5 Easy Steps to Add a Watermark to Protect Your Photos

With the way things can be shared across the internet, you can’t always control how things are spread. If you upload your work to Facebook, Instagram, or any number of other websites people peruse for interesting artwork, you can be sure that a lot of them will just save it to their computer or post it to their own social media platforms and will either accidentally or unintentionally not credit the original creator. It’s definitely a problem, but luckily we have watermarks and logos to help make sure our works are always properly attributed.

The question becomes then how do we make a watermark that is unobtrusive yet visible enough to allow others to know who originally created the work? Here’s our guide to watermarks.

How to Add a Copyright on Your Photo

According to the United States Copyright Office, copyright protects original works of authorship. Common things you can copyright are poems, books, artwork, paintings, and architecture. More than likely, your work is copyrightable and will be copyrighted. It doesn’t protect ideas. It must be something tangible. It must create somewhere other than in a mind for it to be eligible.

• Use the Appropriate Symbol

The appropriate symbol is the copyright circle ©. If you’re going to identify it in a sound recording only, use the letter P. You were supposed to use this, but since March 1, 1989, you no longer have to provide any notice. Works are copyrighted at the moment of creation. It’s still a good idea to post it anyway from a legal standpoint. It can deter anyone from plagiarizing any of your original works.

• Identify Year of Publication

“Publish” refers to the year you distributed copies for sale or transfer. If unpublished, you can say: Unpublished work Copyright 2019 Fotor

• State Your Name or the Copyright Holder’s

Make sure the holder of the copyright is also there. You can use either the full name or an abbreviation that is recognizable.

• Mark Your Work

Don’t forget to place the copyright on your work that provides reasonable notice of your claim. It shouldn’t be concealed or hidden. If you can’t attack it, you can add it as a tag.

• Include a Rights Statement

All Rights Reserved is the most common of them. Creative Commons License is also used a lot too. This means there are certain instances people can use it, as long as it isn’t for profit. No Rights Reserved means you don’t want to hold the rights.

How to Place Your Watermark

Next, let’s talk about placement. There are four types of watermarks, and you can place your watermark as you like.

• Subtle Watermark

With a watermark, you want to tread the line between excessive and protected. The standard place to put your watermark is in the bottom right or left corner. It’s visible yet doesn’t detract from the overall image. The biggest disadvantage is that it can be easily cropped.

• Greedy Watermark

Another popular choice is right in the center, either going diagonally or parallel to the picture, which makes it prominent and hard to remove by simply cropping it out.

• Watermark Frame

Another watermarking style is the use of frames. A simple white frame with your logo or text inset, placed around the edge of your picture, can be good protection and decorative ornamentation. It works particularly well on images even if you can add the contact information somewhere near the center of the composition.

• Integrated Watermark

If you want to add a creative and subtle watermark, a great option is to get a transparent logo after removing background, and add your logo into the photo. The idea is to integrate it somewhere within the object so that it appears to be a part of the scene.

Make a Watermark with Fotor Online Photo Editor