Comments on: POLL: Do you Watermark you Images Before Sharing them Online?

By: Les

Les — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:00:46 +0000

With there being a lot of software around these days which make it possible to remove watermarks from images, GIMP being my favorite one, why would anyone still want to put watermarks on their images?

By: Website

Website — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:13:24 +0000

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By: JayInTN

JayInTN — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:47:50 +0000

As a consumer of photography, I’d like to ask: when a studio or pro photographer receives payment for their work, is it proper to leave the watermark on the PAID items?

I am having a debate with a company that takes pictures at our school (kids, sports, etc.)
We recently sat for pics and we purchased a few family photos.
We were putting them in frames when I noticed that we had a watermark on of these photos.
I called the company and they said: a) We have been doing this for 35 years b) we cannot take it out of the photo
I’m an amateur picture taker and even I know that the latter is not true.

I would like to ask the photography community here? How do you weigh in on this?

Thank you.

By: mitzs

mitzs — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:53:13 +0000

I use flickr, while I have it set for copyright by me I do not watermark my images. I can’t stand to look at someone images and a big fat watermark is in the middle of it. I don’t care how good the image might have been you just ruined it with ugle water mark. I do have some friends that water mark, but they have found a tasteful way to do it that does not affect the beauty of their image. Now that I can appreciate.

By: Shayne

Shayne — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:00:58 +0000

I do watermark most of my images, say about 80%, most of the time I go upon the character they had at the shoot. I just try and watermark the ones that I think would be possible that they would steal them.

By: Eric Leslie

Eric Leslie — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:19:45 +0000

Watermarking might stop someone from stealing my work, but the people who steal will NEVER pay for a licence to use the shot legally. I do know that watermarks are ugly. Some more than others, but they’re all ugly. So if my work is stolen by someone that never would have paid anything in the first place, I’m not really loosing anything. If anything, my work is getting more exposure because it’s more easily shared.

By: k bladen

k bladen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:48:39 +0000

i tend to use just text over laid on photo i use elements 7 hand they dont have a watermark function ?
any ideas

By: arnel

arnel — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:35:25 +0000

i guess it’s ok to put watermarks if it’s your own pictures, but if it’s not, it’s surely is unethical…

By: jon_bar

jon_bar — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:08:23 +0000

most people have been saying “no, its too easy to crop it out anyways”. i only water mark to get my name out, so if my picture spreads people know who i am. i also try to make my mark as invisible as possible so as to not ruin the image. im also hoping to get digimarc so i can track all my photos

By: Lala

Lala — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:50:40 +0000

I dont really put my pictures up…
but when I do, I nearly always atermark them.