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Thread started 05 Nov 2010 (Friday) 21:01
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Help with Watermark

 
mjHession
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Nov 05, 2010 21:01 |  #1

In no way am I in the buisness of Photography, but some of my friends and family are starting to buy pictures from me, and I am generally too busy to ever get around to ordering them for them. I've just found out you can sell prints through smugmug, and am thinking of going that route. The problem is I know some of my friends and family members are cheap and will just download the images and take them to Wal-mart for printing, so I'm trying to come up with a watermark that balances intrusion with view-ability (particularly for sharing on PotN).

What are your thoughts on this. It is white text with a 90% fade. Is is visible enough to be effective? Are they still usable for sharing on the forums here? Those are my tow main concerns. Thanks.

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IMAGE NOT FOUND
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IMAGE NOT FOUND
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Edit: One more which shows just how invisible the watermark can be, but I think it still might be good enough?

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HappySnapper90
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Nov 06, 2010 16:37 |  #2

The only photo can semi-easily see your watermark is #2, because it's dark. I know people who will use watermarked photos for viewing on their computer (drag n drop or right-click) even using for facebook profile photo with a watermark. Your watermark is so light I can easily see people printing them 4x6 with your watermark because it is so light.

On another note, I would never make "profit" on photos/snapshots of family gatherings that other family wants a 4x6 or a digital version of. It would be different if it were a type of print of art for a wall of non-family image. Family helps out family as well as good friends help out good friends. I don't want to charge them profit because I might want their help sometime too. If your only source of selling prints is family and friends, that won't go very far or for very long.




  
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mjHession
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Nov 06, 2010 20:18 |  #3

I backed the fade down to 85%. Any better?

Original

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New
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I might have to do some individual changes when necessary, like this one. Updated with 85% fade, still is very near invisible.

IMAGE NOT FOUND
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mjHession
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Nov 06, 2010 20:23 |  #4

Maybe just having the maximum viewable image as their medium would be sufficient. Could you even get a decent 4x6 with a 600x400 pixel picture?


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HappySnapper90
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Nov 06, 2010 20:31 |  #5

mjHession wrote in post #11237721 (external link)
Maybe just having the maximum viewable image as their medium would be sufficient. Could you even get a decent 4x6 with a 600x400 pixel picture?

Different people think of what a "decent" print is differently. What might be poor to a photographer might be decent to an average photo viewer. 400x600 is getting "enlarged" 3 times to 1200x1800 for a 300 ppi print. And few would notice the difference between a 200 ppi (native) and 300 ppi print. And 400x600 would be a native 100 ppi print.




  
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mjHession
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Nov 06, 2010 21:21 |  #6

hmm... I'm thinking I'm going to go with a darker watermark off center that is less intrusive for viewing, and if someone prints at least the full watermark will be visible.

Something like this, again with adjustment for some individual photos:

IMAGE: http://mjhession.smugmug.com/Dogs/Russ/IMG5993/1080356518_D8mm2-M.jpg

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amfoto1
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Nov 07, 2010 11:54 |  #7

Hi,

First of all, leave off the (C)... it's unnecessary. All you really need is your name or URL. That's sufficient identification of your copyright ownership. I use my URL, so that people who "take" the image can find it again easily if and when they are ready to purchase, and so that I get "free advertising" when they post my "borrowed" images on Facebook, etc.

Use some software to create your own watermark out of a dark gray lettering with a fairly strong white outline, in a relatively bold font. Save it as a PNG file so you can have a transparent background.

Gray lettering with white outline works best on a wide variety of backgrounds. Otherwise you would need to create a light colored watermark for use on darker images, and a dark toned one for use on lighter images.

I put the watermark across the bottom third of my images, large enough so that not much is left if it's cropped off, but not too large to intrude upon the image.

Just keep to 400x600 uploads at the largest, so that files are too small for printing. If you standardize on a size, you only need to set up one watermark to use with it. If you have a lot of different sizes, you might need different watermarks (Note: some softwares, such as Lightroom 3, will automatically scale a watermark to fit different size files).


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James504
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Nov 07, 2010 12:04 |  #8
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if you have a pro account with smug mug then they can only "jack" your photos by screen printing them....if they do this and take it to wally orld for printing...trust me they will be highly unsatisfied with the quality...it will come out very pixelated and distorted.




  
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HappySnapper90
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Nov 08, 2010 19:27 |  #9

amfoto1 wrote in post #11240722 (external link)
Hi,

First of all, leave off the (C)... it's unnecessary. All you really need is your name or URL. That's sufficient identification of your copyright ownership.

I disagree. Including the copyright symbol helps reinforce to the viewer that the photo is copyrighted with all the legal wranglings that so with that! :D




  
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Help with Watermark
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