Photoshop Tutorial: Watermark your images with these easy steps

Recently I have had more and more people telling me how they discovered LittleBlueFeather.  I have tried to promote my items through my blog, guest blog features, facebook, twitter, pinterest, {you get the idea} and the truth is, the more work you do getting your name out there, the easier it is for people to find you!

Unfortunately, with this comes the possibility that someone will take credit for your photos, inspiration or even worse, take your hard work and claim it as their own.  I have read a few articles over this past summer about people that had their identities stolen, their work claimed by someone else and one woman even said an image of her work became a logo for another company.  EEEK!  Isn't that awful?

The internet can be a great place, but you have to protect yourself from all the negative possibilities.  I have been able to sell handmade items, find amazing bloggers, get inspired and learn new things from my wonderful little computer.  The important thing is just to protect yourself.  Last week I copyrighted my designs and have made it a point to watermark all my work images, because really you never know where your photo might turn up!

If you are unsure what a watermark is, and how to add one to your photo, read below and follow the easy steps :)

watermark: A text or image overlay to a photograph or image that identifies and claims the work of that artist or person.  The text or logo is created in a way that is somewhat transparent and discourages others from copying and claiming the work as their own.

Do you see the watermark on this image below?!


You can decide where you want to place your watermark, the text, size and if you want to repeat it over the entire image.  Here is another example:


So are you ready to watermark your own images?!  I use photoshop on my computer.  If you do not have photoshop, hopefully these steps can help you with a similar program you have on your computer.

Step 1) Open Photoshop on your computer.  Then go to file, open to select the photo you want to watermark.



Step 2) Go to Window and make sure your Layers palette is visible.  


Step 3) Make a text box to type your company or name in that box.


*Make sure the text is the size and font you like and then change the color of the font to a pale grey.


Step 4) Click on the second icon from the left on the bottom on the layers palette and then go to blending options.


Step 5) The first thing you want to do in the layer style blending options is to change the fill opacity.  I like to reduce mine down to around 15%.  If you look at the picture on the left, you can barely see the text.




Step 6) On the right side of the layer styles box, you will want to click bevel and emboss and drop shadow.  When you click on bevel and emboss text, new options will appear.  Below are the numbers and options I like to use.  This is an area you can play around with things to see what you like best.  


*Now the text is more visible than shown before and you can see the effects added underneath the text layer.

*Using your pointer tool, move the text to wherever you like on your photo.

Step 7) This step is optional.  If you would like to repeat your text multiple times over the image, click on the layer and make sure it is highlighted.  While holding down on the layer, drag it over the second icon from the right to create a layer copy.

*Notice the layer copy and copy 2?  Again, using the pointer tool, drag the extra text wherever you want on the photo.



Now you are ready to save your image!!  Go to file, save as and then select where you want to save the image on your computer.



I hope this tutorial is useful for you in protecting your images!  Please let me know if you need any further help :)


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