In the previous article “Is watermarking photos a good idea?” I had a discussion with a panel of photographers about whether it is a good idea to add watermarks to your photos and what some other options are for protecting your images online.
If you’ve decided that you do indeed want to add one but aren’t sure how to watermark your photos, this tutorial will give you some tips including:
- the subtle way to watermark images
- how to add a text watermark in Photoshop
- how to add a logo watermark in Photoshop
- how to alter your logo or text to be transparent (so the image shows through)
- how to add a watermark in Lightroom
- using your new transparent logo in Lightroom
Is this the best way to watermark your photos? That depends on you and the purpose.
How to watermark your photos in Lightroom and Photoshop
Examples of finished watermarks
Here’s a few examples from the images I ran through the export process in Lightroom. Notice the logo on the bottom corners how subtle it is and doesn’t detract from the actual image itself.
Would this protect me from image theft? Likely not. But, honestly I’m not that worried about it. The people that are determined to steal your images will get them anyway. They can crop out a watermark or use content aware fill to get rid of them anyway. Even digital watermarks can be stripped from the metadata of your files by someone technically savvy. So if they really want them, they’ll get them anyway. I prefer to focus on education and deal with people that do want to purchase things on the up and up.
How Do I Watermark Photos If I Don’t Have a Logo?
You can use this same technique on the text we make in the very first example. Just do the same process so all you’re left with is ©YourName as the drop shadow and outline.
Crop it down to just the text. Hide all other layers and save as a PNG.
Then your name will become an image just like the logo and you can drop it on anywhere using Photoshop or Lightroom.
So now you are on your way to beautiful stylish watermarks like this!
Cheers,
