Protecting Your Photography: Watermarks and Intellectual Property
Whether you are an amateur, or an expert photographer, you need to know about protecting your photography. Watermarks and intellectual property or copyright statements are methods frequently used by professions, but family pictures can be copyrighted, too. This is done so that cyber-criminals or even casual lookers will not use your photographs for their own purposes. Check out the following guides on how to make certain your photographs are protected, or private, so that you don’t have regrets or issues in the future.
Why You Need to Add Copyright Information to Photos
Photographs taken with your digital camera, or even any images you will take using you’re smartphone, should be protected. Before you proceed to add watermarks or copyrights to your photographs, it is best to understand the purpose and benefits of adding this information. In the following guides, we cover general information about your rights, how watermarks can be used to signify a copyright on your work, and even a offer a program that you can use to help.
- Understanding Copyright Free and Stock Photography
- General Parameters of a Photographer’s Right
- Benefits and Cautions of Different Methods Used to Protect Photos
- Copyright 101 for Photographers
- What is the Purpose of a Watermark? The Benefits of Watermarking Photos
- Protecting Your Intellectual Property
- What is Metadata and How Can I Edit My Photo Metadata?
How to Add Protection
The linked articles below will help you to protect your photography copyrights in several ways. By adding copyright information, you’ll be able to verify authenticity, or the identity the owners, of a photograph. You will also learn about geotagging your photographs, so that you can easily identify where a picture was taken - that is, if you don’t mind others possibly knowing. Note that the last article is about adding a time and date stamps to a photo. Adding the time and date isn’t truly a way to protect your photograph. However, since a time and date stamp are unremovable, you will have the protection of knowing that no one will try to claim they recently captured a previously taken photo that is actually yours.
- How to Copyright a Photograph
- How to Protect Your Photography Copyrights
- Various Ways on How to Protect a Photograph
- Geotagging: Capture the Site of Your Pictures Instantly
- How to Add Free Time-Date Stamps to Photos
Software to Use for Adding Watermarks
Photographers usually take advantage of photography software or graphics editor software. This is because they can use a graphics editor to edit pictures on a computer, and save them in other image formats. Most graphics editor software has the option to add watermarks, as well. You can learn more about adding watermarks using the following photo editors:
- How to Watermark a Photo in 5 Easy Steps with Corel Paint Shop Pro
- How to Add a Watermark to Your Images Using Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
- How to Add a Watermark to Your Images Using Adobe Photoshop CS4
- Adding a Watermark to Photos Using Photoshop CS4
- Creating A Watermark Using Adobe Photoshop Elements
- How to Digitally Sign Your Name on a Photograph Using Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
Watermarking Photos in a Batch
Are you planning to use a single watermark for many pictures? There’s no need to watermark each photograph, because that is time-consuming! You can watermark landscape, portrait and cropped photos all at once, and anywhere over a photo. If you are using a custom visual watermark, you may also use it as a batch watermark to protect photographs located across several folders on your computer. Learn how to use batch processing to place watermarks on several pictures using these guides:
- Use Batch Processing to Watermark Entire Folders of Digital Photos in Paint Shop Pro
- How to Batch Watermark Digital Photos in Photoshop Elements 7
- Batch Processing Images with Adobe Photoshop Elements
Online Service and Downloadable Software
If you are unsure about using a program on your own, but still wish to protect your work, there are several online photo services which offer watermarking services for free, or with subscription. Check out the articles below on how to use online photography services to add copyright information to your photos. You should also check the downloadable software reviews for information related to editing and watermarking a photographic images on your computer. From there, you can narrow down which editing programs you would like to try or buy.
- Review of Batch Picture Protector: Create and Add Batch Watermarks to Digital Photos and Images
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Review
- Adobe Lightroom: Print Module & Web Module
- Faststone Image Viewer: When Photoshop is Too Much
- Review of FotoSketcher Software
- Capture One Software Review
- ACDSee Pro 3 Review - Digital Photo Management and Editing Software
- PhotoReflect.com Review
- Review of Instaproofs - Online Photo Storefront
- Keep Your Photos Private and Adding Watermarks for Your Photos in Photrade.com
References
- Image credit: Magnifying glass with copyright symbol by Plenumchamber via Wikimedia Commons.