Water Marking Magic

A concern for many photographers, especially those who publish pictures on the Internet, is having their pictures downloaded and then reprinted or used without permission on other sites. Some even take it to the extreme of passing off a picture as if it were theirs. What can be done about this?

Well, first know your rights as a photographer. It doesn't matter if you're a professional or just one who takes a few pictures on the weekend. Knowing what you can and can't do as well as what others can and can't do is very important! Here is a good reference article that you should all read and even print. Legal Rights of Photographers (Adobe Reader PDF Format) published by Andrew Kantor.

With your own photos, there are quick ways to deter people from even thinking about using your photos. A very simple way, but not practical for those who really want to display their pictures online for sale or in a portfolio, is to reduce the image size and/or resolution. This degrades the quality of the image but is a simple and effective method.

Another way, my personal preference besides adding digital marking (another story), is by adding watermarks. In simple terms, a water mark is another image overlaid across your original image but very lightly or faded. This can be done in just about any photo editing program. As you can see in these cloud pictures, I inserted a watermark that are just the words - 'SAMPLE'. Note also in the lower right corner I also inserted the copyright image, the date, and my name. Check out your photo editing tools and get familiar with this process. In a future article, I'll be publishing how to do this in Adobe PhotoShop.