Monday, June 2, 2008

What Is A Watermarked Image? How Do You Watermark An Image?

Here is an example of a watermarked image.

So many people are concerned with having their images not copied by someone else and this is an example of a watermarked image. As you can see I have the main picture (a 3d render of myself) plus I have the copyright information added as well. How did I accomplish this. Well I used a graphics program (Gimp) to add another layer to my picture and I put the copyright information in that layer. Then I flattened the image so that the copyrighted information appeared as part of the entire image.

Now watermarking your image is a good way to show who the image belongs to but it is not a fool-proof method against someone actually "stealing" your images. I have seen posts from some graphic designers who have said that people (and clients) have used watermarked images so they don't have to pay for them. "Un-watermarking" an image is quite tedious but some people have been doing it just so that they can avoid paying for the image.

And I'm sorry to tell you that even though your image may be watermarked it can still be copied off of the internet.

So even though you may think that watermarking your image will protect it from being "stolen" it is not 1005 foolproof!