Photography Introductory classes ushered me to the concept of watermarking images, which according to my teacher then was the act of “putting your stamp” on an image you shot and claiming it as yours or more technically put “A watermark is a logo, piece of text or signature superimposed onto a photograph. Watermarks are typically transparent, so those viewing the image can still admire it. You can usually identify the photographer that shot the image through the watermark”.
When I started out, I used to watermark everything I shot and I mean EVERYTHING, the belief then was if it’d take one image for me to ‘blow’, I definitely want the world to know it was me who shot that image when it goes viral and I wasn’t the only one in this ‘bus of thought’. I had friends who’d plaster their names boldly across images they shot because well…they shot it.
Over time, my idea on how watermarks should work has drastically changed (with a period between 2018 and 2020, seeing me completely avoiding them), I have an idea about metadata, how it works, and more importantly, how not to use watermarks but there are still some photographers who have a misconception on how watermarks should work and the context within which to use them and some clients who have ‘ridiculous’ expectations because they’re paying you.
Watermarks SUBTLY tell the viewer of an image that a certain photographer shot the images (and just in case you missed the key word there; its SUBTLE), Watermarks should never distract from the image which is why industry professionals recommend they appear faded so that the image audience isn’t distracted but some photographers go as far as building watermarks that included their phone numbers and in some cases, studio location address (I kid you not, I’ve actually seen a couple). The general idea when shooting events also is that you deliver the images as shot without really altering them much, which means ideally, there should be no watermarks but I know photographers who throw their stamps right in the middle of the image. My aunt’s wedding photographer did exactly that without remorse and when I spoke with him, it almost broke out into a verbal brawl.
On the other hand, sometimes clients personally request that a photographer include their watermark, this sometimes happens when a client is most impressed with the photographer’s work and wants to publicize the photographer (offer exposure). Also, it is a social strata thing. Maybe the photographer is a big deal and the client wants to brag that he/she shot with the said photographer. Sometimes, clients even ask that photographers not include their watermark for a host of reasons.
I spoke with three of my photographer friends about the issue and this is what they had to say;
- David Ifaola (picturesbyhaniff);
“I stopped using watermarks a long while back. Just didn’t see the importance anymore. sometimes they work but most times, they throw the aesthetics of an image off and its not worth the stress trying to figure out if they work in an image or not. I’ve had people request that I include watermarks but till date, no one has ever asked me not to include watermark or take it off when I put it in. I guess I’m just lucky”
- Otome Onoge (i_am_oti);
“To me these days, watermarking is more about redirecting traffic to my Instagram page which is why I use my username as my watermark. As for having bad experience relating to watermarks, there are a couple times when people have taken off the watermark for whatever reason. I try not to think of it but there are also times when I’ve left it off my images and clients call to request that I include it… I don’t watermark event pictures. The stress of deciding where to put it each time. If someone loves my event images, its easy to ask the client and have them refer me”
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