Signing My Pictures

I see many of you place a signature on your photos. I'm assuming this is to prevent others from taking them and using them for their own purposes without paying for them, or giving proper credit? Is this something we all should be doing? Even on social media uploads? If I wanted to sign mine, is this something that can be done in Adobe Lightroom?

goalerjones wrote in post #18683137
I see many of you place a signature on your photos. I'm assuming this is to prevent others from taking them and using them for their own purposes without paying for them, or giving proper credit? Is this something we all should be doing? Even on social media uploads? If I wanted to sign mine, is this something that can be done in Adobe Lightroom?

You can add a watermark in Lightroom, but it won't stop people from nicking your pictures.

The two reasons for watermarking is to guide (potential) customers to your business and to satisfy your ego. Other then that I can not see any reason to watermark pictures.
Sidenote: Why isn't google offering a service to identify your pictures on the net? You could upload the pictures that you want to monitor (or then the corresponding image hash) and google alerts you and provides an automated DMCA service if they find a close match? There must be institutions and individuals out there that are interested in paying for protecting their IP?

In the Export dialogue box, there's a pull down menu for watermark, and you can create one via that. Choose whatever font you like on your PC. Modern trendy but minimalist seems t be a trend at the moment. Have fun creating one. In replying to Drmaxx about google (and I'm sure it happens a lot with landmarks, for example, image search Eifel Tower) and you'll get lots of almost identical shots, especially if the same camera was used on auto modes in identical light. Suppose two friends, or even just photographers stood side by side shooting the Tower. Wouldn't they look identical?

john crossley wrote in post #18683143
You can add a watermark in Lightroom, but it won't stop people from nicking your pictures.

But it does give you some protection that you wouldn't have otherwise. Some watermarks do not give you the same protection as a proper ©, but yours might & removing it can be worth a lot of $s.
Look at Carolyn E Wright's blog.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #18684075
But it does give you some protection that you wouldn't have otherwise. Some watermarks do not give you the same protection as a proper ©, but yours might & removing it can be worth a lot of $s.
Look at Carolyn E Wright's blog.

In the UK copyright is automatically assigned to the photographer. You don't have to watermark your images and you certainly don't have to register the images.