Watermark Your Images

Welcome to this Photoshop tutorial.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to add a watermark to any image you wish to watermark for the web or perhaps for a client that is interested in seeing your portfolio. It may sound complicated, but its really simple, and with a bit of practice you will have it licked in no time!! so lets get to it….

STEP – 1

Open any image you would like to use for watermarking as well as your “logo” that will be used as your watermark.

STEP – 2

On your watermark image, open the image size window (alt+ctrl+i), and set the resolution to 72dpi

STEP – 3

Select the marquee tool ( m ) and drag a selection around your watermark image. you can also do this by using the lasso tool ( L ).

But also remember to set the feather value to zero before you make the selection.

STEP- 4

Once you have made your selection, select the move tool ( v ) and then click and drag your watermark onto the image you opened earlier to have a watermark added.

STEP – 5

Now open the layers palette, and then click on the little picture of your watermark (layer 1), ctrl+click to make a selection.

STEP – 6

now open the paths palette and right at the bottom click on the tiny button that turns your selection into a work path.( the third one from the right).

STEP – 7

now go back to your layers palette, and delete layer 1.( your watermark that you first imported onto the image we are busy with.) you will (or at least you should be) left with just an outline of your watermark.

If you want to learn how to automate your watermarking process click here.

STEP – 8

Ok, so far??….Groovy…

Now… go to your layers palette, and create a new layer, by clicking on the little button right at the bottom of the layers palette.(the second one from the right, next to the trash can!).

STEP – 9

Ok, now go back to the paths palette, and ctrl+click on the work path of the watermark we made earlier. This will make a selection of the watermark.

STEP – 10

Next we will fill the watermark with a solid colour. (in this case I have used white but experiment with your own colours for different effects.)

To fill the selection with a solid colour, simply press ctrl+backspace. and instantly you have will have filled the selection with the background colour, but if you want to use a different colour, just choose one before you fill the selection as mentioned above. You can also use the paint bucket or any other method you know, however I find this to be the quickest, but that’s just me, so feel free to use your own tried and tested methods for filling in.

STEP – 11

Now that the selection has been filled in with your solid colour, go to the layers palette, and with layer 1 selected (this is your watermark image), click on the layer style button, right at the bottom, second from the left. A menu will pop out and on this you must select the drop shadow.

STEP – 12

In the drop shadow window, change the blend mode to screen. the distance, spread and size have no set value, so again, experiment with different sizes to see what works best for you. But in this example I have set the distance to 15px, the spread is set to 4px, and the size I have made 5px.

STEP – 13

Once the drop shadow is done then, select the bevel and emboss menu from the list on the left of the layer style window.

Change the technique to chisel hard. The other values here you can also adjust to suit your own taste, but try not to make it too dramatic as you might detract from the photo once you are done. The aim of this watermark is for it to be as unobtrusive as possible, but still visible enough to make a point .

In this example I have set the values as follows:

direction – up

size – 18px

angles – 30 deg.

the highlight and shadow modes are by default set to screen and multiply respectively. leave them as they are. but do change the opacity,

screen – 85%

multiply – 35%

STEP – 14

Now on the left of the layer styles window, select blending options. and under the advanced blending dial the fill opacity to zero, but if you think it makes your watermark too transparent, then tune it up a bit. Once you are happy with the opacity of your watermark, click OK on the right.

STEP – 15

And our last step is to center the watermark in the exact center of the photo. Firstly, select the entire image by pressing ctrl+A or going to select-all. Now, once the whole image is selected ( its important that it is) go up to the layer menu, and scroll down to the align layers to selection menu. Another menu will pop out with a few options, but to get the watermark centered, select both the vertical and horizontal centers. You can only select one at a time so you have to repeat this step twice. Now head over to your Paths palette, and delete the work path you created back in step 6. When you have done that, deselect the image by pressing ctrl+D.

STEP – 16

And there you have it. A groovy looking watermark that protects your photos, and if you used a logo for your business then it doubles as advertising every time someone looks at your photos.

I hope you learned something new, and had as much fun with this tutorial as I did, and that it comes in handy in the future. Please feel free to leave a comment if you perhaps have a different way or even a better one that you have discovered in doing what I have covered in this tutorial.