Protect and Copyright your Published Images

When you published new picture in your website or your blog. You may want to protect your work from unauthorized reuse by embedding digital copyright information in the file. Photoshop has watermark capabilities in (provided by Digimarc technology).

When apply Digimarc will embedded your information plus protection option and capability of tracking where your image is use over the web. Unfortunately, this is not free service. You must have Digimarc MyPictureMarc account that cost $79/year for 1,000 images, to put this to work.

But you have another free option to embed your copyright to your image, by put it in to EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data. In short, EXIF also include all shooting data (for example: date, time, shutter speed and etc.) from your digital camera. This data can read by many of graphic software Photoshop, ACDsee or stand alone EXIF reader.

This option is useful when you want to add your info. in your image but it’s lack of copyright protection. You information can easily remove or alter by anyone, unlike the Digimarc Watermark that insert invisible copyright data directly to image pixel. This is nearly impossible to remove unless you blur it hard enough. To see how to use photoshop to add EXIF data please click here.

To Apply Digimarc Watermark:

Please Note:

• You should apply a watermark only after an image is finished. If you change an image later, you have to apply the watermark to a new copy of the image.
• Make sure you have copy of your image. After apply watermark it cannot be remove.
• You cannot add a watermark to an image that has previously been marked.
• Digimarc filter can use only in RGB image, If you want to apply to Indexed color image (ex. GIF file) you have to convert to RGB and Convert back to indexed after apply watermark. to convert image mode use menu Image > Mode and select color mode that you would like to convert to.

To applying digital copyrights:

1. Flatten your image if your image have more than one layer, by using menu Layer > Flatten image.
2. Apply watermark by using menu Filter > Digimarc > Embed Watermark .
3. Click Personalize to enter you account information.
4. Select Image Attribute option:
   

   Restricted: to limit the use of the image.
   Do Not Copy: to specify that the image should not be copied.
   Adult Content: to mark the image suitable for adults only.

5. Select your target output – Monitor, Print or web.
6. In the Watermark Durability area, drag the slider or enter a value.
   

   Durability in this case is a compromise between visibility (very durable) and less visible (not durable). If you make the watermark less visible, someone can accidentally (or intentionally) damage or make it less effective by some image-processing operations. The more durable a watermark becomes, the more likely it will be visible to the eye, but the image will remain protected even if the image is scanned, modified with filters, or printed.

7. Select the Verify check box in the lower right. This tells Photoshop to double-check the image after the watermark is applied, to make sure it was successfully embedded.
8. Click OK to apply Watermark.

Using Photoshop to apply Copyright information:

You can apply you information by using menu File » File Info (Alt+Ctrl+I). You can also save your information as a template by using a button at the upper right conner and choose Save MetaData Template… You can save as many template as you want. After you finish click ok. You have to save your file to save EXIF info. But please note that some file format does not support MetaSata. To use with web you have to save as .jpg format this will not work in .gif and .png file format.

After apply you may notice that it have © at beginning of your file name.

When you published your photo, especially over the web, you will never know when it will be copy, edit or republished. To decide which method is best suit for you may depend on how valuable your picture is. But it’s alway smart to reserve your right with embedded watermark or your information that allow audience to track back to you.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 3:02 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.