Dear Bloggers, More proof on why you should watermark your photos…
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Are you watermarking your photos? If not, you should be….
I did not start watermarking on a regular basis until I had been blogging for about a year. I’ve gone back and watermarked a few of my more popular posts and tutorials, but didn’t bother with everything. There were just too many and some of the photos weren’t great. I never would have thought someone would want to steal a photo that was taken in bad light or just not very good.
Well, I was wrong! People will steal anything! Case in point, my meatloaf stromboli recipe. It was an original and semi creative idea, and I guess that is what the thief was looking for…
I came across my photo on pinterest and noticed it was linked to something else, though that link was dead. So I used google’s reverse image search to track down the thief.
Look at how many comments, likes and shares this guy got off my picture:
The worst part is, this guy just made up a similar recipe to go with the photo and quite a few of the comments were that the recipe failed. Of course it is going to fail if you don’t follow the right recipe. (I used refrigerated pizza crust and leftover meatloaf.) I know he made it up, because he thought the dark things in the picture were olives, but they were actually lentils I had hidden in our meatloaf.
Of course this is nothing compared to some of the stories I have heard, but I am still very annoyed!!! I am going try to figure out how to report this to facebook, but we all know how facebook is…
Anyway, I use photoshop elements to edit my pictures and I have created a brush to add my watermark. Here is the tutorial I used to figure out how to do that.
And if you don’t use photoshop or photoshop elements, here are a few other tutorials and methods you can use to watermark your pictures:
Watermark all your photos at once using free software
Using a program called Visual Watermark
Using Picmarker (I don’t know about others programs, but this one will watermark your facebook photos too)
Now, go watermark your pictures!!! (Let’s be sure to help others, spread the word by pinning this or give it a tweet or + on google!)
If you like this type of project and want to see more, you can follow along using the Google Friend Connect widget, through a reader, or signing up via email. Just click on one of the icons below:
I will be linking up to some of the linky parties listed here.
F*** off with this bull****. If you watermark a photo go f*** yourself. If you don’t want people stealing it get a f***ing copyright. Who gives a s*** how many reposts or likes he got? It doesn’t help him! The only thing you are doing is being selfish and nagging about useless s***.
Oookaaayyy… I normally delete comments like this, but I just edited it for profanity to entertain anyone else who is reading these comments.
It’s my photo, I can watermark it if I want too. I am not being selfish, only smart to protect my property and income. (Yes, I make a part-time income with this website.)
Also, I don’t need to “get a copyright” as my
The watermark just gives me one more level of protection. Sure, it can be cropped out, but that is one more step that the infringer has to go through and once they have modified my work, it will only help my case if I were to seek damages.
~Jamie
Saw this on the Fruga Days blog hop. I used to not care about my pics (I'm just a random nobody with a very small blog following). But now that I have a child, I think twice than thrice about the pics I post. Thanks so much for the tips and I'm so sorry the copying happened to you!
I never watermarked my photos until i started noticing some of my images on facebook profiles and some websites.I was overwhelmed by this, watermarking images individually was a tiresome task, so i searched the web and found out about a tool called Mass Watermark. It is a great tool that can be used to process batches of images, but not free$30.I have been using this tool for a while great speed and very easy
Thanks for sharing this. I find this so infuriating. It is really hard to stay ahead of the thieves. I can tell by my analytics that they are searching my site. I just am not sure what they are doing with yet.
That is so bad! I'm really grateful that you shared this at the Say G'day Saturday linky party. I am featuring it this weekend! Hope you can stop by, say g'day and link up again!
Best wishes,
Ugh, I can't believe that happened! Thanks for sharing, We would love it if you would link up at our linky party, We hope to see you there!
I really need to start doing this!
Thanks for your tutorial. I started a new blog since we are discontinuing my paid service and this is something I've started to do with all my pictures since reading your post… and that font is so cute!!
Just to add one to the list…
I use PhotoScape, and they have an option to "add object." This "object" can be an image, and I have a logo image I use. (You can change the opacity, too.)
I suspect that the watermarks on some of my pictures could be cropped out if someone really wanted to do that. But I also am not willing to totally wreck a picture in the interest of its not being stolen. (Well, unless it's a picture of my child. Then I might!)
Oh Dear…. I just never think that anyone is going to want my photos… plus I put a frame on them. NOW I have seen buttons that I designed over the years on someone else's blog. That was pretty rude. I will reconsider for sure. I'm sorry that happened to you.
Thanks for the tip!
~Liz
The brush tip is great! Will follow the tutorial 🙂 Thanks.
-Lora
Good Afternoon Jamie, I am so sorry to hear about your dreadful experience. I suppose the problem is, we expect people to have the same values as we do and of course the world is not made that way.
The watermark tip is a good one, which I have been doing for a while. I am going to take your advice and go back to watermark my earlier photos….. even though they are not brilliant.
Jamie, I have enjoyed my visit and I have become a new follower. When I have finished writing to you, I am going to read some more of your posts.
I would like to invite you to visit me at Ivy, Phyllis and Me! when you have the time. It will be lovely to see you there.
Best Wishes
Daphne
Wow–that's crazy! It blows my mind that people will actually do such a thing. I put my blog name on most pictures, but now that I think about it, most of them could be cropped out if someone really wanted to. I need to rethink the way I'm doing it. Thanks so much for the important reminder!
~Abby =)
Thanks so much for sharing. My pics are not that great and it never dawned on me that someone would steal those. I guess I am going to try water marking them too. Thanks again for the info.
Found you at Chef in Training and thank you so much for sharing! I've known about watermarking your photos but never realized how important this is. I'm so sorry this happened to you but I will definitely try to take this lesson to heart! Thanks for sharing!
New Mrs. Adventures
Great reminder! I didn't start doing this until recently and now you've given me a great reason to go back through. Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing! I need to look into this. I'm so sorry it happened to you 🙁 I haven't heard of google's reverse image search – I'll look at that as well! Found you at Cupcakes & Crinoline!
Blessings,
Nicole
http://coleyscraftingcorner.blogspot.com/
Thanks for this info!! Came here from the Say-Gday-Saturday-Linky-Party-70! See you soon!
Tx for sharing! I always watermark my pics too!
MammaNene
SergerPepper.blogspot.it
wow! I totally thought old/bad photos were safe… I'm actually going through older posts for SEO purposes… I guess I should update my watermarks while I'm at it!
Emily @ Nap-Time Creations
Pinning! I put my brand on my photos but have not thought to on Instagram… but after reading the comments I def am! Yikes!
Thanks for sharing! I would love for you to link up at Party In Polka Dots!
Wow ~ this is great information and I am so sorry you had your photo stolen. PINNING! Thanks for sharing.
Great article on watermarks.. Thanks for including my watermark tip. I just learnt something new today. 🙂 I am going to check out visual watermark and picmarker now.
This just dawned on me last week that I should be doing this… Thanks for the reminder and link to the tutorial!
Heidi @ handmadefrenzy.blogspot.com
Thanks for the reminder.
Good advise re:the watermarks! Unfortunately, this happens a lot. Stopping by from the Google+ Blog Hop! Now following! Hope you’ll stop by The Shady Porch! Blessings, D@TheShadyPorch
FYI, it is pretty easy to find on FB. There is a whole page of stuff they prob stole. I reported it, but there was nowhere to type in that it was stolen. Did you report this as your intelluctual property? Bc if so I hope FB does somethind about it.
I find that if you watermark the corner of your pics, the theif(if that is the appro term) can just crop if off. I try to put my name right across the picture along with the name of whatever I'm blogging about. Just a helpful little tip from a new blogger. 🙂
That is annoying! I just barely started watermarking mine, and now I have slowly been trying to watermark all my old posts. I luckily haven't had anything stolen. It's just sad, though.
Oh my gosh, this is shocking. I don't watermark photos but guess I will now. Can they be watermarked if they are already in the blog?
So sorry this happened to you andhoping it does not happen to others.
Linda
mysewwhatblog.blogspot.com
You will have to edit your original photos and replace the ones on your blog now with the newly edited ones. (It's a lot of work, thats why I haven't gotten around to them all. It's probably a good idea to at least watermark the main photo.)
~Jamie
That's terrible Jamie 🙁 Thanks for sharing and especially the tutorial! I haven't posted anything on my blog in a month because people keep on pinning pics of my children, after I specifically asked everywhere for them not to 🙁 It's very disheartening that there's so many dishonest people around that just do not respect people's creative property!
How frustrating and rude! Even when people don't ask, if there is a picture on a page WITHOUT a child that I can Pin, I always use that one – even if it's not as good a picture.
I will have to start doing this. I also assume no one wants my terribly lit not very focused photos but you're right in saying that people will steal anything. I'm going to see if I can find this Facebook group and report the photo as well, it will take a group of people but it can be done.
Thanks LisaRae!
I do this but I'm surprised that so many don't. I even try to put it in a spot where if someone were to crop it out, the picture would look odd. That doesn't always work but at least I put it one there.
Wow,,,I had no idea how common this problem is! I will be much more careful in the future. Thank you so much for the information, and I'm sorry you had to go thru this 🙁
I am so sorry that happened. I always assume my older, unattractive photos are safe as well.
Are you a member of the community PIPO on G+. If not you should be. The whole community is about how to share properly and how to file reports if someone steals something. There are a lot of great people on their who unfortunately have had to go through this same thing. They will for sure know how you can report it.
BTW, PIPO stands for Protect Intellectual Property Online
good to know, I will check this out…
~Jamie
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Yes! I am a firm believer in this. I had someone take pics of my kids & use them for a fake life on FB. I have heard of a lot of ppl having their food pics taken for the same purpose yours was taken. I know someone who had their child's image taken off instagram by someone in another country & they printed it on t-shirts & are getting rich off it. It all disgusts me. Check out Amanda @ I am Baker- she also had a horrible story about a stollen image. I make my watermark w/ my url so there is no mistaking or someone saying they have a similar name. So important to protect our content & make it harder for them to take & use.