Is there any point in watermarking your photographs ?

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Blank_Canvas

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I was thinking yesterday is there actually any point in watermarking your photographs?

If somebody really wanted to use your image(s) they could just Paintshop it out. By having the original image and metadata you can prove ownership. I just wondered what peoples views are?
 
Blank_Canvas said:
I was thinking yesterday is there actually any point in watermarking your photographs?

If somebody really wanted to use your image(s) they could just Paintshop it out. By having the original image and metadata you can prove ownership. I just wondered what peoples views are?
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if you sell high volumes of prints for a living then yes of course its worth it... silly question.
 
If for the web then for myself the answer is no for two reasons.

1-To be of any use they have to large enough and across the middle of the image which in itself is aesthetically displeasing and I am sure I am not on my own when I say I do not even bother looking at such visually displeasing marred images but pass on to someone elses.

2-If used small in the corner then they are less than useless and can easily be photoshopped out by anyone wishing to use the web sized image.

To be honest if you are that worried about small web images the safest thing to do is not post them. Proof prints are a different matter though.;)
 
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Suvv said:
Silly answer :shrug:
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In what way?

Watermarking is a very big part of protecting images when you sell in volume from events.. companies make watermarking software.. its added in software packages.. why do all that if the industry thinks its pointless? all these photogrpahers watermarking there pictures for lots of different reasons not just to stop people printing... and the op asks if theres any point ?

I gave a decent answer as to why i watermark mine and theres a real good point to why...

your being a bit childish suggesting my answer is silly..just because i pointed out the question was.. please explain why my answer is silly as i have explained why the ops question is..
 
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craftysnapper said:
1-To be of any use they have to large enough and across the middle of the image which in itself is aesthetically displeasing and I am sure I am not on my own when I say I do not even bother looking at such visually displeasing marred images but pass on to someone elses..
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I cover events where i am the only photogrpaher.. i place a large bright green watermark accross the center.. theres nobody elses they can look at and i sell a lot of pictures.. without a watermark i probably wouldnt sell any

a large bright green watermark would be useless for you and others... but not everyone.. we are all different with different uses... some no point.. some a lot of point :)
 
I'm in total agreement with Kipax.

It's doubtful somebody is going to download your web sized landscape or that photo you took of your pet dog and have a 4ft canvas made, but for those of use that are shooting events and then selling images of individual competitors, watermarking is an absolute must.

If anyone thinks that people don't download a 800 px web image print it out at 7 x 5 and be happy with the results, then they are living in dreamland.

I will also add that they use them for other uses too, I recently had one competitor come up to me and apologize for using one of my watermarked photos without permission. It was used for her official photo on the Team England website.
 
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KIPAX said:
I cover events where i am the only photogrpaher.. i place a large bright green watermark accross the center.. theres nobody elses they can look at and i sell a lot of pictures.. without a watermark i probably wouldnt sell any

a large bright green watermark would be useless for you and others... but not everyone.. we are all different with different uses... some no point.. some a lot of point :)
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Agreed and with event photography and a captive market then yes indeed, but if I was browsing for a fine art print to be displayed on my wall at 32x20 then any with your kind of watermark on would be dismissed out of hand and I would move on quickly, horses for courses.:)

whiteflyer said:
If anyone thinks that people don't download a 800 px web image print it out at 7 x 5 and be happy with the results, then they are living in dreamland.
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I know where you are coming from and again event photography.:)

And if you think those those kind of people would buy a print off you anyway then you too may be living in dreamland (tongue in cheek).:D
 
whiteflyer said:
If anyone thinks that people don't download a 800 px web image print it out at 7 x 5 and be happy with the results, then they are living in dreamland.
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I have printed a 720x540 compressed to 75k by Facebook at 10"x8" for a family member and they were delighted with the results. Even I was surprised at how good it was!
 
craftysnapper said:
Agreed and with event photography and a captive market then yes indeed, but if I was browsing for a fine art print to be displayed on my wall at 32x20 then any with your kind of watermark on would be dismissed out of hand and I would move on quickly, horses for courses.:)
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That's the whole idea, you would move on and steal someone else's image :) :lol:
 
So you see an image on the web and you decide you want it at 32 X 20 fine art print, so you would order and pay for it, but if that web display image had a watermark you would not even consider it. :thinking:

I guess you'd not have a Rembrandt if he has signed it on the front either :)
 
KIPAX said:
if you sell high volumes of prints for a living then yes of course its worth it... silly question.
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Sarcasm I don't need, I thought I raised a valid question. Many thanks to the people who have provided a good reasons for.
 
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whiteflyer said:
So you see an image on the web and you decide you want it at 32 X 20 fine art print, so you would order and pay for it, but if that web display image had a watermark you would not even consider it. :thinking:

I guess you'd not have a Rembrandt if he has signed it on the front either :)
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No I would not because at 800px or less you would have a hard time seeing the image and what you were buying with a large garish copyright across it.

I suggest you check out top landscape photographers gallery sites like Charlie Waite, Colin Prior, Joe Cornish and a host of other fine art photographers , none use a copyright symbol that would spoil the viewing experience even on web images as it is bad for business, but i guess like me they do not know any better. :)
 
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my thoughts on this are you can spend your whole life worrying about people taking your photos and no matter what you do people will still find a way.

Just brand them in a nice way and hope when they do they leave it on there,

I see my photos all over the web and over 1/2 the time they have my url on them - I do a lot of weddings and wedding bloggers use them all the time.

It actually brings me in some decent traffic.
 
Ok so here's a weird one:

I own a website with another member here and we used to watermark our online images (bearing in mind that they are only displayed at 1024 x 768 anyway). We decided that the watermark detracted from the image and that even if someone bothered to print screen them (right click is disabled) they couldn't really print them to any decent size.

Move ahead many months and i get a flickr mail asking if i would be willing to sell a particular picture. The potential buyer also stated that she had seen my photo on a advertising card in a cafe and had spent months trying to track the photo down so that she could buy it! Remember that she's found it on Flickr not my own website. It seems that someone has screen printed the particular picture and used it on an advertising card which is do-able because of the small size of the card - unbelievable! I never tracker down the perpetrator but did make a sale.
 
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