Lesson on Watermarking pic's

[Stoker1]

Greg, you mentioned giving a quick class on how to watermark your pictures. I've tried a few times with the PS7...

Layer - background copy
Filter
Digimarc
Embed Watermark
Personalize

And then I hit a wall. If you've never used this stuff, its confusing at best.:o

Jamie

[Scream And Fly]

Oops, sorry - I totally forgot about this. If you're referring to my "S&F" image at the bottom of the image, that is not a Digimarc Watermark. It's just an image overlay. Is that what you wanted?

[Stoker1]

Yes. I'm wanting to accomplish the same type of signature as you've done on your pictures:)

No rush buddy.

[Scream And Fly]

Okay Jamie, here goes. This is the quick and easy way to make and record a watermark macro. It's late, so if I forget anything or confuse you, let me know.



Step 1: Load your image into Photoshop and make sure the Actions window is visible (if it's not visible, go to 'Window' then click 'Actions' to bring up the actions window). We want to record a watermark action, so let's create a folder for our action set. Click on the folder icon in the action window to do this.

Note: To practice, you can run through these steps without recording the action.
http://i12.tinypic.com/2qte5is.jpg



Step 2: When you click on the action set icon, a small window will pop up as indicated below. This will be the folder for your action set. Give it a name and choose OK. :)
http://i18.tinypic.com/2psmu6s.jpg


Step 3: Now click on the New Action icon as indicated below and name the action. Once you choose OK, the action will begin to record. Remember that if you want to experiment, click "Stop" on the recording controls in the actions window. Only record the necessary steps for the macro. You may want to run through these steps for practice a few times before actually recording the macro, just so you get all steps as you want them for the watermark action.
http://i18.tinypic.com/2j4o68o.jpg



Step 4: Let's click on the text tool, then select your font and font size. If needed, stop the recording for now while you decide what font and size you want. Again, it may be best to experiment prior to these steps just to know what you're looking to do so you can record it all at once. You can also adjust your anti-aliasing settings for text and other things.
Click on the image with the text tool selected, and Photoshop will automatically create the text layer for you. Type out your text and use the Move tool (four arrows icon on main tool window) to move it into its desired position on the image.
http://i17.tinypic.com/2dj2m4w.jpg



Step 5: Double-click on the text layer in the Layers window. Here you can adjust aspects of how your text will look.
http://i16.tinypic.com/2lxwbwg.jpg


Step 6: Click on the color overlay option and change the text color to a light gray. I have my color palette set to 'web only' colors. Once you select your color, choose OK.
http://i18.tinypic.com/2rvydg4.jpg



Step 7: Click on Blending Options, then adjust opacity to 40%.
http://i17.tinypic.com/473ri1w.jpg



Step 8: Check Drop Shadow - default settings should be fine for now. Double-click on the Stroke option. Change the color to black, and adjust thickness to suit your needs. I chose two pixels here. Choose OK when finished there.
http://i18.tinypic.com/3ycj18m.jpg


Step 9: When you're finished adjusting your text appearance, choose OK to close the text layer style window. Go to the top and choose 'Layer', then 'Flatten Image'. You can now click the stop button on the action record window. You're finished :)
http://i19.tinypic.com/4gflx01.jpg


The finished image: With this action, just click "play" for any image you want to watermark. You can now use this action in batch processing too. Your Nikon camera shoots at 300 DPI by default, so make sure any image you watermark is set at 300 DPI. You can create another watermark for 72 DPI images, etc. The DPI value only matters for printing.
http://i12.tinypic.com/434tz5d.jpg

[Stoker1]

Sweetness Greg. Didn't mean to trouble you from your other duties.

I'll give it a try tonight and maybe show a little result. Thank you once again.

[Scream And Fly]

Jamie, just checking - how did this work out for you?

Greg

[Stoker1]

Greg, was looking forward to reporting some good news but not as of yet.

Got to play with it a little Sunday evening and got about halfway done with one, when Father Duties called.... help daughter brush teeth, change clothes, read a book, put to bed etc.:)

SITREP will happen soon:)