A watermark is a "stamp" that is applied to a photograph to help indentify the owner of the photo. While it is not a perfect security system, it does make copyright infringement issues a bit easier. There are other means for photo identity security, and watermarks are just one method in my arsenal. You have probably seen my watermark -- images posted with the Awestruck-Images logo from my main web site, Awestruck Images.
I recently developed a new watermark that uses my signature. Here's how I did it.
- With a ballpoint pen, I autographed a plain white sheet of paper.
- I scanned the signature at high resolution (600 dots per inch). If you don't have a scanner, then just use your camera to capture the image.
- I loaded the resulting TIFF into my photo editor.
- I performed an edge-preserving-smooth operation on the image, twice.
- I performed a de-speckle operation to make the "signature" nice and dark.
- With a selection tool, I selected the different pieces of the signature and saved the signature as a transparent layer.
To use the new watermark, I load a photo to be edited, then I layer the watermark on top of the image. Because the watermark is it's own layer I can adjust its transparency or use the negative of the image as needed for differently colored photographs. When I am satisfied with the result, I merge the layers together and save the final image. An example of the new watermark is in Tip #38.
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