When I first heard of watermarks, it wasn’t in relation to photos, but instead on company letterhead. You’d see it on the legal documents from my parents’ companies, and on my school report card, much to my scheming chagrin. It may have something to do with why I generally associate watermarks with something dated. Perhaps. The reasoning behind using a watermark is in photography is a relatively apparent one; as protecting, intellectual property (imagery) is a greater and greater concern for people who produce in a time where technology is both friend and foe, and watermarking is a line of defense against those dark arts.
[REWIND: Make Your Own Sign Or Signature Into a Watermark in 10 Min (No Scanner Needed)]
As I’ve written about before, the chair of opinion on the matter, rocks back and forth on both the effectiveness of a watermark, and its practicality. Some see them as solely serving to distract and detract from the image, while others feel it’s great for name association. Some feel it’s entirely useless, and others just don’t seem to care.
Yet regardless of what side of the line in the sand you choose to be behind, there’s probably some validity to it, and I think most photographers have considered using watermarks at some time. If you’re going to use them, it’ll pay to know how to do it well, and Phlearn’s Aaron Nace, in rather typical friendly and informative fashion, demonstrates how to make a custom brush and use Photoshop to do just that.
Thoughts
Even if you’re not going to use the brush and watermark, as always, Aaron’s method of teaching guides you through steps and in the process shows you aspects of the program which you may want to use some other time. The approach also depicts ways you can manipulate the watermark since it is a brush, that you may not have thought of, such as changing its blending mode & opacity, or its color by sampling in the image.
Also don’t be put off by the seemingly daunting idea of ‘creating a brush.’ It’s far simpler than you may think. In fact, you may have to rewind that portion of the video to see it again because it happens to quickly.
If you like this, and would like to become quickly adept at Photoshop, I might suggest having a look around our site as we generally post tutorials like this often. And to have a look at the Phlearn Photoshop 101 & 201 as they are comprehensive and will have you doing things with Photoshop you may have otherwise thought too complex, or didn’t even know you could do.
Source: Phlearn YouTube
