Losing sharpness by Watermarking

Byrhtnoth · 28 Jun 2008

Hi all,

I need to watermark my images that I display on my gallery, without spoiling the pictures.
I am opening my jpeg images in Lightroom for veiwing but then export them to Elements 6 for processing. Once processed and sharpened, I am adding a watermark by Filter/Distort/Displace which does not make the watermark obtrusive to the veiwer.

Problem I am having is that once this Displace filter is added, the image becomes very soft. I have tried various ways of processing, sharpening and watermarking but the image still ends up soft.

Does anyone else use this method of watermarking?
Any help on this would be great as I dont want to use a solid watermark across the image spoiling its view.

This picture below is an example, unfortunatly its a small image so doesnt show as much.
The rider and bike were pin sharp before the watermark.

Treesie · 28 Jun 2008

Don't know if this helps but I have read up on a program called Picture Shark (www.pictureshark.com) its windows based and its for marking images and will handle batches. According to a recent magazine it was a gold star must have and its free!

tarmac_chaser · 28 Jun 2008

With Picture Shark you have to have a copy of your watermark saved a a file to insert. How do you make one?

Byrhtnoth · 28 Jun 2008

Thanks Treesie, I will have a look at that.

tarmac_chaser said:
With Picture Shark you have to have a copy of your watermark saved a a file to insert. How do you make one?

Try this http://www.picture-shark.com/watermark_freeware_image_protect_gallery_howto.htm

Treesie · 30 Jun 2008

Photoshop with do this using the text tool, changing the opacity to suit. Save as the required file type and away you go.

tarmac_chaser · 30 Jun 2008

Does anyone know how you change the watermark size in Picture Shark?

Treesie · 30 Jun 2008

I think you need to set the parameters in the progam you use to make the watermark file i.e. photoshop. I would bring the image into Photoshop and open the watermark file, try and merge the 2 files to give you the end result you can always step back and
re-adjust the watermark file if you need to.

Oli R C · 30 Jun 2008

I used Photoshop to create my watermarks, and I just made several at different sizes, and styles, to suit different applications. Just name them logically and it makes it easy to choose the right one when you need it

yourapocalypse · 1 Jul 2008

I do the same as Oli. Spend the time to make a few, different sizes and horizontal/vertical as appropriate. I've got them saved as layers (as well as a frame layer), then I drag edited images in and save from there.

michaelgreen78 · 3 Jul 2008

I used to do my watermarking in photoshop like some of you guys and then add my images to my gallery but I now use Porta - it's a simpleviewer gallery generator which looks smart and best of all it adds the watermark to the images as it creates the gallery so I spend 0 effort watermarking now

Janice · 3 Jul 2008

If you open Excel and write your copyright sign and text in a cell.. stretch the cell to fit what you want. Then copy the whole cell (not just the text) and paste it into the box in Picture Shark. you can fiddle with it in there.

Byrhtnoth · 3 Jul 2008

Thanks everyone for the replies.
Downloaded Picture Shark and found it very good. Its free and easy to use with no loss of picture quality.
Easy to copyright complete folders of images at once.
Very impressed with it and shall be using it in future.

JumboBeef · 3 Jul 2008

Byrhtnoth said:

....err, I think anyone who knows how to use the clone tool in PS could lose that watermark in a few minutes. You should put it across the action a bit more.