Creating A Watermark In Adobe Photoshop Elements - Part 2

Article by xanadu324 (2,329 pts ) , published Sep 10, 2009

This is the continuation of the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 tutorial on how to create a watermark.

Adding The 3-D Effect To Your Watermark

From the Effects panel select the Bevel option. Double click on Simple Inner (highlighted in red below) and the effect will be added to your text. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Simple Inner Bevel onto your canvas. Now, click the “FX” within your layers palette to bring up the options menu. Set the size of the Bevel to 0 pixels (the default is usually 5 pixels) and then click OK. To make the watermark transparent, change the mode of your layer from “Normal” to “Hard Light” by clicking on the drop-down menu in your layers palette (shown in the photo below.) Once the watermark is finished to your liking, go to the File menu and choose save giving the watermark a title such as “Joe’s watermark” or just simply “watermark.”

Creating A Watermark Help

Simple Inner BevelHard Light

Adding Your Watermark To A Photo

Once you’ve created your watermark you can add it to your photo. Go to your File menu and choose “Open.” Choose a photo that you’d like to add the watermark to and open that file. Go back to your watermark document and click on the Move tool (the icon that looks like an arrow with a compass next to it). Drag your watermark to your photo in the Bin at the bottom of your screen. This will bring up your photo and allow you to drag and re-size your watermark. Once you’re happy with the placing, click the green checkmark.

Saving For The Web

To save your file, go to the File menu and click on “Save for web.” Give the photo a specified height and width (500 pixels or so is fine for the web) make sure the photo is set to JPEG high quality from the drop down menu shown in the photo below, and click OK. Give your file a name such as “flowers with watermark” or anything else describing the photo, and click Save.

Creating A Watermark Help

JPEG High Quality

Why Use A Watermark?

People use watermarks for many reasons. The most common reason is to stop thieves on the web from using your photograph and either marketing it as their own, or using it for monetary gain. With a watermark, people can still use your photo, but it will have a mark stating that it’s yours, rather than allowing them to claim it as their own work.

Watermarks can also be used to mark your photo as a “sample” on a webpage so that people know that is not the actual size, color, or photograph that they will be ordering. This is common when people have a lot of products they offer. It’s much easier to mark one photo as a sample than to watermark each photo of each product individually.

For more information on watermarks, what information you should include in your watermark and where within your image you should place your watermark, please read Visible Watermarks and Your Photos – The Benefits of Watermarking Your Images and What You Should Include

12 Comments

Showing page 1 of 2 (12 Comments)
Nov 19, 2009 11:32 PM
Heather
Watermark
If you want the background out, then just use the background eraser tool and then erase the background. Then you can save it. This tuturial was simple for me.
Nov 1, 2009 1:54 PM
RossS
Watermarks
Thank-you for taking the time to teach me how to create a watermark and insert it into a picture. Your instructions are clear, concise, and easy to follow.
Two things additonal I did at the end of creating my watermark was to remove the background color and to set the opacity to 41%.
It's perfect! Exactly what I wanted. Thanks again.
Oct 1, 2009 6:47 AM
Re: Effects Panel
The effects panel is a tab located right under where it says "create, edit, share" if you look at the photo above titled "Creating a Watermark Help" The first picture will show the effects panel on the far right-hand side. Hope that helps!
Oct 1, 2009 5:06 AM
Mike Dearden
Effects Panel?
In Watermarks part 2 you mention the "effects panel" in Elements 6. I can't find it anywhere in my el6???
Where is it located please as I am trying to watermark my pics before posting on the net.
Thank you
Sep 29, 2009 12:59 AM
PHP
Watermarks
Wow, it worked perfectly for me on the first time, Thanks for the help, you just saved me alot of time.
Sep 22, 2009 2:02 PM
Glenn
Adding watermarks
I can't add watermarks using PSE7. I've tried for a couple of hrs. to do what should take a couple of minutes, and it isn't happening.
Sep 10, 2009 2:49 PM
Article
I'm not sure what is going on. I've run through the article myself step-by-step and have a perfect and use-able watermark.
Sep 8, 2009 5:49 PM
rich
Big Holes
There are some serious holes in these instructions. I agree, Ive spent 4 hours trying to do this and I have been using PSE6 for over a year. Very pooor article.
Sep 3, 2009 8:08 AM
J
Watermarks
I have 300 photos from a friends wedding that I need to watermark and I cant even work out how to do one HELP
Aug 30, 2009 4:10 PM
DJ
Watermarks
Well obviously several of us are having problems with these directions. I've spent hours on this and feel like such a dunce!
Showing page 1 of 2 (12 Comments)