Making a png water mark with a blurred background?

Do you mean that you want to blur the area of the image where the watermark is going to be placed?
 
19ninety said:
Is it possible to make a .png watermark to use in Lightroom that has a blurred background? In PS I've tried making a blurred layer and a text layer and saving as .png but it no worky, :( I suppose I cant Blur and transparent layer...?
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Not in Lightroom... I don't think, but It is possible to create an action in Photoshop that does this... quite easily.
 
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would preparing a PNG` file with a reduced opacity background work? So you could use a white or black band at say 50% opacity with your watermark on top. Or does it have to be blurred? That works and then you can set the PNG file as a custom watermark on LR export.
 
boyfalldown said:
would preparing a PNG` file with a reduced opacity background work? So you could use a white or black band at say 50% opacity with your watermark on top. Or does it have to be blurred? That works and then you can set the PNG file as a custom watermark on LR export.
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Possibly... not sure how you'd implement that in Lightroom though. A photoshop action (assuming all the images are the same resolution) could be applied with one single click though, once the initial action is made. You could run it as a batch on an entire folder of images too.
 
I'll make a video of me doing it later if I get time... would that help?
 
Pookeyhead said:
Possibly... not sure how you'd implement that in Lightroom though. A photoshop action (assuming all the images are the same resolution) could be applied with one single click though, once the initial action is made. You could run it as a batch on an entire folder of images too.
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You can add a png file as a custom watermark on export or publish in LR, it's part of the export dialog. Just got to set it up the first time and prepare the png. Once done it's available every time.
 
boyfalldown said:
You can add a png file as a custom watermark on export or publish in LR, it's part of the export dialog. Just got to set it up the first time and prepare the png. Once done it's available every time.
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If that's the case, then yes, that would be ideal, but how would you set the PNG file to BLUR the image underneath it? Setting opacity or transparency wouldn't actually BLUR the image underneath.
 
Pookeyhead said:
If that's the case, then yes, that would be ideal, but how would you set the PNG file to BLUR the image underneath it? Setting opacity or transparency wouldn't actually BLUR the image underneath.
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Dunno, that's why I asked if you could use a solid colour at reduced opacity instead
 
boyfalldown said:
Dunno, that's why I asked if you could use a solid colour at reduced opacity instead
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You could, but it wouldn't blur the image underneath.. just partially obscure it, so youd get a dark area around the text is all.

I've just done it PS... it's easy, and so long as you keep the images the same resolution, the watermark will appear the same size in each. I'll record a video of me doing it later.
 
@19ninety

OK.. here's one way to do it....



...and if you want to use a pre-prepared graphics file, here's another.....


Just bear in mind that for the action to work your watermark file MUST never be moved once the action is created, or it will not know where to load it from.

You can flatten the layers with the action still recording too if you want to end up with one single layer.
 
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You're welcome
 
I don't think LR lets you add borders or use tokens to add your metadata. The Mogrify plugin is quite a bit more powerful as far as I can tell. Maybe the LR watermark option has developed since I last looked though. With regard to blurring the background, @Pookeyhead, I haven't used it for this specific need hence I suggested that the OP try it. You can used command line arguments with Mogrify that broaden its capabilities further but this starts to go beyond my experience. As you mentioned photoshop might be the only solution but you might be able to make it fit the LR workflow by saving the watermark as a droplet then using that as a post processing action from within the Lightroom export options which should mean almost zero time outside of LR.
 
That looks fiendishly complex!
 
There is a good reason LR Mogrify hasn't been updated since V2 @adrianlambert everything you've described can be achieved far more easily in the later versions of LR. If I remember the watermarking options were updated about v3 and you can add borders and update metadata very easily and all day long. If you use LR its really worth learning how to do this
 
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boyfalldown said:
There is a good reason LR Mogrify hasn't been updated since V2 @adrianlambert everything you've described can be achieved far more easily in the later versions of LR. If I remember the watermarking options were updated about v3 and you can add borders and update metadata very easily and all day long. If you use LR its really worth learning how to do this
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What I wanted to do was to have various IPTC/XMP fields written out into a border to confirm various things like ownership, usage licence, caption, colour space etc so that the end users know what to do with the image. As far as LRs capabilities go I can't see how to dynamically write out metadata fields to a border upon export. I know the print module has some more welly but the output file type is limited to JPEG which in some situations is fine but on occasion it's simply not good enough from Adobe products, plus there's no option to automatically ingest the file back into the catalog, plus all the embedded metadata is stripped which in my mind given the state of the laws surrounding orphaned works around the world these days, that last point should frankly be considered criminal. If you have any pointers for me for getting this to work in the export dialog I'd be really very grateful.
 
Pookeyhead said:
That looks fiendishly complex!
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Yep!! Sure does. Guess it depends on your motivation. I once rewrote a photoshop script called Dr Brown's Caption Maker that was originally written by Russell Brown who is currently Adobe's Sr. Creative Director. He'd stopped updating it after CS3 and I wanted it to do something slightly different, simply because I didn't like the aesthetic!! And update it to work in CS4. You can't imagine the look on my face when after hours of trial and error editing it actually worked. I have never written a line of code before or since. The motivation was there though. Anyway, it was a great script, probably better than Mogrify for me as like you say it's pretty daunting just looking at that page. Actually, now I think about it I made it work in Mogrify too and before I messed with Doc Brown's script but it ran very slowly when so wasn't practical. Ha, I lied. I had written a line of script before. One line!! But it worked. Anyway, never getting into that crazy stuff ever again. I can remember the headaches!
 
adrianlambert said:
What I wanted to do was to have various IPTC/XMP fields written out into a border to confirm various things like ownership, usage licence, caption, colour space etc so that the end users know what to do with the image. As far as LRs capabilities go I can't see how to dynamically write out metadata fields to a border upon export. I know the print module has some more welly but the output file type is limited to JPEG which in some situations is fine but on occasion it's simply not good enough from Adobe products, plus there's no option to automatically ingest the file back into the catalog, plus all the embedded metadata is stripped which in my mind given the state of the laws surrounding orphaned works around the world these days, that last point should frankly be considered criminal. If you have any pointers for me for getting this to work in the export dialog I'd be really very grateful.
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Its very easy to create custom border text in the LR develop module. All you need to do is edit the Photo Info text. This will allow you to add all the IPTC, EXIF and colorspace info to the border as you want. The only things you can't do is automatically ingest things back into the same catalog ( although setting a watched folder which automatically imports would solve the issue) or from the print module use any film type but JPEG. It doesn't destroy the IPTC data if you PRINT to a file either though will lose the EXIF.

12448-1438634239-aac3a97ebb5b35814d8872e0d2401ebb.jpg



For different file types there is still the export module,, which strips no EXIF or IPTC data from the images unless you tell it to(although you can't create a border that way). It does rather beg the question of who are you clients that they feel they need this info on a border & printed rather then just embedded in the IPTC data? The only clients I have who want anything on the border are lawyers who want the time & date in there. (and a reassurance no further editing has occurred)

All from LR6
 
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It's not so much about the client's desires, more mine. I have to say that for me Mogrify fits the bill much better than the print module method with its token system. Bit of a faff initially but when it's set you don't need to change it again plus auto ingest and all metadata retained. As for putting a blur behind a watermark we don't seem to be offering very much!!
 
adrianlambert said:
Yep!! Sure does. Guess it depends on your motivation.
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Usually it's the photography that motivates me :)


Lightroom blows for post production beyond global adjustment... which is why the same company produces Photoshop :)
 
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