As I get ready to change a few small things with the business, I thought I would take a moment to address watermarking.  A watermark is the copyright logo, statement, symbol, etc that is placed across a photo.  Usually (at the discretion of the photographer) it’s a reduced opacity so it’s not totally stark and bright, but it is noticeable.  It’s supposed to be noticeable.  That is a the point of a watermark.  Mine happens to be what is termed a “ribbon” watermark.  Makes sense – it looks like a ribbon across the photo with my business name and then one of my tag words as seen here:

It is usually right on the middle of the photo (unless it’s a close crop of a face then I adjust as I see fit) and for me, it covers the entire photo width-wise.  I always do this with client photos and I always do it with personal photos.  Yep, on my personal family blog, on ANYTHING that gets put on the internet at all, whether it be flickr, my private photo board etc, whether it be of my kids or a scenery shot or client work, it has a watermark.

The point of the watermark is to show ownership / copyright of the photo.  In a job like I do, it is so so important to copyright your work.  Let’s face it, we live in a world that loves social media.  Facebook, MySpace, blogs.  We are all over it.  We put our lives all over it, our work, our families.  Yet it is one of the easiest mediums to steal from.  Images can be taken, they can be saved, sometimes they can be printed.   They can be snagged from the internet or anywhere they are displayed and used for someone else’s personal gain.  Not only is this insulting to me personally and professionally, as it’s MY shot that someone would be taking, my work, my art, it is also dangerous to clients.  The photographs of their children can be used in ways and places they have no idea.   Not to scare people, but to make them aware, there is an entire HUGE online gaming world based out of Brazil called Orkut that uses pictures of kids as their avatars.  They find these pictures on the internet and use them.  Marketers have been known to snag non-watermarked photos.  There was a great story that came out last year around the holidays that illustrated the importance of this.  There was a family whose photo was snagged off of the internet and then used on a Czech grocery store advertisement!! (You can read all about it HERE)

Watermarking has to do with protecting MY work and protecting YOUR images.  If I put a watermark in the middle of the photo, people – strangers you don’t know, advertisers, etc are less likely to right click and save it.  It is difficult to edit and crop out watermarks that are centrally located.  If I give you web files with your digital packages, the ones with the watermarks are not only prepared for the web so they will display better, but they are watermarked to protect your images from people.  Let’s face it.  We have no idea who sees our stuff.  We can make things private, but there are ways around it.  I don’t know who sees my blog.  I average 2,000+ visits per week.  Even on my Facebook business page, I tell people that hey, I have over 1300 fans. I have no idea who 90% of them are, where they are from or what kind of people they are.  While I like to believe the best of everyone, let’s be realistic. 🙂  And if you have used one of my photos somewhere online, as long as the watermark is there and visible, I really honestly don’t care.

My watermark will be changing soon.  For all publicly displayed images (not client files that they purchase) I am adding the text “do not copy, save or print.”  Do I want to?  No, but again, I am being realistic and times are what they are.  So please, respect my copyright, respect your photographer’s copyright and respect each others copyright.  Leave the watermarks where they are.  They are there for a reason.