Digital watermark

Hi there,<br>

I posted a question about digital watermarks.<br>

May be not in the good forum...<br>

Please see here : http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?

msg_id=00DYwN<br>

I'd like to have some feedback to know your opinion and/or your

experience.

Sometimes people don't answer 'cause they've beat the subject to death already and don't feel like reposting. Check the archives.

Thanks Keith,<br>

I've already checked.<br>

A search with "photo.net" + "digital watermark" = nothing else a page where a member spoke about this to me.<br>

I would know if I must insert a digital watermark or not.<br>

Is it better than the copyright text included by PN under each photo?<p>

Nevertheless, thanks a lot for your reply.

Yann, best to ignore nasty responses :-)

 

You asked a good question. I hope others try to help because I've got the same question.

 

Maybe this relates: http://www.photowatermark.com/

some people put very small photos (on the order of maybe 200x300 pixels, and fill most of the image with a copyright statement. to me the is really humorous when it is just a so so image that I probably wouldn't take if it was a free poster. Personally I put medium sized images that would only make a good 2x3 print. if somebody copies it... yea it is my loss but they can't really do too much with it.

 

if you wnat a way to make a watermark you need to be more specific on what you want, ,,like something in the middle of the image that states your copyright and looks like a beveld part of the image, or maybe shaded darker. or do you want a text in the lower corner?

 

for fun I will tell you how I would go about making the beveled image watermark.

 

1. make big text in the middle of your image with your copyright statement. choose a good font.

 

2. select the back ground layer, and then ctrl+click your text layer.. this will make a selection of your text.

 

3. now (with the background layer active) do a copy and paste (ctrl+c, then ctrl+v).

 

4. turn off your text layer, and select the new layer that was created when pasting your selection.

 

5. if PSCS add an layer effect and and choose bevel.. change the settings to match what you like.

 

and there you go. a beveled copy right statement. (I will try to attach an example)<div></div>

First of all, it wasn't nasty - it was a simple statement of fact and informative. No, it wasn't perfectly PC. Big deal. I'm an East Coast Type A, not from the People's Republic of the Left Coast.

 

Secondly, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=digital+watermark+site%3Aphoto.net shows me 331 hits; several of which are applicable here - that isn't enough information?

the point I think is, that if you feel the question has been asked enough then just don't answer. if people don't get answers one place they will look to other places.

 

and saying you are east coast type A is not a good excuse for being an ass (I am not saying you are one). It is just one of those pet peeves of mine that people try to pass off attitudes to something like where they live, or how they grew up, or what they have seen, it is just a cop out. They raise cows in California and Oprah lives on the east coast. so the generalization about commie cali's and east coast snobs, is just one of the more foolish ones around. a vocal minority doesn't define a place. Unless you think I don't wear shoes.

 

lets try to keep this to the question posted.

Well... I didn't want at all to launch a unpleasant debate : (<p>

Hmm... Keith and Byron, I don't understand anything about your East against Left coast people.<p>

Keith, please try this on google :<br>

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22digital+watermark%22+site:photo.net&hl=en&lr=&filter=0<br>

I was searching for opinions about digital watermarks ON photo.net just because I'm a beginner and also a PN's user. Then my shots are - for the moment - only visible on this great site.<br>

My search gives me only <b>7</b> answers, and 5 are absolutly not useful.<br>

One is about the comment I shared with another member... The same search through the search system of PN gave me less than these 7 answers. Then, I didn't find what I was looking for.<p>

My english is quite basic... It's difficult to me to understand well all your words : ( but may be my request wasn't very clear...<br>

I try something else :<br>

1) Are many of you using digital watermarks?<br>

2) Does a digital watermark protect a shot in a better way than the text about copyright written by PN under it?<p>

Peace.

Though a digital watermark might make a photo less attractive to copy, it also makes it less atractive to look at, taking the focus totally away from the subject matter, technique and whatever else the photo might show. When looking at photos on the net, I tend to stop browsing when photos are too muddled by watermarks.<p>

An image that looks good online doesn't have to be much bigger than 5-600 on the longest side. Stretching the image quality to its limits, that might at best make a half-decent print 4 inches on its longest side, and - also due to the small size - 2 inches at proper photo quality. Basically no more than a large thumbnail print. If somebody wants to print it bigger and subject their eyes to that kind of awful image quality, I don't see any reason not to let them.<p>

Hakon Soreide<br>

Bergen, Norway<br>

<a href="http://www.hakonsoreide.com">www.hakonsoreide.com</a>

I don't use a watermarks for the very reasons stated by Hakon. I also don't think that they help protect your image anymore, because if anybody really wants to they can easily still work around most things. one advantage is that many print places will require written permission to reproduce anything that has a copyright on it, but I don't know how universal that is.

 

as for the east coast, west coast thing. The US is kind of divided up into regions (as any large country is) two of these regions are the east coast (Atlantic Coast, also sometimes called New England) and the west coast (Pacific coast, Southern california is most often associated with this). The West coast has a reputation for being liberal, free love kind of people, a communal view of everything.. hence the "people's republic of the west coast".. comparing it to communism. and The East coast has a reputation for being conservatives. overacheiving, arrogant, get out of my way I am walking here, kind of attitude... of course as I state these are very broad generalizations. I am a Southerner, people from the north are called yankees, and they talk funny.

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<p>1. make big text in the middle of your image with your copyright statement. choose a good font.</p>

 

<p>2. select the back ground layer, and then ctrl+click your text layer.. this will make a selection of your text.</p>

 

<p>3. now (with the background layer active) do a copy and paste (ctrl+c, then ctrl+v).</p>

 

<p>4. turn off your text layer, and select the new layer that was created when pasting your selection.</p>

 

<p>5. if PSCS add an layer effect and and choose bevel.. change the settings to match what you like.</p>

 

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<p>This can actually be simplified and leave open the option to later modify the text.</p>

 

<p>1) Create the text layer above the background with whatever text you want in any color.</p>

 

<p>2) Add a layer style to the text layer (bevel and emboss in this case).</p>

 

<p>3) Set the <b>Fill</b> percentage to 0% (this is below the <b>Opacity</b> percentage in the Layers palette). In essence this hides the layer data while preserving the layer effect.</p>

 

<p>4) Tweak the layer style or change the text to your hearts content using the layers styles dialog or the text tool and character palette(Window->Character). These latter can be done at any time. You can change the effect, the font size, the font, ... This method preserves a lot more room for future client changes (the font is too..., the effect is too..., or whatever clients feel).</p>

 

<p>And step 4 can be removed if you got it right the first time.</p>

 

<p>just another approach,</p>

 

<p>Sean</p>

Thanks all for your feedback,<br>

I keep in mind I can add a "sign" on the picture, it's a good way even if the picture is less attractive.<p>

Well, I found something else but I don't understand well how it works...<br>

I read that PS includes digital watermark which are "on" the picture but - how to say - "linked" at the picture or may be "encoded" in the picture.<br>

Do you use it?

The hidden digital watermarks Photoshop has support for are provided by third parties and you have to pay for them. Most of the ones I have seen require an annual fee or a per image fee. There may be free ones now available but I do not follow it closely. And there are definitely freely available ones that run at the command line the last time I checked. The term to put into a search engine to learn more about it is 'steganography' which essentially is the art/science of hiding information inside other information. This can range from secret communication applications spies/criminals/terrorists passing data (putting out a message to their people using the picture of the day on a website) to more robust variations that can survive resizing of an image, cropping of an image, or scanning of a print to provide a hidden digital signature that identifies ownership of the image. The first application (hidden communication) might be combined with various cryptographic technologies while the latter focusses on robust steganography. Both are interesting topics which require advanced mathematics and at times advanced computer science to understand.

 

From a practical standpoint, the Digimarc plugin (require additional payment on your part to get beyond the demo writer) does this. I have it disabled as all it does is increase the amount of time it takes to open files (I already know I do not steal images as I have respect for others, a huge archive of my own, and the ability to go shoot one if I need it). It could be potentially useful to find the source of an image. But that never shows up in my workflow and if it did I could reenable the plug-in.

 

Personally, I have never seen a compelling reason to use the Digimarc plug-in (it just comes in demo form with Photoshop making it more widely known). And I am not up to date on current tools so I cannot say anything about the current incarnation of Digimarc. But there are a many free tools out there if you want to explore the topic. Take a look for 'steganography freeware' on google.

 

In the end, myself, I put a small dated signature stamp on all my released images that I wish to be associated with and I am happy with that. You can automate it with a Photoshop Action or you could look at Just Janee's tutorial at http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/brush/cbrush7.htm and do it manually.

 

Finally, if you do use layer effects to do it, I would suggest using Inner Glow, Bevel And Emboss, plus Outer Glow (set to multiply mode) which should make your mark show up on any background with a little tweaking.

 

all the best,

 

Sean

I should also note you can embed copyright info into the IPTC and EXIF data. While not overly secure, it is clear and it does not degrade the visual presentation.

Sean,<p>

THANKS a lot for your very complete feedback! Great for me!