Every day I’m sent emails asking questions and advice about various photography and website topics. I try my hardest to reply in a timely manner, with as much detail. The follow question came from Erik Kerstenbeck, a photographer and contributor to HDRPhotog.com.
Erik asks
…would you have any guidance regarding watermarking images posted to Blogs that use WordPress? These can be easily copied and usually are a decent size, if anyone wants to resize and print.
My Answer
We all have our opinions, so here is mine. If someone wants to steal your photograph they will do it no matter what. Now that Photoshop CS5 has content awareness, it makes for a simple watermark removal. With that said, always watermark your photographs that are on blogs, Flickr, Facebook or any other website. Protect your photo not only with the watermark but also with the EXIF data. Make sure that your copyright is in your file. Most DSLR cameras can do this in camera, but Lightroom allows you to import and insert the copyright at the same time. Take advantage and protect yourself. Also, never give out your RAW files because those are your negatives. Those are your proof that you photographed the image and own it.
Batch Watermarking in Lightroom and Photoshop
If you have never used the watermarking feature in Lightroom or haven’t played with Photoshop Actions please give it a try. It is very simple and worth the effort.
Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
Scott
Leave a Reply