Creating a Copyright Watermark

oshead

In the spirit of giving back to the community. Since every now and again we get people coming on here asking how to completely ruin an image by putting a watermark on it. Especially useful for preventing a third party from using it without permission, Ie printing it or using it on the web claiming it to be their own etc.....

I've put together a step by step and screen shots for anyone who is interested.

Step 1.
Create a new file, make it as big or as small as you like. Doesn't really matter. If in doubt go large. Copy the settings you see below.



Step 2.
You can skip to Step 4 if you like. This is just to show how the watermark will work just as well on bright or dark images.

Create 3 layers. Press shift+f5 to fill one with black, another with white and the the other with 50% gray.



Step 3.
Mask out each layer as shown below.


Step 4.
Create a new text layer on top and add your watermark logo. The text should be white.


Step 5.
Open up the FX panel of the text layer and set the Blend if/This layer to anything below 250.

oshead

Step 6.
Then choose bevel and embose and copy the settings shown below.


Step 7.
Duplicate the top text layer and open up the FX panel for that. Change the options in the shading to the settings below.


Step 8.
The result is an embossed watermark logo that can be seen in bright or dark images.


Step 9.
Hide the bottom three layers and save off the file with a .png extension.


Step 10.
All thats need now is to add it to the image you want to protect/ruin. You could download Adobe Watermark to automate this process.


No doubt someone will come on here declaring how all this could be done using some free app from the interweb. But sure isn't that the case for everything these days.

squareballoon

OR If you wanted one as a brush that you can then put on as any colour or transparency.....
make it in photoshop in the size you want it to appear in your usual web size images. crop it

go to Edit/Define Brush Preset and save it with the name you want. It then appears immediately as the last brush in your brush set and you can place it anywhere on your image. Usually I put mine over the face if I'm putting up proofs before they're bought or just somewhere awkward.