Where to position a watermark

[Drizzt321]

Watermarks help send all sorts of people to my website. Very small in lower right.

I know that Facebook takes it off when showing the people the center portion of the image (this is done automatically, not by people, by the way), but it shows up in the full image.

All sorts of people find my website, and I let my 720 pixel watermarked images go freely around the internet. It is like water down the river. It goes to the ocean, and then comes back to me again.

In fact, maybe there is a reason why it is called a watermark even though there is no water involved with the digital type of watermark. It's because it truly is like water going to the ocean and then coming back again to me!

This is probably the most intelligent use of watermarks I have every heard of. I may have to reconsider my opinion of them.

Perhaps I should have said signature, instead of watermark, although they are pretty similar in a lot of ways when applied visibly to a photograph.

For me, it's mostly in an effort to let people know who took the photo to more easily look me up, as well as a token effort in case someone does take my image and use it (on the web, I only put up smaller sizes) commercially or otherwise. That way, if they remove it, it's definitely willful infringement. After all, they had to make an effort to remove it, not "oops, didn't know". More of a trip-wire, than real protection.

[Fatalv]

Sorry... I don't see the option to vote for no watermark, because people who use watermarks are retarded err umm not bright.

You should scale down to an undesirable print resolution that would look good on screen and use exif data as mentioned previously. Otherwise you might as well go with DEAD CENTER and be crappy like that. Please take note of how many REAL professionals do that (Hint: None). If you are a middle aged photographer/soccer mom I can see how a watermark can be appealing.

Yes... because we are all retarded soccer mom photographers. Nice to be lumped into a category with all the mindless drones.

Anyway, back on topic. The OP asked a question. Maybe he meant signature and not watermark. If he meant watermark then EXIF is almost pointless. That data is stripped easily just by resaving a jpg and clicking an option.

Either dead center as mentioned above (but I would go with a transparent gray/white, etc. something less noticeable at first glance but would show up in print) or basically don't put anything online that you wouldn't want ripped of or stolen.

If you meant watermark, bottom right hand corner works well. I believe someone already mentioned due to how we read (left -> right, top -> bottom).

[archangelrichard]

Center of the subject (which may not be dead center)

The purpose of a watermark is to protect your copyright (which is why blank paper sometimes has a watermark) and they are called watermarks because they are almost completely transparent like water -- note: a watermark is often slanted across the image for better protection take a look here http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=8794978 (or look at any image on their site) or here http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-19259310-man-alone.php?isource=EN_PHOTOFMA

A signature, depends on your culture. Western based cultures read from the top left to bottom right so the bottom right is where it should be; Middle Eastern (Arab and Hebrew) read the other direction so the left is their choice; many asian cultures read top to bottom so the bottom right (spelled top to bottom) is best

Non-commercial stuff probably can be left un-watermarked

[blaydese]

Watermarks help send all sorts of people to my website. Very small in lower right.

I know that Facebook takes it off when showing the people the center portion of the image (this is done automatically, not by people, by the way), but it shows up in the full image.

All sorts of people find my website, and I let my 720 pixel watermarked images go freely around the internet. It is like water down the river. It goes to the ocean, and then comes back to me again.

In fact, maybe there is a reason why it is called a watermark even though there is no water involved with the digital type of watermark. It's because it truly is like water going to the ocean and then coming back again to me!

Agree +100

Now I need to find a way of
putting a watermark on a
picture.  NOT TO PROTECT IT,
but to PROMOTE IT !    

  I don't have photoshop,
what else can I use?   

Sorry to dig up an old thread,
but I searched and searched and
this was the best result, so shoot
me for using the search and not
starting a new thread.   

Not sure how you folks are
on being a necro.
Peace!
 

[crasher8]

Depends on possible crops.