Watermarks in Photography

Creating a watermark is a personal choice that may be influenced by a variety of factors: where you publish your work, who you work with, past experiences with image theft, and more.

Instead of telling you to watermark your images or to avoid them completely, I want to explore both options and let you come to a conclusion that feels right to you. In the video below, Ian Plant and I talk about watermarks and our personal opinions on them. 

Now, let’s dive into the watermarking process in Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Lightroom.

How to Create a Watermark in Adobe Lightroom

• Go to Share and click on Custom Settings. Under Quality, you’ll find a checkbox called Include Watermark. When you click on it, text will automatically appear on your photograph.

  
  

  

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  To change the text, click on the cogwheel icon next to the watermark checkbox. You can write something different, pick a font, change the style, change the opacity, etc.

  
  

  

  
  

• If you want to add a graphic, go to Graphic (located next to Text) and upload a PNG or JPEG version of your logo. You can edit its size, opacity, vertical offset, and horizontal offset. (Ideally, this should be a PNG version of your logo. If you save your logo as a JPG file, it will lose its transparency.)

• Once you’re happy with everything, click on Done. If you want to remove the watermark, just click on the checkbox again and it will disappear from your image.

How to Create a Watermark in Adobe Lightroom Classic

• Click on the Lightroom Classic tab and select Edit Watermarks.

• This will automatically open a small window where you can add some text or upload a graphic. Lightroom automatically adds a copyright symbol to the editable text.

• When you click on Graphic, you’ll be prompted to select a file from your computer.

  
  

• Using Lightroom’s editing tools, you can make your watermark as bright or transparent as you like. You can also change its color, font, style, and position.

• Once you’re happy with the way everything looks, save your watermark. Click on Custom and select Save Current Settings as New Preset.

• When you need to apply the same watermark to another photo, go back to the Watermarks window, click on Custom, and select the watermark that you created earlier. Make sure to give it a unique name so that it’s easy to find it, especially if you're planning to create multiple watermarks.

As you can see, the process of creating a watermark in both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom is relatively straightforward.

What do you think of watermarking your photographs? Let us know in the comments.