Saturday School: Watermarking

Hi Everyone! It's Jenn (jk703) here to bring you this edition of Saturday School!  Woot!  How is your weekend going! I hope well! Since I've started digital scrapbooking, I've noticed that I'm really getting into my cameras, photo actions and the actual editing of my pictures! I like to take different shots, fun angles, and try out the different settings on my camera!

Since we have so many photographs we are posting to show-off online, like the popular P365 challenge or a even a single picture challenge in the digital scrapping forums, there may be times that you want to protect your photographic work!  What I mean about protections is trying to disable people who might want to use them without your permission. Today, many photo sites that you are uploading your photos too also provide options for protecting your work. They offer an option to disable the "Right Click Feature" is really a helpful tool! One that is available to us, and easy to do ourselves is Watermarking!

Watermarking has it's good and bad points, but it is your decision. Here is a quick list of pros and cons.

No Watermark:

• Watermarks sometimes are considered annoying and distracting to the image.
• If someone wants to “steal” the image, they can likely remove the watermark anyway.
• The image may not hold specific value and you just want to share it.

Add Watermarks:

• A watermark is a notification that the image is protected under a copyright.
• Watermarking is part of showing your brand.
• If someone does take the image and forward it to someone else, they will see it and may go to your site based on your watermark.
• There is also a notion that adding a watermark makes you appear professional. (That is more of an opinion). 

How to Add a Text Watermark in Photoshop:
Open the photo you wish to protect. 

Decide on what you want to type on your image. 

Select the Type tool and enter the copyright symbol or other piece of text you decided on for your watermark. See below for HOW!  For my example, I used the font named Trubble. 

Create a New Layer above your text.

With the New Layer Selected, use the Square Marquee Tool and make an outline of your watermark-to-be.  Click Select > Inverse.

Click the Add a Layer Mask Button.

Then you will click and select the Text Layer and your Mask Layer. Both should be highlighted. Merge these two layers. 

 Change the Opacity as you like. 

Optional 

Create a New Layer UNDER your Watermark Layer. 

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make another rectangle around your watermark.

Select the rectangle by clicking on the icon in the Layers Palette.

Use the Fill Tool and fill the shape with the color of your choosing.  

Lower the opacity to what you like.  

Tips:  

• The Windows keyboard shortcut for the copyright (©) symbol is Alt+0169 (use the numeric keypad to type the numbers). The Mac shortcut is Option-G.
• Remember to click on the Color Swatch and set the color to 50% gray or another color of your choosing. 
• Take the time to resize and place the text where you desire. 
• Save the watermark as it's own file or png to use it over and over again!  

Don’t feel like putting in the extra time to place your watermark on many different images? There are so many free sites and software that will allow you to “cheat", saving you a lot of time and energy. This is also a nice alternative for those who do not have Photoshop on their computer. 

Hope this was helpful to you!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Jenn (jk703)