get to put my name/copyright on them if I eventually start taking good pics! lol
 
There are a myriad of different programs/applications... what do you use to edit images at the moment?
 
To be honest I havent edited any photos yet. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 though which I am going to play about with at the weekend.
 
Just concentrate on taking the pictures for now.. watermarking can come later ;)
 
It is easy to add a layer with your name etc., in Photoshop Elements - it will almost do it for you if you click on the T for type in the left hand side set of tools …… then type your name or something and it will appear of the face of your image - save it as a .psd file and you can then drag it onto every image as needed

- Copyright symbol -
  • hold down the Alt key while keying in the numerics 0169 on a PC or enter Option + G on a Mac ….. gives you ©
 
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Strictly speaking, any image is automatically copyrighted - all a copyright watermark does is remind people of that fact! People will still infringe the copyright by either cropping or cloning the watermark out but at least you'll have tried!
 
Also bear in mind that most watermarks don't even need to be cropped out...they are easily cloned / healed out.
In addition, they detract from the image itself 100% of the time, no matter where placed.
 
elements will do it just fine, you just type it in on text at the required colour and size and reduce opacity to taste.
Also you can set up your preferences to add your details to the exif data automatically.
But don't sweat about it just yet.
Buy a good book on elements.
 
My basic rules are a watermark in the bottom right, full exif info in all images and I never post anything bigger than 800x600 resolution on the internet.
Doesn't stop them getting nicked, but adds to the pain of hiding where it came from.
 
Alastair said:
Just concentrate on taking the pictures for now.. watermarking can come later ;)
Click to expand...
This^

You've not even opened an image in PSE yet and you think you're ready for watermarking? Learn, post for critique, practice, repeat.

Once you have that nailed, learn to process, then you can think about the watermarking.
 
I for one have had a significant number of images 'borrowed'. I've even had one individual contact me to request the high res of and image he'd entered and subsequently won a competition with (he graciously offered to split the winnings!!!)

There are the puritans who will tell you that a watermark destroys an image and renders it unviewable however, as a result of my experience I disagree. My images have been legitamitley published far and wide, in the press and used by government departments and multinational companies. These companies, etc find my images on Flickr where they all carry a lowish opacity watermark in the lower right and a low opacity mark through the centre of the image, just like the shot below.

In summary, almost any image will have a commercial value to someone - protect your work.

Red Arrows 4 Mar 14 (1 of 1)-5 by StampedeT2, on Flickr
 
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Your work IS exceptional though, Paul - not to mention being from a fairly unique viewing position! I have no problem with images being watermarked to protect them from "borrowers" and your big central one doesn't detract from the overall image unless you look directly at it - look at the image as a whole and you barely notice it.
 
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