Friday, January 18, 2013

TUTORIAL: Creating and Adding a Watermark in Lightroom 3

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Hey, everyone! I had to look up a video on Youtube to show me how to do this after hearing obscurely that Lightroom had a feature to watermark. I know a lot of people don't use it, but I love Lightroom and it seems to be gaining in popularity. It came free with my camera and I've actually had it a little longer than that since my dad installed his copy for when I would take pictures with his camera, so I've been able to get very acquainted. There are few tools I don't have, though, that I use another program for. Example, I'm not all that fond of the spot removal in LR. I much prefer the "makeup kit" in Paint Shop Pro X Ultimate, which includes spots, tanning (which I never use, but it's cool), teeth whitening, and a "thinning" tool where it will squeeze the image together with minimal distortion (gimmicky, but I've used it).

Anyway, that doesn't really matter for the purposes of this tutorial. What matters is I love Lightroom and you all should, too. This is how you protect yourself and your pictures. This is especially important for bloggers. Just the other day I saw on my Facebook feed that a blogger I liked on there found a site that cropped out her watermark (notice the positioning, fade, and size of mine) and copied and pasted her original recipe and pictures into their food blog, claiming it as their own. Protect yourselves!

PS - If you don't have Lightroom, I was inspired to do this by this post. It uses a free program through the internet, I believe.



Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 0 (i.e., before you do anything). Import a photo. I don't know if you can create/edit watermarks without a photo in your catalog because I haven't tried, so I'm just throwing this in here.

Making the Watermark

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 1. This is a little bit different in a Mac. I think you hit the Lightroom Menu option or something and then you select the same option. In a PC you click "Edit," then select "Edit Watermarks..."

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 2. You get the above editor. In the top right you can choose "Text" or "Graphic," or you can just his "Choose..." If you select "Choose..." it will automatically change to Graphic Mode and if you select "Graphic" it will automatically open the window to choose a picture as if you had chosen "Choose...". We're going to go with Graphic Mode first. I might make a tutorial later if you're unsure how to make a graphic watermark file, but if you know how, make sure it's .PNG so it won't have a solid background and can change opacity.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 3. There are three proportions depending on the look you're going for. Proportional is the first. You can change the slider to show the proportion you want filled and drag to change the width of the graphic. Play around with this.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

There's also fit...

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

And fill. Fill is stupid. Ignore fill. Personally, I like fit. It stretches it across the entire width of the picture, while fill stretches it across the height. Unless you plan your watermark to be the exact dimensions of the picture and never use different dimensions for your pictures (goodbye portraits), it will look strange, unless you do some sort of mark where it works. Personally, I'd at least stick with fit and center it on your pictures.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 4. After you choose your proportion, use the anchor and inset options and fit it how you want it. (Scroll to Step 8 to see that in action because I forgot it here.) Then you want to mess with your opacity. I like somewhere around 25. Enough to make it noticeable without distracting too bad from your photo. Then you save and name the watermark.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermarkWatermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 5. Now we're going to do a text watermark. I like to use the © (copyright) symbol myself, but you don't have to. Select the Text option at the top (it's the default option, though, if you're making a new watermark, so you shouldn't need to select it). To make the symbol, hold the ALT key and type 0169 using your number pad or number bar. Then let go and it should change. I believe the same trick is used with the command key on a Mac, but I'm not sure. A quick Google search should pull it up for you.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 6. Type whatever you want your watermark to say. (I left out the Space on mine when doing this tutorial, but I think it looks kind of cool without it, too.) You have the same Proportional, Fit, and Fill options. I, again, recommend Fit.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 7. Fonts! I love fonts. Remember that if you go too crazy it may not look professional, but have fun, too. Make it look custom, though, by picking something non-standard. There are plenty of free font spots online, but I recommend dafont.com, Font Garden, and Fonts for Peas. Fonts for Peas is a handwriting only site, though, which runs the risk of crossing from "custom" into "amateur," so be careful.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Pick your font, color (I always choose black or white no matter what), and alignment (not necessary for Fit or [I think] Fill). I make identical watermarks in Graphic, black and white, and Text, black and white, and then made them all again aligned to the top of my image for the occasions that it happens that that would be a better spot. Finally, pick your shadow options. I leave it on the default, except I may have changed it from 100% to 80%. I don't remember right now. Play with it.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 8. See the anchor and inset in action. If you have Fit set, whether you choose the left, middle, or right column of any row doesn't matter, but the top/middle/bottom rows do. I like bottom middle. I use a slight inset on my text marks, but not my graphic marks because of how short v. tall they are. Vertical inset shrinks the bottom and the top area, horizontal pulls in the sides. Play with it. (I say that a lot.)

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Save that one. You can see your watermarks by clicking the drop down menu and then edit any if you need. Play with it! ;P

Adding the Watermark

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

 Step 0. Before you do anything, select a photo, make it big, and edit to your heart's content. Then you'll need to go to export the photo like you would normally do.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

Step 1. Choose your destination settings. If you have to tweak any other settings, go for it. Scroll to the Watermarking header. Check the box and use the drop down menu to select the nickname of the specific watermark you want. Hit Export. Yeah, seriously, it takes one step to add the watermark. Despite the many steps above, creating it didn't take all that long, either.

Watermarking in Lightroom 3 | egg-ofthephoenix.blogspot.com #tutorial #lightroom #watermark

You're done! Isn't my grandpa a good-looking fellow? I love this picture, if only the beer bottle hadn't been poking his chin haha. Please enjoy! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link back Jaclyn!

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    1. No problem! I always hated, before having a program like this, when I looked for a tutorial and only had pro results pop up or things that weren't very clear. I liked how you wrote yours, so I wanted the option provided. :)

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