Question: Should I Watermark or Copyright?

Why do I need to watermark my photos?  ...and not just with marks from a coffee cup!  Well, I've worked on my watermark (which I taught myself and summarized in the last post) and used some of my floral pics to test out the new look.  whoohoo! exciting stuff!  What's more exciting is that once you learn how to watermark, you can easily change it as needed, or as your brand is evolving.

Well, its spring time in the U.S. and the flowers are in bloom!  For a beginner like me, its like kids in a candy store with all of this good inspiration blooming around us.  I have the most beautiful roses blooming in my backyard and Texas just had its lovely bluebonnet season.  So much fun!  I am taking some amazing photos.  I know floral photography is probably overrated for most seasoned photographers, but for me, I am so excited to get to capture some pretty and colorful shots and also get to use some creativity. 

Note: You need to create a separate watermark for both your horizontal photos and your vertical photos.

I received some good input on a beginners Facebook page: if you use a watermark on your photos, don't use it in a place that distracts from the image....and don't make it too large, unless you're trying to sell your photo and don't want it reproduced.  Otherwise, if you just want to claim its yours, you can put your watermark somewhere in the corner of your photo. 

I started off making mine too large like this:

Watermarks and Copyrights

After I figured out how to actually do the watermark, my next question was: "when and how should I use my watermark?"  

Once you post your photo online, it immediately becomes accessible to the world.  Even on Facebook with privacy settings, any of your friends can copy and save your image.  So essentially, unless you never post online, your photos are always at risk of being copied.  If you're like me, its wold be a compliment if one of my friends liked my photo enough to save it, but if someone actually took my photo and made money with it (like for instance through a stock-photo website), then I would probably be pretty salty.  Putting watermarks on your photos will protect this from happening to you.

Here are questions your should ask yourself if you're wondering whether you should watermark your photos or not:

• Is your work available to the public?   
• Can anyone and everyone see your pictures?  
• Are your images uploaded to a photo hosting website?   
• Do you have a blog that you post photos to?  
• Do you share your work digitally?  
• Do you get paid for your work?   

Should I Watermark or Copyright?

You can go even further if you want by copyrighting your photos. There are two ways to copyright a photo: (1) the free way or  (2) the legal way.  

The Free Way

As soon as you take a photo, its yours and you own the rights to it. (According to the Berne Convention ) This is the copyright that is instantly yours and free for at least 25 years.  However, someone can use your photo if they credit you as the owner of the photo.  Unfortunately, this does not guarantee you will be paid when someone uses your photo or how you will prove its yours.  

The Legal Way

The legal way of copyrighting your photos protects you on all levels. You can apply through the U.S. Copyright Office to obtain a legal copyright to your photo, which can sometimes be expensive.  Obtaining a copyright through the Copyright Office is for those who sell their work to distributed publications.  If someone were to steal your photo, you are legally protected by the Copyright Office and the United States government. Go through the U.S. Copyright Office and register your work either online or on paper (the website offers a PDF file for you to download, fill out and mail in).  Registering online is much easier and provides you with a status tracker.  It is also cheaper to file online (only $35 versus $50 to do it on paper).  You can copyright a single photo or an entire collection of photos (Form GR/Pph/CON is needed for a group of published works).    

 At this stage in my learning curve, I think its safe to say that I won't be needing copyrights for my photos, but I will watermark my images if I feel like its necessary.  Hope this helps anyone wondering...