Watermarks.. Are they really needed?

photobod wrote:

crystal wrote:

John Landolfi wrote: Just to make the pont again, people assume that, if something is published in some venue, it is the there for the taking. I was just notified that a member of PT (!!!) has downloaded one of my photos without asking, or, perhaps, friending. I hope that he simply liked the image, and that, after my contact, he responds to me Here, at least, I have some way of reaching out to him, but the obtrusive Copyright mark may serve its purpose.

A few months ago I saw photos can be download from the album. Personally, I do not like that idea. It's one thing to Right Click, Save as ...to save the photo. But it's a whole different story when a website has a Download button to save a photo (which the photographer, may not want people to simply "download" the image)

Its on the facebook photos Crystal as I am sure you already know, and many other sites offer a download button too, personally I watermark my images mostly with my website address as a way of advertising, the majority of my pro work has already been paid for by a client and I cant understand why anyone would steal a picture of a complete stranger !!! or somebody elses wedding, I try not to worry to much and take the view that its a compliment to my skills.

What concerns me more is that someone may use the photo commercially, or worse, edit it in some way, and represent it as my work ( not that the ploy would get them much... )

On here I set it on my profile so I'm the only one who can download my photos. On Facebook after their recent changes I took most of my photos off (I didn't have much posted on there anyway) and have it set so only friends can see them.

icepics wrote: On here I set it on my profile so I'm the only one who can download my photos. On Facebook after their recent changes I took most of my photos off (I didn't have much posted on there anyway) and have it set so only friends can see them.

That's exactly what I've done Sharon. I also have recently changed my watermark so that it is smaller and hopefully less obnoxious and I reduce the transparency for the same reason. I don't like feeling like I need to put a watermark on it just to protect myself, but in today's world not sure what else to do. Now on the other hand, I really hate it when someone puts a very large and or multiple water marks on a photo, blocking it soo much that I say, why did you even post it because you ruined it for viewing with all of that junk on there....

As the saying goes, "A lock will keep an honest person honest, but won't stop a thief". Same is true for Watermarks. It's like putting a "visual" lock on the image, but if someone really wants to use it as their own, they will.

I tell my students that, no matter what you do to the image (right-click disable, © etc.) if it is on the web, some 15 year old can steal it. "It's not rocket science".

The best, if you are in business, is to put your work in a password protected area for their eyes only. Even then there is software that can download entire sites, so there is a way around it. But, probably not worth their time. Their focus is porn sites.

I only post images I have scanned long ago, that were once in my online gallery. In a sense, they have already been made "public". You won't see any of my new work on the web.

Well, maybe once in a while.

Matthew

One more point to make here, is that some image hosting sites have in their user agreement, that they have the rights to use YOUR work. ASMP recommends Moby Picture for image posting: www.mobypicture.com/

MLKstudios wrote: As the saying goes, "A lock will keep an honest person honest, but won't stop a thief". Same is true for Watermarks. It's like putting a "visual" lock on the image, but if someone really wants to use it as their own, they will.

I tell my students that, no matter what you do to the image (right-click disable, © etc.) if it is on the web, some 15 year old can steal it. "It's not rocket science".

The best, if you are in business, is to put your work in a password protected area for their eyes only. Even then there is software that can download entire sites, so there is a way around it. But, probably not worth their time. Their focus is porn sites.

I only post images I have scanned long ago, that were once in my online gallery. In a sense, they have already been made "public". You won't see any of my new work on the web.

Well, maybe once in a while.

Matthew

One more point to make here, is that some image hosting sites have in their user agreement, that they have the rights to use YOUR work. ASMP recommends Moby Picture for image posting: www.mobypicture.com/

This is very true which is why I only use a paid site for posting my photos. My MySpace page only has a photo of my work toy. This is why reading the Terms of Service on any site is important before putting a single photo on it. And this is 100x more the case for the online contests, the majority are noting more that image grabs for them to get free photos.

I have opted to go obnoxious with my watermark. In fact I was contacted by a fellow member to make it less obtrusive as it tends to ruin the look of my work. That's kinda it's point- make it less desirable to thieves, harder to cover up, as well as low res. I am paranoid. I worked for many a pro who hadn't paid me, claimed my work as theirs and I lost out. I am always more than happy to send a low res proof to a customer for approval, minus the watermark.