Dear Bloggers, More proof on why you should watermark your photos…

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:

Why bloggers (or anyone) should watermark their photos. Yep, thieves will steal anything!

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:

Using Picmonkey

Watermark all your photos at once using free software

Using ipiccy

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:

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I will be linking up to some of the linky parties listed here.

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43 Comments

  1. Coley's Crafting Corner says:

    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/

  2. Thanks for this info!! Came here from the Say-Gday-Saturday-Linky-Party-70! See you soon!

  3. Mamma Nene says:

    Tx for sharing! I always watermark my pics too!
    MammaNene
    SergerPepper.blogspot.it

  4. Emily Thompson says:

    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

  5. Shelley Robertson says:

    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!

  6. Mary Beth says:

    Wow ~ this is great information and I am so sorry you had your photo stolen. PINNING! Thanks for sharing.

  7. Hani Shabbir says:

    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.

  8. Amber Heidi says:

    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

  9. Aisling Beatha says:

    Thanks for the reminder.

  10. 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

  11. 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.

  12. 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. 🙂

  13. 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.

  14. Linda Walker says:

    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

    1. 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

  15. Madeleine L. says:

    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!

    1. Rachel R. says:

      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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. cooking with curls says:

    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 🙁

  19. suzy supnet says:

    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.

    1. suzy supnet says:

      BTW, PIPO stands for Protect Intellectual Property Online

    2. good to know, I will check this out…
      ~Jamie

  20. Gina @ Kleinworth & Co. says:

    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.