Creating a watermark in Adobe Lightroom is one of the most simple things you can do within it, it’s just a bit confusing for people new to it or those who aren’t using a lot of different watermarks. Once you get your watermark set up you can easily apply it to images.
Pretty early on in your photography life whether you are trying to turn pro or are just a hobbyist that likes to share your photos on Facebook, you will wonder if you should start using a watermark. Your watermark can be thought of as literally being your digital signature. Your watermark ties your photo to you. Watermarks also do help a lot with image theft. I’ve had it happen, it sucks when you see that someone has ripped off your photo. To prevent theft as well as advertise yourself you can watermark your images. Doing so is simple, I’ll show you how.
First you need to go to Edit>Edit Watermark.
When the Watermark Editor comes up you have several different ways to set up your watermark. The way I do it is to simply write my name or website in the box at the bottom and use a desirable font like Tahoma, Myriad, or even Arial Bold. The other option is to import a .png of your watermark. For some people they would rather have their signature or perhaps a logo, that’s fine too.
To use a .png logo go to the top of the right pane and select Image Options>Choose. From there select your file. Select at the very top left “Watermark Style” Text.
For text watermark simply write your text in the bottom box and change parameters on the right side to suit your needs.
How the options work and what you should consider.
Font. Select a good looking font, don’t skimp here, this is your brand even if it’s just personal. When it comes to alignment you have several choices. I really prefer the bottom left or right. For the Color I recommend either white or black, or a neutral shade between them. You want your image to stand out, not your watermark.
Shadow. The settings under shadow are pretty simple to understand. The opacity decides how bold your shadow is. The offset changes how far behind your text the shadow will fall, the radius determines how spread that shadow will be, and the angle determines where the shadows would fall as if there were a light source in front of the text. Generally you should leave these settings alone. You should almost always use the shadow because it will subtly help your watermark blend into the image by giving it a place as if it were in the scene. You don’t want your watermark to be a distraction so this is important.
Watermark Effects. Under watermark effects you have several options starting with Opacity. You may wish to bring down opacity on your watermark to make it more subtle. 80% is good for helping to tone down a white watermark. Size should be just enough to be hard to mask around and just big enough that someone can read your text at the size the image will be displayed at. Inset determines. The offset from the edge of the image. Anchor determines where on the image your watermark will go. Rotation is self explanatory.
When you are finished setting up your watermark go to the top left where it says “custom” and select “save current settings as new preset.” Give your new preset a name and click done in the bottom right of your window to be returned back to your main Lightroom view.
Now don’t go to the presets panel looking for your new preset, it’s not there. Instead when you are ready to export your image and add a watermark it will appear. Go to your export window and scroll down to the section titled “Watermarking” There you will see a checkbox for watermark. Check that box and then open the drag down menu and select your preset. Now export as usual.
You will now have a nice looking watermark on your image. With this technique you can have your work watermarked consistently and identically every time. I hope you find this useful because it’s really a great feature of Lightroom.
