How I Do Watermarking & Copyright

[wesdot]

I've had a few questions from our website http://www.wesdotphotography.com as to how I've put a watermark & copyright info on our images. So I thought I would do a 'step by step how I do it' from Photoshop. I have CS3 but I believe most of the Photoshop programs would also work with maybe some minor differences. This is also instructions for a PC.

Step One: Open your image that you want to add the copyright to. From the Toolbox, select the Custom Shape tool. It's the tool that looks like a weird shaped star.

Step Two: After selecting this Custom Shape tool go up to the top of your screen to the Options Bar. Click on the Fill Pixels (this would be the 3rd icon after the weird shaped star). Next click on the drop down arrow next to the word 'Shape'. This will open up the different shapes available. Click the copyright symbol (the C inside a circle).

Step Three: Open your layers (click on Windows and choose layers). Click on the 'Create a New Layer' icon on the bottom of the layers panel. From the Toolbox, click on the Foreground color swatch which will bring up the Color Picker. Choose a light gray and click ok. Holding down the shift key (this keeps the symbol in proportion), click above the center slighty to the left of the image. Still holding the shift key drag to the lower right to resize the shape. Then release the mouse then the shift key. Once the shape is drawn click on the Add a Layer Style icon (found at the bottom of the layers panel). Select Bevel and Emboss.

Step Four: Select the Type tool from the Toolbar and make sure the Foreground color is still the same light gray you used for the copyright symbol. Type the word 'Copyright, the year and your name. Select the move tool to reposition the type so it fits below the Copyright symbol and is centered appropriatly. Also change the font size if you need to. Once the type is in place click on the Add a Layer Style icon and select Bevel and Emboss.

Step Five: While holding down the Ctrl key select both the Copyright and the Text layers (this will select both layers). Now press Ctrl and E (this will merge the layers). With this layer still selected change the layer blend mode which currently will read 'Normal' to 'Hard Light'. This layer blend mode is located at the top of the layers panel. Then lower the Opacity (also located at the top of the layers panel) so it is still visible but doesn't ruin the look of the image.

Sorry, I'm realtively new to PBase so I could not figure out how to add an image from my website to this tutorial. If you would like to see what the end product looks like please pop over to our website noted at the top of this posting. You could even browse through our photos if you like. Hope this helps.

[gpaai]

You can also type Alt+0169, enabling you to use the font of your choice "©".
Edit>Free Transform holding down Shift to achieve desired size.
In the layer palette, right click active layer then open "Blending Options" to create a Drop Shadow.
At the top right of layer palette drop "fill" to "0" and "opacity" to desired transparency.