Total Art Soul - for artists

Hi everyone! A newbie here...just wondering if i should have a watermark on my photos when uploading to the gallery? I have a watermark on all my photos on my Facebook "fan" page due to fears I have about trying to protect my work. I'm not really sure the right way to go about all of this is. I would appreciate any help you may be able to offer

Thank you sooo much! peace, jessica

It's a personal choice Jessica. If you feel better having it, then just do it. It's important to protect your work.

Jessica, I am trying to break the habit of using watermarks on small images online on Etsy and Artfire. I only upload images that are 72dpi, which is not anything that could be printed well. If I were loading high res images to a gallery for client viewing, it would be a different story.

Any more thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from others about how you feel re. watermarking your low-res images.

I don't put watermarks on any of my online images - if they're sufficiently discreet that they don't significantly distract from the image, they serve no useful purpose (generally easily removed with Photoshop).

For smaller images too there's little reason to try to protect them. (That's small as in number of pixels, not a low dpi number! The dpi number is totally irrelevant - its just a field in the jpeg file specification that has to have a number in it. At most it may be used by a print program as a hint to what size it should be printed in the absence of any other instructions, in general it just serves to mislead people into thinking it is something that is significant.)

In practice I believe there advantages in allowing people to copy images with some restrictions - see Using creative commons licencing for art and photography

Hi Mike!

I agree that smaller size pics aren't really an issue. I wouldn't upload a higher res image to the web without a watermark, though. As for dpi,(because I do believe dpi matters), try enlarging a lowly 72dpi 5x7 image to a 12x18 and printing it. You'll have so many blown-out pixels, the photo won't be recognizable. To upload a higher dpi print (even in a smaller size) is to invite someone to enlarge and print. Just my thoughts.

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There's a lot of muddled terminology on the internet

A 5x7 image does have a certain number of pixels per inch when printed, determined by how many pixels are in the source file. (dots are the spots of ink that the printer puts on the page to show the image, and dots per inch the resolution of the ink spot placement)

A jpeg image file doesn't have any physical linear dimensions, so the ppi/dpi field has no real meaning.

You are right that a file that prints at 72ppi at 7x5 inches will look poorer when printed at 10x8 inches, but its no longer being printed at 72 ppi, but at approximately 50 ppi ... but the file itself hasn't changed, it still has the same number of pixels, and that field in the file still says 72ppi/dpi.

A file that prints 30"x20" at 72ppi will look much better printed at 10x8 than the file that prints 7"x5" at 72ppi, because it has far more pixels in it. Its the number of pixels that matter, not the quoted ppi/dpi in the file.

(and yes, I know 7x5, 10x8, 30x20 aren't all the same shape, but thats imperial/American standard sizes for you! European sizes are more sensible, except the dimensions are too hard to remember!)