If you regularly upload photos to the Web, you need to make sure that no one uses them without your consent. An easy way to do this is by watermarking your photos. A photography watermark can be another image such as a logo, words, or the photographer’s name that is placed over the image. If a photo has a watermark, those who look at it will know that they cannot copy or use your photo without first notifying you or complying with your requirements. Many websites also place watermarks on their images and illustrations to warn visitors that reproducing or reusing these images is infringing.
Watermarks can be created in a few minutes with little to no difficulty, provided you have the right software. There are a number of software you could use to make watermarks, Photoshop and Corel creative suites for example. There are also web applications that allow you to create photo watermarks for free. These apps that allow you to make photo watermarks for free may or may not have batch processing capabilities. Many of these programs that allow you to make free watermarked photos have other features, such as simple photo editing. Many of these programs also allow direct uploading of free watermarked photos to social media and image sharing websites.
There are also websites that allow you to watermark photos and then search for places where your photos are used on the World Wide Web. This tracking service will help you monitor violations. In most cases, you have to pay a small amount to enjoy such capability. In most cases, these websites require you to pay between $30 and $50 per month to continue using the service.
Some photography enthusiasts and professionals are reluctant to add watermarks to their images because they believe it will negatively affect the appearance of the image and prevent people from seeing their work in the best possible quality. If you are one of those people who subscribe to this notion, consider using invisible watermarks. As the term implies, an invisible watermark is an overlay image that cannot be seen, but can be detected by algorithms.
Some photographers place an invisible watermark that is destroyed when the image is digitally manipulated. This type of evidence may be admissible in court to support misappropriation claims. The choice of watermarking your images is yours, but remember that doing so can save you a lot of heartache and heartache in the future.
