What is it with text on photos?

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Just wondering what the great need for it is, especially when it's insignificant in the corner of a photo where it can be easily cloned or cropped out. I see it so much lately when people post photos and quite a lot of the time, in threads that say, 'first photos with DSLR' or, 'my first camera' yet they have some sort of trade/studio/persons name across the images. I just don't get it? Am I missing something? :shrug:
 
I do it so no-one else gets the blame for my efforts. :D
 
there are many programs that are quiet cheap that you can buy to mark photos
i use UMark 3
and you can design your own logos to

but people with company logos may have stole them or put the company they work for on it
 
You'll be surprised how many images can be taken and used elsewhere. I've had car photos taken and sold on a cd on eBay, I've had sports events photos taken for Facebook. It just makes sense to protect somehow. I have a couple of watermarks setup in lightroom
 
By the way, I have no interest in watermarking/putting text onto my own photos whatsoever. That's not the reason I was asking.

Just seems pointless when it's teeny in the corner of an image for no apparent reason.
 
I have put them on my photos, mainly to show people straight off that it is my shot.
Yes they can be cloned or croped out fairly easily but when using the photo's on forums and similar places its just a quick reference to who took it.
 
I tend to put my name on anything I put up, as people can be unscrupulous - especially in such a wide audience as Facebook.
 
I can understand it with professional photographers protecting their images, but for us amateurs I see it as an honour if somebody else wants to steal it.
 
Yes of course. I'm not talking about the pros who need to properly watermark. Fully understand that. More about "johnnyjustboughtmyfirstDSLRphotography" in the corner.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
Yes of course. I'm not talking about the pros who need to properly watermark. Fully understand that. More about "johnnyjustboughtmyfirstDSLRphotography" in the corner.
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It makes them feel better about themselves and what they do, chill out and enjoy your photography. We were all young once.
 
I alway insert a little signature text (called "IDJ media" as it puts my photography, cartoon drawing and weather forecast service all neatly under one umbrella) in the corner of my photos (as well as my cartoon drawings), along with a thin black & white border, to give it that little trademark thing. It's partly taking take some pride in my work (even though I'm not at all a pro) and partly because I am starting to gain a little bit of recognition locally.
As others had said in here, that way it's so people may easily know it was me who took that photo or cartoon. True the signature and the border can easily be cropped out - assuming someone would want my stuff that badly enough to bother doing that.

But hey, this is the internet . . . you never know.
 
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Ian D J said:
I alway insert a little signature text (called "IDJ media" as it puts my photography, cartoon drawing and weather forecast service all neatly under one umbrella) in the corner of my photos (as well as my cartoon drawings), along with a thin black & white border.
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Hi Ian

How do you do this ???
 
andyred said:
Hi Ian

How do you do this ???
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Hi Andy. It's very simple, I do this on my Paint Shop Pro 8 program. Just stick the photo in there and using the word insert function click on the area you want the text to go, type it in (usually a size 12 or 14 and keep the font fairly basic) and save the photo as a JPEG. That's it. You can even do this on MS Paint!

Or were you referring to all my talents and how I manage to keep them all going? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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Ian D J said:
Hi Andy. It's very simple, I do this on my Paint Shop Pro 8 program. Just stick the photo in there and using the word insert function click on the area you want the text to go, type it in (usually a size 12 or 14 and keep the font fairly basic) and save the photo as a JPEG. That's it. You can even do this on MS Paint!

Or were you referring to all my talents and how I manage to keep them all going? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Hahaha

Thanks will give it a try

Cheers Ian
 
Nevermind
 
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OK I'll bite
Got any examples then Gaz?

Mine link to my website. Last 4 years I was selling via it at sports events but I'm not doing that this year. The first year I didn't watermark, then found my low res images all over facebook, people just took them despite my site clearly explaining they were for sale to help fund the running of the team.

Sales improved greatly when they were watermarked.

I've previously discovered over 200 of my photos for sale on a cd on ebay. The seller would take any photo relating to a vehicle model he could find on the web, put them on a cd then sell on ebay. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong, nor did he like me asking for my proceeds from the sale. As a powerseller (mostly from these cd's), it took a while for me to resolve the issue through ebay.

Now, I've no issue with what you do with your photo's or your time. I've given photos away when I deemed it appropriate, but I don't see why I should spend thousands on my hobby for someone else to make money from it. If they have some value then I'd like some return on it.
 
I didn't start this for people to 'bite', I was just wondering why it happens so much as I personally, didn't see it as something I wanted to do as a hobbyist. Especially when I browse site like 500px so much which have absolutely stunning photos on, photos which I can only dream of taking and those folk don't seem to bother.
 
I started doing it as soon as I saw my images being used all over the place with no credit. This way at least I get some credit for my efforts.
 
I just don't get TOAP (text on a photo) either, its not a watermark and as mentioned earlier can usually be cloned out.
Its usually done with a flouncey font and creates one hell of a distraction for the eye.
I have never done this. I just built a website lol
But i see it as a chest expanding, chin enlarging smugness exercise.
Sorry to all the TOAPers
 
Photos I post on here generally have the exif in a simple frame around them. So people who are interested know the settings straight off. There is some copyright [PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BYPASS THE SWEAR FILTER] in there as well, but if I post them on the net and they get nicked, well that is a risk one takes.

Big garish copyright across photos looks STAFF EDIT: Not very good. I used to do that, but learnt the error of my ways......:)
 
My regular shots get a corner watermark, it's simple unobtrusive and should the photo get a little lost out on the web it has a little bit of an identity. For stuff that's highly likely to be blatantly ripped, a massive watermark right through the middle is the only way! (For my part that's restricted to rally photos)
 
As there have been too many instances of our well respected media organisations stealing images for use in their wretched publications, I normally put a transparent copyright image on the majority of my urbex photos. That's the only text I ever bother with, anything else is unnecessary in my eyes.
 
I sometime just put my initials in a corner of photos on Facebook etc. Its more to remind people that they are my photos - after I had an entire FB album of an event copied to the organisers website without asking permission.
 
If your putting text on photos to stop people sealing them, then do it properly :D :D :D

R8-0771.jpg
 
whiteflyer said:
If your putting text on photos to stop people sealing them, then do it properly :D :D :D
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Well, seeing as you have image editing enabled on here, I thought I would show you that even that wont stop some underhanded thief.

Obviously I have considerable talent when it comes to super advanced photo manipulation (even using gimp 2.0). But I am sure someone with less talent and ability than myself could do an (almost) as good a job.

Well, it only took me a couple of minutes, and you can quite clearly see that I have expertly removed your protection... in fact, I could quite easily sell this image to a newspaper or magazine and I doubt the picture desk editor would even notice.

expertly_edited.jpg


You can thank me later for doing you this public service out of the kindness of my heart.













:D:D:D
 
People stealing images is never going to stop, realistically, but with some identification mark, at least you're making the token statement that 'oi, it's mine, hands off' and letting the potential (benignly ignorant?) user know.
Pro or not, I can't see that's it right to use someone elses work and pass it off as your own, or use it willy-nilly and make money or other gain from it.
Just a thought:
Lots of amateur-only competitions for holidays, years supply of cat food etc out there. So even if you or your image aren't Pro, it's still possibly good enough to win two weeks in the Bahamas for some-one else! :)
 
As Mark said, if you're going to watermark your pictures, do it properly! A small, flowery, brightly coloured thing written in Comic Sans in the bottom corner that is deliberately where there is no important detail with a horriblly unrealistic business name (like 'Sunflower Photography Images', or 'Avalanche Pix') is only going to stop people redistributing them because, A) it looks really bloody silly & who in their right mind would want to take credit for that, or b) it automatically makes everyone who sees your work understand exactly how un-professional you are. That being said, if somebody does want to steal a picture with something like that on it, I'm sure 5 minutes in PS would get the job done.

Watermarking for professionals/people who are likely to have their work stolen is obviously necessary, but not for, as gazmorton2000 says, 'JohnnyjustboughtmyfirstDSLR, who might have some acceptable pictures of his kids.
 
I have a small watermark with my web address in the bottom of my facebook photos - largely so that when the person is tagged, their friends see my website on the photos, it's worked as I have had some enquiries and bookings by doing so
 
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