Protecting your valuable photos from online theft is essential. As you progress and your photos become better, the number of people who steal your photos will increase. They will begin using your photos for their blog background, their myspace layouts etc. More serious violations would include commercial uses of your photos such as selling unauthorised prints, using your photos as mug photos/t-shirt photos or using your photos as a CD/DVD cover. This article is not about how to improve your photos, rather the opposite, making them “ugly”. Adding a watermark in Photoshop is really simple, let’s see how.

Preparation

Before I show you how to add a watermark, I need to describe my workflow. I have three different versions of the same photo. The first version is the original photo (unedited) which is safely stored on an external hard drive. The second version is the original edited photo at full size safely stored as well. The third version features the photos which are to be posted online. In this set, the photos’ resolution is much smaller and they usually include a watermark. I came up with this workflow from my mistakes; Many times I ended up having only one version of a photo, usually the online version, which was a small one with a watermark. It was then impossible for me to print or sell that particular photo. I’d suggest you follow the same workflow when adding watermarks to your photos. Always have the original photo without a watermark. Anyhow, let’s head over to Photoshop! If you don’t have Photoshop, you can download a free trial for 30 days.

Step 1

Open your photo with Photoshop. Next, select the Horizontal Type Tool (shortcut: T) from the tools window on the far left of the screen. If you don’t have that window, go to Window » Tools.

Step 2

In the top section of your screen some settings should’ve appeared. From there, you can change the font, the font style, the font size, the font type, the font alignment and the font colour. Adjust these properties according to your likings.

Step 3

Left click with your mouse to add the text for the watermark. When you’re done typing, press Alt+Enter. Or you could just move your mouse and click on the Move Tool. With the Move Tool selected (Shortcut: V), move the text where you want to position it. TIP: I prefer to add a text box (see photo) instead of just left-clicking. The text box gives me far more options (such as rotation) than the simple text addition. To add a text box, select the Horizontal Type Tool and with your mouse click and drag to create a box.

Fine Tuning

You are basically done. But, I prefer to lower the opacity of the watermark a bit. In this way, the watermark is not so visible and eye catching, thus not ruining the photo. In addition to that, I also move the watermark on the edge of the photo (see my gallery) so that it won’t interfere with the composition of the photo. To lower the opacity, you first need to have the Layers window open. If you don’t, go to Window » Layers. It should appear on the right of your screen. From there, select the watermark layer (thumbnail is white with a “T”) by clicking on it and then change the opacity settings located on the top of the Layers window (see photo below).

Now the opacity value usually varies. If your watermark is white and the photo is low key (low contrast, like in the example photos) then it’s best to use a small value such as 20% – 30%. But if your photo has high contrast with many details you can go up to 60% – 70% or more. You can also change the position of the watermark if there is a better location on the photo for it.

Conclusion

To conclude this small article, I want to leave you with some inspiration. Here are some examples of how watermarks should be used. The watermarks are not too visible, but not invisible either.

Photo by Ibrahim Al Sayed

Photo by Lilli Antoniu

Photo by Jaime Ibarra

Photo by Sabrina Cichy