"Watermarking" your images.

Hi everyone.

I had someone PM me about the watermark I have on many of my images. Rather than keep it between just two members, I thought I would share with everyone.

There are two ways to do it. One is by using the drop shadow option then fading out the fill color itself but you don't get the white highlights which makes it look like it was embossed like on a hard copy of the print.

The other way is to use layers.

Start off with a new image. You can make it to whatever size you want according to the length of your name, year, etc. For a background color I choose #81807e. It is very neutral and will allow you to see both the black and white text layers.

http://i56.tinypic.com/b6brra.jpg

Next, default your background and foreground colors to black and white. Using the type tool, choose a nice blocky font and type in your "copyright" info using a font size of 60pt first typing in black, then in white to create two separate layers. (Hold down the "Alt" and type 0169 to get the copyright symbol if you want to use it.) Thin, script-like fonts won't work very well.

Once you have your black & white text layers, align them so they are over one another, the one hiding the layer beneath.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2j3g02r.jpg

Now offset the two layers, nudging the white text up by two taps of the up arrow and left by two taps. With the black, down and to the right two times respectively.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2ji81i.jpg

Now, create a third layer. In this layer, use the Type Mask tool and re-type the same information. Once you get out of Quick Mask mode, it will look like this:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2ufuiig.jpg

Rasterize the black and white text layers and select the black and white text layers in turn then knock out the text within the outline.

http://i56.tinypic.com/einp4x.jpg

Invert your selection then gaussian blur @ 1 pixel. Delete the layer you used for masking then merge the black & white layers only, and you are done.

http://i53.tinypic.com/24vvb45.jpg

Save it as a .psd file and when you want to use it, just drag and scale the watermark layer into your image. It works great with any color having the transparancy and doesn't get in the way of the image itself.

(I hope this is in the right area. If not, I don't mind it being moved to the proper thread.)

Cheers!

Len

Good documentation. Thanks a lot Len for sharing the info. :)

I actually prefer not to use bitmap-level editing. If you limit all of your text styles to layer styles, then you can make edits to the actual text and styles and fonts very easily. Furthermore, you can make non-destructive changes to the size :)

http://oi54.tinypic.com/2ur9ljd.jpg

jiro: Thank you for the compliment :)

pwnage: In my eyes, the "watermark" really isn't supposed to stand out so the quality of it isn't important. It's like a watermark on money or the expensive paper. You really have to look for it to see it. But everyone has their own way of doing things :)

LenG,
Please add some more details on how to automate adding of watermarks on a batch of images.

Photolover:

I really don't have a "batch process". I pretty much do one image at a time. I keep the .psd file of the watermark open but minimized then drag & drop the layer into the image I want it in then scale the watermark layer as needed. It may be a redundant process but it saves on any errors by having the watermark too big or too small.