??? About Watermarking My Product Pictures

[Ben]

Hi All,
Last week, I received a really nice photo taking kit that I had ordered.
Will I need any "special" program to watermark the product pictures that I will be taking?
Thanks again,
Ben

[mueller]

You should be able to use any graphics application to do this. What do you use to edit graphic files after you take the images?

[Ben]

Hi Mueller,
Basically, I haven't had to use any of the photo editing programs yet.
I've been usine the images supplied by the manufacturers.
Being that we're now adding new items that have crappy manufacturer's pics, I'll need to take my own photos.
I want to watermark them, and I'll probably end up taking pics of the rest of our products, and watermarking them as well.
I guess I could just use Photoshop or the like to add a simple watermark.
Thx,
Ben

[www.frik-n-frak.com]

If you don't wanna spend a bunch of big bucks on some high powered fancy-schmancy image editor - do a search for a freeware application called picture shark (picture-shark.com). Allows batch watermarking with ease! Cool little app!

~fr_k

[Ben]

Thanks Frik!
I'll do some snoopin' around on the 'ole web-a-roonie.
Ben

[TMS Clint]

Is it just me...

Is it just me, or does anyone else think watermarks are disgusting? I understand that you're going to put a lot of hard work into these photos and that you will be very upset if someone uses your photo to get a sale.

What I came up with for Texas Media Systems was to put a business card in the photos. Our logo is rather large on the card so I think it served to "brand" the image. Also, if someone steals the image, our logo, phone #, etc is all right there.

The benefits are: no ugly watermark, no extra photo manipulation necessary, color logo looks better than clear embossed watermark.
The hindrances are: easier to photo manipulate out the contents of a business card and replace them than to manipulate out a watermark.

I urge you though, if you must put in a watermark, to put it over a corner of the item. Specifically a corner that's too important to crop out of the image of the item. That seems to be the best compromise for the watermark inclined.

One last thought! Go ahead and use a picture without watermark for the thumbnail. It will be too small for anyone to really care about stealing, and people won't have to see columns of the same watermark in the same place. At that point, individual items stop looking like individual items.

[Ben]

Thanks TMS Clint.
I initially thought about the business card idea a while back, but the cropping issue deterred me from doing it that way. Also the fact that many of the items will be somewhat small in size (fishing lures), a bus card might not look quite right.
Anyway, I'll try a few and see how they look.
I want to place a nice subtle mark on the pics, so it's not overbearing the item.
I checked a bunch of your pics on the site mentioned above, and I couldn't find any pics that contained a business card.
Maybe you can post a link directly to one of the items so we can take a look at it?
Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate it.
Ben

[hanzoswords]

Ben are you the same been from the valor forums? i think i referred you to use the 3dcart i was wondering how you like it so far?