So you’re a blogger. Awesome. Every blogger understands the value of including pictures in a post. A picture, as they say, says a thousand words. It’s true. A relevant picture or pictures can elevate a lousy blog post to a decent blog post or a decent post to a great post. But you know what does not add value to a post? A picture with a big ass watermark splashed across the middle of it. That post screams amateur. It screams “I am a self righteous jerk who wants the world to know that THIS is MINE.”
A great rule of thumb is to not post a picture anywhere on the internet that you are afraid someone will steal. Period. Yep, people take images all the time. Those people suck. They really do. And they need to be called out on their suckiness. But compromising your own work because of the fear that someone might take it is just silly.
Let’s be logical here. I am have seen FAR more blogs with stolen content than I have with stolen images. So should we just watermark our blog completely? Make it difficult to read, or at the very least, the eyesore that unsightly watermarked pictures are? That would be silly right? Of course it would.
I read a great article recently by a well respected photographer who takes the attitude that maybe you should just take a little pride in the fact that someone has used your image elsewhere. Again, he wasn’t suggesting you roll over and take it. But maybe you could just chill a little. And you should also consider the fact that images with grotesque watermarks are less likely to be shared (not stolen, shared). It doesn’t matter how awesome your chicken pot pie is, if you have plastered your name right smack in the middle of it nobody wants to pin that shit. You are far better off “signing” your image with your blog name/address neatly displayed somewhere less offensive. That is advertising, not insecurity.
3 Comments
I agree with you that a watermark right across the middle of an image is gaudy. But I have to disagree with the photog who said that it’s a compliment when someone rips off his images! If someone rips his picture it means it was an easy target to rip. That being said, I make a point and take the time to watermark each and every one of my images, especially ones with people in them, like my children. I keep the watermark to the corner and try to put them in places that keep with the flow of the image but I will always do it. It’s not about self promotion but about trying to deter the stealers from stealing.
Blah easy target. A lot of artists just don’t waste their time and effort worrying about who takes what. The KNOW that if they put it out there it may be stolen. That is life as we know it. Doesn’t make it right of course but I’d rather spend my time creating than chasing.
So the middle is not okay, but the corner is? right, gotcha, thanks.