# Watermarks



## Nikkor

I know to make the basic watermarks, but my two friends from SimplyBloom Photography (incredible women and photographers) have this awesome logo that I adore and want to use the idea to create my own. Any ideas how to execute this?


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## HikinMike

I would suggest hire a graphic designer. That's what they do.


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## GFreg

Do you have photoshop?  There is a lot you can do with photoshop to create designs.  Are you planning on creating it yourself?  If you feel confident enough to create your own then just start sketching ideas.  Play around with a lot of different designs.  I used to always switch my ideas.  I would get through with one design only to decide that I hated it.  For a watermark, don't do anything too bold.  You are a wedding photographer so I would keep your design simple and elegant.  

If you don't feel confident in creating it yourself then find a graphic designer that will be willing to sit down with you and listen to your ideas.  You want this to be unique and representative of your business which is your art.  You might want to head over to a local college and see if you can find the digital media department.  I know when I was taking classes I was hunting people down just to get a chance to practice.  If they charge you at all then it will be significantly less than what a professional graphic designer will charge.

Good luck!


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## Nikkor

Awesome idea GFreg! I have a lot of friends that are into photography and wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg. I really wish I could do it myself confidently, because that's what I want in my business, I want to be as self-sufficient as possible, but I can always have them show me. 

I do have Photoshop, I was wondering if something like that could be created in it. I have CS3. 

Thanks for the advice! I've started thinking up ideas because, like you said, I want it to accurately reflect my business, elegant and simple.


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## HikinMike

If you decide to do your own logo AND own Illustrator, I suggest using that rather than Photoshop. Vectors can be up-sized without any resolution issues. 

Good luck! :mrgreen:


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## KmH

Heads up!

It's a violation of TPF's Rules and Regs to post images you don't own the copyright to.



> * You agree to only post images and/or other material to which you have exclusive copyright, or permission from the copyright holder that you are able to present to TPF Staff. Under no circumstances will any instance of copyright infringement be tolerated.


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## bennielou

Kevin Kabota has an action for that.  It's not cheap though.


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## pbelarge

KmH said:


> Heads up!
> 
> It's a violation of TPF's Rules and Regs to post images you don't own the copyright to.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> * You agree to only post images and/or other material to which you have exclusive copyright, or permission from the copyright holder that you are able to present to TPF Staff. Under no circumstances will any instance of copyright infringement be tolerated.
Click to expand...

 


.....or permission from the copyright holder


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## Nikkor

I had permission to post it.


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## bennielou

Nikkor, was that not your shot?


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## Nikkor

No, bennielou, not my shot. It belongs to friends of mine. But I asked before posting anything. I always have permission from them as long as their logo is visible and/or I make sure to put their name somewhere.


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## kkamin

Will all due respect, your watermarks are intensely distracting.  I can't really enjoy the images.  

Image registration with the copyright office gives added protection against copyright infringement if you are worried about that.



ashedesign said:


> I have just created a simple Photoshop action that will take your logo or simple text and create a watermark stamp. You can easily adjust the color, opacity, size and move wherever you wish on your photo.  Here's an example of some of my photos using the watermark action.
> 
> The first is using my logo as a watermark.  The second is using simple text as a water mark.
> 
> Here's a link if you're interested.


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## KmH

kkamin said:


> Image registration with the copyright office gives added protection against copyright infringement if you are worried about that.


What are the added protections against copyright infringement that come with registration with the copyright office?


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## kkamin

KmH said:


> kkamin said:
> 
> 
> 
> Image registration with the copyright office gives added protection against copyright infringement if you are worried about that.
> 
> 
> 
> What are the added protections against copyright infringement that come with registration with the copyright office?
Click to expand...


This is pasted from ASMP's website.  They are the American Society of Media Photographers and one of their missions is to keep photographer's work legally protected.  They are fighting day to day for image makers like me and you. 

Overview | American Society of Media Photographers


You have the full weight of the law on your side if you are  infringed.
You can file an infringement suit.
You can more easily secure an attorney to take your infringement  case.
If you register your work prior to infringement (or within three  months of first publication), you can ask for statutory damages and  attorney fees if you win an infringement case.
You can use your registration as leverage to get paid by defaulting  clients.
You have added protection against anyone claiming your work is an  "orphaned" work.
You are adding value to the services you provide your clients by  protecting the investment they have made.
It only costs $35 to register electronically and you can register multiple images at a time.  There are some specifics to it, like if the image is published or unpublished and they will need to be broken up into different registrations.  If anyone has anything on Flickr on their public photo stream, under copyright law it is considered published (because you are uploading an image to a third party for further distribution.  When people view your image, a copy is placed on their computer in their RAM, and under law it is considered a distributed copy). 

I'm not an expert and am just starting this process myself.  But everything you need is on that web page.  And again, they are a national organization dedicated to protecting photographer's work from infringement, so their information is up to date to say the least.


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## kkamin

Nikkor said:


> Awesome idea GFreg! I have a lot of friends that are into photography and wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg. I really wish I could do it myself confidently, because that's what I want in my business, I want to be as self-sufficient as possible, but I can always have them show me.



I think your time would be best spent focusing on photography.  Right now there is so much new technology and with that new creative tools that personally I wish there were 48 hours in a day so I could study and practice more.

You need to think about how much time is it going to take you to learn the software necessary to create a logo, and how much time is it going to take you to become adept enough to create a compelling, professional and polished logo.  

How much is your time worth?  

Learning how to use Photoshop and Illustrator for graphic design isn't too hard.  It would take quite a bit of time though.  But the tricky part is being able to design at a professional level.  You have to go through the stages of being: bad-->ok-->decent-->competent-->good.  Is it worth putting x amount of hours into a new artist medium, when those same hours could be geared towards more pertinent demands?

I would really consider hiring a designer or finding a student where you can work in trade (you photograph their packaging design or whatever).  After they give you the artwork, you can resize it and repurpose it for whatever you want and won't have to deal with it.

My 2 cents.  : )


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