The watermarking debate… continued.

Posted by: curiousillusion on: January 28, 2010

In: curiousillusion
Comment!

Thanks for everyone’s feedback on yesterday’s post, I really enjoyed reading the differing opinions. And some people brought up and added benefit of watermarking that I hadn’t even thought about – it’s free advertising.

It’s a good point. I’m not a business, and I don’t foresee myself turning this little hobby into much more than what it is now – I’m mainly just taking pictures for fun and while it’d be nice if someone wanted to buy one of my pics, I’m not in it to make a living from it. But… it WOULD be nice if someone wanted to buy my pics and it helps if I have my name attached to my pic so they can find me, right?

So, for those of you wondering my decision… I still haven’t made one. Lol. Well I suppose I’ve made a bit of a decision: for the time being, I’m going to keep watermarking but I’m going to make the font smaller and try to make it blend in a bit more with the picture. While a more *effective* watermark would be HUGE and therefore hard to get rid of.. my mindset is, if they’re gonna ditch my watermark, then whatever… at least I tried a little. And that’s all I can really do.

Scratch that… I can’t make it blend in AND advertise myself. I still don’t know what to do. Grrrrr.

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jimgoldstein

My recommendation is to error on the side of watermarking. Wouldn't you want someone being able track you down if they find your photo in a random location away from your web site(s)? That alone makes it worthwhile. How much you make it stick out is an aesthetic decision. That's where you should burn your energy in being indecisive :)

Whether you embed metadata in your image or post it on your web site or another web site only 1 thing remains constant...

Your image.

Your image will never change. It may be cropped, copied to a new file or it may be hosted somewhere else, but the image will be the same. That is why watermarks have a lasting impact because it becomes part of the image.

In over 10 years I've been messing with watermarks new technologies have come and gone, but watermarks have remained consistent in their effectiveness.

Quave

So... what's the outcome... I think you should go for the best of both worlds. Hide a little watermark, and still have a prominent one in a corner, more as a signature, than a watermark. Then at least, it'll eliminate some of the bad people that can't be bothered cropping.

Todd

Ok, so I missed this whole "debate" ... but looking at your stream, it appears you sometime in the past couple of days you went to a much more subtle watermark ... I like it. Proves the picture is yours, but is not too "in your face".

I wouldn't stress too much about the "advertising yourself" angle either ... you keep shooting as good as you do, and more and more people will come to know who you are.

Until then, this is supposed to be FuN right? :-)

Classroom Confessions

:( I'm sorry. I know there are ways to do it in photoshop but I really don't know how. I just use the preset one in lightroom. I think maybe you are overthinking the watermark. The one you used in your other pictures wasn't distracting to me at all. In fact, it could have been bigger and it would have been fine. Maybe find a corner of the picture to put it in instead of the center. I've only seen one or two watermarks in my life that have bothered me and detracted from the photo. I think watermarks are just expected nowadays with the ease of distribution on the internet. Your photography is wonderful, and having a watermark on it doesn't change that. Good luck!

Heather Rose

I guess when it comes down to someone taking my stuff, I'd plaster my name all over the place. Just try it out, and see how you feel about it.

Carissa Jade

hehehe, you'll figure it out eventually!!! Your indecision just really made me laugh. I was just in the midst of writing about it...

Decoybetty

yeah, that is a really tough decision. I've heard of people stilling blog content too and I've considering putting a copyright on my blog or something...but I am not really sure how that works - or why anyone would bother stealing my content....just do whatever feels good for you!

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curiousillusion

The watermarking debate… continued.

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curiousillusion

The watermarking debate… continued.

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[buy]

[on twitter]

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[good blogs]

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