[Nacho_k3]

I have been sharing photos for a while now, but I want to make a watermark so people can know who made the photo. I have thought about putting my name, Ignasio Hernandez, but i feel like it is to long to have in there(maybe not?). Some of my friends have told me to incorporate my nickname, Nacho, into it, but i am not sure.

Any tips on how a logo is usually started? How to make it stand out? What designs to stay away from?

[severalsnakes]

Great questions, and many I have myself. I look forward to the responses!

[jatrax]

No wrong way to do it. Some suggestions (thoughts):

1) Your name
2) A nickname
3) Your business name
4) Business logo
5) A signature (sign on paper and scan to a PNG)
6) Your website

Your goal is to let people know whose picture it is so decide what, long term, you are going to go by and use that. On fine art stuff I use a signature, on other stuff I use the website Zigzag Mountain Art because they might not know me and I don't care as long as they go to the website.

[Heie]

My school of thought is "the cleaner/sleeker/less frills, the better." Because to me, that is just classy and ultimately professional.

That design, combined with using your actual name, are in my opinion the best way to do it. What I mean by your name is not anything like One Shot / Cheeky Eye / A New View / Flash Me / Special Moments / Dream / Click n Freeze ...Photography. Not trying to be rude/mean to anyone here that may use a name like that, however my personal opinion is that every time I see a "professional" that names their business that way I can't help but think that the photographer is an immature child, not a grown man/woman. It does everything to scream (to me) NOT A PROFESSIONAL.

Additionally, and if my argument above is too "rude," perhaps one of pragmatism may be convincing. If your business is named any of the above (essentially anything but your name), then you're just shooting yourself in the foot with regard to marketing and building name recognition. Especially if you are in a market area that is heavily saturated with photographers (and I will bet you a canvas that MANY of them have those types of names).

You can see my logo down below in my signature, but in case that doesn't show up, click on my website and it will be the first thing you see: Alex Jansen Photography | index

As for the actual design of my watermarks on photos, I edited it slightly by removing the "Photography" piece underneath and just going with "AlexJansen." I don't do a blanket watermark as each picture calls for a different intensity and more importantly, location. I try to naturally place the watermark so it doesn't detract from the image itself, but it still noticeable after the viewer appreciates the photo.

All my watermarks (saved from a simple .png vector file) are superimposed in either the original (black) or have the layer inverted (so turning the watermark white) depending on the image. And then the transparency of the watermark is set to anywhere from 15 to 35 percent. Once again - I want it readable and noticeable, but not the first thing your eye clues into.

Here are a few examples:





















Lately it's become a bit of a game of where can I "hide" the watermarks lol.

On a serious note, it's a balancing act of "do I want to be obnoxious and make it IMPOSSIBLE to have my work stolen, again by being perceived as obnoxious, or do I accept the fact that putting anything on the internet is taking a risk, and so I will prioritize my clients/viewers experience over the risk of image theft, mostly mitigated by the very low resolution uploaded."

So on my website, that's how you'll see all of my uploaded images. The only exception is digital proofs in a proofing gallery that they are going to be ordering from me (say a client session), and I don't want them screen shotting the images and then later saying "you know what, we decided not to order anything" and I later find the images on their Facebook. That's when you SHOULD be obnoxious, as it directly costs you money. In which case Zenfolio (my photography website host) easily puts a blanket watermark over everything, on both the gallery thumbnails as well as the enlarged view when you click on one: Example Client Gallery.

So in short, I initially think much higher of images that have watermarks like mine rather than ones that have swirly, complex script, artistic designs, etc for watermarks. Because if I have to take a second to decipher it, imagine the average Joe that has no interest in artistic/graphic design.

As for your name, if "Ignacio Hernandez" is too long for you (although, you could have it with two lines and above and below since the type words are similar in length:

I g n a c i o
Hernandez

...Ignacio
Hernandez

Two ideas, with the first being my preference. The periods in the second one are merely placeholders so the name shifts right (PF apparently auto aligns to the left and deletes empty spaces at the beginning of a line - just wanted the "Ignacio" centered over Hernandez).

OR, you could do something different - Iggy Hernandez or Iggy Hern. (with or without the period). A few things to play with, as well as perhaps you have a good middle name that works. My middle name is my PF account name here, and not a damn soul knows how to pronounce it in America (Dutch/Norwegian origin), so that would be a dumb move on my part. And remember, "Hernandez" is a very common name, so don't be afraid to stray from that and make it a bit different. Also, assuming you are Latin, what about using your other parent's name? (For those that don't know, it's Latin custom to have two last names, one from your mother's side and the other from your father's side).

Hope this helps and explains my take on watermarking as well as gives a few ideas on how to go about yours

-Heie

Edit to Add: If some of the images/watermarks aren't crisp, I think there's some image compression going on by PF's server. I kept them all under 1280/800px, however I think a few of the images exceeded the size limitations per file allowed. Apologies for the inconvenience, but I think you get the point You can head to my website for many other examples.

---

Last edited by Heie; 10-09-2015 at 04:58 PM.

[Nacho_k3]

My school of thought is "the cleaner/sleeker/less frills, the better." Because to me, that is just classy and ultimately professional.

That design, combined with using your actual name, are in my opinion the best way to do it. What I mean by your name is not anything like One Shot / Cheeky Eye / A New View / Flash Me / Special Moments / Dream / Click n Freeze ...Photography. Not trying to be rude/mean to anyone here that may use a name like that, however my personal opinion is that every time I see a "professional" that names their business that way I can't help but think that the photographer is an immature child, not a grown man/woman. It does everything to scream (to me) NOT A PROFESSIONAL.

Additionally, and if my argument above is too "rude," perhaps one of pragmatism may be convincing. If your business is named any of the above (essentially anything but your name), then you're just shooting yourself in the foot with regard to marketing and building name recognition. Especially if you are in a market area that is heavily saturated with photographers (and I will bet you a canvas that MANY of them have those types of names).

You can see my logo down below in my signature, but in case that doesn't show up, click on my website and it will be the first thing you see: Alex Jansen Photography | index

As for the actual design of my watermarks on photos, I edited it slightly by removing the "Photography" piece underneath and just going with "AlexJansen." I don't do a blanket watermark as each picture calls for a different intensity and more importantly, location. I try to naturally place the watermark so it doesn't detract from the image itself, but it still noticeable after the viewer appreciates the photo.

All my watermarks (saved from a simple .png vector file) are superimposed in either the original (black) or have the layer inverted (so turning the watermark white) depending on the image. And then the transparency of the watermark is set to anywhere from 15 to 35 percent. Once again - I want it readable and noticeable, but not the first thing your eye clues into.

Here are a few examples:

Attachment 284878

Attachment 284879

Attachment 284880

Attachment 284881

Attachment 284882

Attachment 284883

Attachment 284884

Attachment 284885

Attachment 284886

Attachment 284887

Lately it's become a bit of a game of where can I "hide" the watermarks lol.

On a serious note, it's a balancing act of "do I want to be obnoxious and make it IMPOSSIBLE to have my work stolen, again by being perceived as obnoxious, or do I accept the fact that putting anything on the internet is taking a risk, and so I will prioritize my clients/viewers experience over the risk of image theft, mostly mitigated by the very low resolution uploaded."

So on my website, that's how you'll see all of my uploaded images. The only exception is digital proofs in a proofing gallery that they are going to be ordering from me (say a client session), and I don't want them screen shotting the images and then later saying "you know what, we decided not to order anything" and I later find the images on their Facebook. That's when you SHOULD be obnoxious, as it directly costs you money. In which case Zenfolio (my photography website host) easily puts a blanket watermark over everything, on both the gallery thumbnails as well as the enlarged view when you click on one: Example Client Gallery.

So in short, I initially think much higher of images that have watermarks like mine rather than ones that have swirly, complex script, artistic designs, etc for watermarks. Because if I have to take a second to decipher it, imagine the average Joe that has no interest in artistic/graphic design.

As for your name, if "Ignacio Hernandez" is too long for you (although, you could have it with two lines and above and below since the type words are similar in length:

I g n a c i o
Hernandez

...Ignacio
Hernandez

Two ideas, with the first being my preference. The periods in the second one are merely placeholders so the name shifts right (PF apparently auto aligns to the left and deletes empty spaces at the beginning of a line - just wanted the "Ignacio" centered over Hernandez).

OR, you could do something different - Iggy Hernandez or Iggy Hern. (with or without the period). A few things to play with, as well as perhaps you have a good middle name that works. My middle name is my PF account name here, and not a damn soul knows how to pronounce it in America (Dutch/Norwegian origin), so that would be a dumb move on my part. And remember, "Hernandez" is a very common name, so don't be afraid to stray from that and make it a bit different. Also, assuming you are Latin, what about using your other parent's name? (For those that don't know, it's Latin custom to have two last names, one from your mother's side and the other from your father's side).

Hope this helps and explains my take on watermarking as well as gives a few ideas on how to go about yours

-Heie

Edit to Add: If some of the images/watermarks aren't crisp, I think there's some image compression going on by PF's server. I kept them all under 1280/800px, however I think a few of the images exceeded the size limitations per file allowed. Apologies for the inconvenience, but I think you get the point You can head to my website for many other examples.

Thanks for the comment! It was exactly for what I hoped for. Along with your watermark being simple and pleasant to look at, I like the way you have it a bit "hidden" , it's not shoving it at the viewers face like most I have seen. It's been something I have strayed away from for the time I have taken photos, but in a couple weeks I will start taking them for the Presidents Office at my University(I am a freshman and with this my photos will be viewed by many, so it will be a way to get my name around ). I will start to experiment with the tips you gave me. Thanks again!

Also, Iggy is another nickname some call me, lol. It's interesting to see how people think of it out of the blue.

[davidreilly3207]

I prefer a semi transparent script in the lower right corner as per my sample. A script font with 3d effect works well. Using the ping format in Lightroom preserves the transparency. I've made one of your name. You can resize in Lightroom's watermark dialogue when applying to an export.