Rick Baker
07-20-2005, 12:15 PM
http://www.rickbakerimages.com/photography_advice/watermark_action.html
You can use the power of Adobe Photoshop "Actions" to easily watermark your images. I am going to show you how in this step by step article. You may want to refer to this article first with some more information on copyrighting, watermarking an deterring image theft.
http://www.rickbakerimages.com/photography_advice/copyrighting_your_images.html
Actions are like macros. You record a sequence of events that do a certain task or tasks and you can play them back multiple times. This allows you to do some very powerful things.
First of all, make sure your "Actions" palette is open. If it is not, go to the "Window" menu and choose "Actions."
Adobe Photoshop comes with some pre made actions, such as the "Aged Photo" action, which does just what you think it would do. It makes your photos look "aged".
You can skip this step if you know how actions work. Go ahead and select the "Aged Photo" action under the Image Effects set in the actions palette. Click on the arrow by "Image Effects" to open a menu of actions. Then left click on the "Aged Photo" action and click the play button at the bottom of the palette. It looks like the symbol for play on your VCR. After you hit the play button, Photoshop will run through a bunch of events that will make your photo look "aged." Now undo the changes in the History palette or revert to your saved file by going to the "File" menu and scrolling down to "Revert" and selecting it. The purpose of this exercise was to familiarize yourself with what actions do and how to use them.
Actions can be grouped into "sets", they are like folders that organize files on your hard drive, but instead you can group similar actions together with them. We are going to create a new set that will/can contain all your user made actions. Click on the "Create new set" icon at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks like a folder.
After you click the "Create new set" button, you should get a dialog box like the one in the screen shot below. Name the set "My Actions" or anything you like.
Before you create an action, you might want to take a look at your image dimensions. This watermark action, you are about to create, will create watermarks that will look different if used with different image sizes, so you may want to create several actions, one for each standard size(like 800 x 600 pixels), or always make sure your image is sized to one size. You can use the image size in the name of the action so you can tell which one to use for each size. Go to the "Image" menu and scroll down to "Image Size".
You will get this dialog box with your image's dimensions. Make a note of the width and height of your image in pixels (like 800 x 600). Also note the resolution. It should be 72 dpi. If it is not, change it to 72 dpi. 72 dpi is sufficient for displaying your images on the web. Anything higher is just a waste in file size and the higher, the better for image thieves. If you put up a high resolution image and they can find a way to download it, they can print it out with better results and that is probably something you do not want.
Now we need to create our action to go inside our newly created "Action Set." Highlight your new "Action set" by left clicking on it. Now click on the "Create new action" button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks kind of like a page, second from the right.
After you click on the "Create new action" button you will get this dialog box, in the screen shot below. Type in a title for the action in the "Name" field. Something like "Watermark 800 x 600 @ 72 dpi" or just "Watermark 800 x 600" unless you plan on watermarking images other than 72 dpi. In the "Set" field, make sure the "Action set" you just created is selected. You can select a function key that will launch your action(with or without the Shift or the Control key) if you wish or just skip it and if you desire, you can assign a color to it.
After you create and name your action, you want to start "recording" every event you take to make a watermark and later, you can play all of them back in sequence, every time you want to create a watermark, with the click of a button. Click the record button on the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks like the record button symbol on your VCR, second from the left.
Ok now Photoshop is recording everything you do for later playback. Select the "Horizontal Text Tool" which is represented by the "T" icon on the toolbar or just press the "T" key to select it. Select a font you wish to use at the top in the info bar and type out a text watermark(your web site URL would be good to use) and position it with the move tool(looks like an arrow or just press V) so it's in the center of the screen, something like in the screen shot below.
Press "Ctrl-T" and drag outside the bounding box that will appear. Drag the mouse and move the text layer you just created Clockwise until the watermark is diagonal like in the screen shot below.
I want to stroke my watermark with a black border. I can do this by going to the "Layer" menu, scrolling down to "Layer Style" and then sliding over and down to "Stroke."
I will change the stroke color by clicking on the "color" field under "Fill Type" and then selecting black and clicking "OK."
Now I see a preview of what my watermark is going to look like stroked with a black border and I like it, so I'm going to click "OK." to close the dialog box and apply the changes.
I think my watermark looks better stroked with a black border
The next thing we want to do is to lower the opacity of the watermark, so it's less obtrusive, but still effective. The way to do this is to go to the "Layers" palette, make sure the watermark layer is highlighted and selected by left-clicking on it. Then in the "Opacity" field at the top of the palette, left click on the arrow and drag it to the left and stop where you want. I think 33% is just about right for me.
Ok, we are done with the steps in making our watermark action, so we want to stop recording. To stop recording, click on the stop button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks just like the stop button on your VCR, first button on the left.
Our action is complete, but I want to show you it in action on another image. Remember, each image you use this action on must be the same dimensions and resolution as the image your created the action on, or the watermark won't look the same. This image is the same dimension and resolution, 800 x 600 @ 72 dpi. To play the action and watermark this image with it, I first need to select it, by left clicking on it and making sure it is highlighted. Then I press the play button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette.
This is the result of playing the action on this image, a watermark, just like the original. Aren't actions great?
You can "Batch Watermark" a bunch of images with Photoshop's Batch feature. There are several ways to do this. One way is to open all the images you want to watermark in Photoshop and then run the Batch command. This can use up a lot of memory though, so if your system doesn't have much memory, then you should limit the images opened to a few at a time. If you do have a decent amount of memory you can open a lot more. Here we have some images opened, all the same size to work with our watermark action, and ready to go.
Once you have your images to be watermarked opened, select the "Batch" feature by going to the "File" menu, scroll down to "Automate" and then slide over and select "Batch."
You will be presented with this dialog box. In the "Set" field, select the "Action Set" where your watermark action is. In the "Action" field, select your watermark action. In the "Source" field, select "Opened Files." In the "Destination" field, select "None." In the "Errors" field, select "Stop for Errors." You could change source to "Folder" and run the watermark on a bunch of images in a folder, but sometimes this does not work right or smoothly, so I'm showing you how to do it on opened images. Click "OK" to run the action on all opened files.
Here's the effect of our batch watermarking. I'm happy with it ;)
I hope you found this tutorial useful in making actions to watermark your images. Remember to make a separate action for each standard size you want to watermark. In the process, I hope you learned something about the power of actions and how to create them. They are pretty simple, just press record and do something and it play it back!
Article by Rick and Jeremy Baker
You can use the power of Adobe Photoshop "Actions" to easily watermark your images. I am going to show you how in this step by step article. You may want to refer to this article first with some more information on copyrighting, watermarking an deterring image theft.
http://www.rickbakerimages.com/photography_advice/copyrighting_your_images.html
Actions are like macros. You record a sequence of events that do a certain task or tasks and you can play them back multiple times. This allows you to do some very powerful things.
First of all, make sure your "Actions" palette is open. If it is not, go to the "Window" menu and choose "Actions."
Adobe Photoshop comes with some pre made actions, such as the "Aged Photo" action, which does just what you think it would do. It makes your photos look "aged".
You can skip this step if you know how actions work. Go ahead and select the "Aged Photo" action under the Image Effects set in the actions palette. Click on the arrow by "Image Effects" to open a menu of actions. Then left click on the "Aged Photo" action and click the play button at the bottom of the palette. It looks like the symbol for play on your VCR. After you hit the play button, Photoshop will run through a bunch of events that will make your photo look "aged." Now undo the changes in the History palette or revert to your saved file by going to the "File" menu and scrolling down to "Revert" and selecting it. The purpose of this exercise was to familiarize yourself with what actions do and how to use them.
Actions can be grouped into "sets", they are like folders that organize files on your hard drive, but instead you can group similar actions together with them. We are going to create a new set that will/can contain all your user made actions. Click on the "Create new set" icon at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks like a folder.
After you click the "Create new set" button, you should get a dialog box like the one in the screen shot below. Name the set "My Actions" or anything you like.
Before you create an action, you might want to take a look at your image dimensions. This watermark action, you are about to create, will create watermarks that will look different if used with different image sizes, so you may want to create several actions, one for each standard size(like 800 x 600 pixels), or always make sure your image is sized to one size. You can use the image size in the name of the action so you can tell which one to use for each size. Go to the "Image" menu and scroll down to "Image Size".
You will get this dialog box with your image's dimensions. Make a note of the width and height of your image in pixels (like 800 x 600). Also note the resolution. It should be 72 dpi. If it is not, change it to 72 dpi. 72 dpi is sufficient for displaying your images on the web. Anything higher is just a waste in file size and the higher, the better for image thieves. If you put up a high resolution image and they can find a way to download it, they can print it out with better results and that is probably something you do not want.
Now we need to create our action to go inside our newly created "Action Set." Highlight your new "Action set" by left clicking on it. Now click on the "Create new action" button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks kind of like a page, second from the right.
After you click on the "Create new action" button you will get this dialog box, in the screen shot below. Type in a title for the action in the "Name" field. Something like "Watermark 800 x 600 @ 72 dpi" or just "Watermark 800 x 600" unless you plan on watermarking images other than 72 dpi. In the "Set" field, make sure the "Action set" you just created is selected. You can select a function key that will launch your action(with or without the Shift or the Control key) if you wish or just skip it and if you desire, you can assign a color to it.
After you create and name your action, you want to start "recording" every event you take to make a watermark and later, you can play all of them back in sequence, every time you want to create a watermark, with the click of a button. Click the record button on the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks like the record button symbol on your VCR, second from the left.
Ok now Photoshop is recording everything you do for later playback. Select the "Horizontal Text Tool" which is represented by the "T" icon on the toolbar or just press the "T" key to select it. Select a font you wish to use at the top in the info bar and type out a text watermark(your web site URL would be good to use) and position it with the move tool(looks like an arrow or just press V) so it's in the center of the screen, something like in the screen shot below.
Press "Ctrl-T" and drag outside the bounding box that will appear. Drag the mouse and move the text layer you just created Clockwise until the watermark is diagonal like in the screen shot below.
I want to stroke my watermark with a black border. I can do this by going to the "Layer" menu, scrolling down to "Layer Style" and then sliding over and down to "Stroke."
I will change the stroke color by clicking on the "color" field under "Fill Type" and then selecting black and clicking "OK."
Now I see a preview of what my watermark is going to look like stroked with a black border and I like it, so I'm going to click "OK." to close the dialog box and apply the changes.
I think my watermark looks better stroked with a black border
The next thing we want to do is to lower the opacity of the watermark, so it's less obtrusive, but still effective. The way to do this is to go to the "Layers" palette, make sure the watermark layer is highlighted and selected by left-clicking on it. Then in the "Opacity" field at the top of the palette, left click on the arrow and drag it to the left and stop where you want. I think 33% is just about right for me.
Ok, we are done with the steps in making our watermark action, so we want to stop recording. To stop recording, click on the stop button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette. It looks just like the stop button on your VCR, first button on the left.
Our action is complete, but I want to show you it in action on another image. Remember, each image you use this action on must be the same dimensions and resolution as the image your created the action on, or the watermark won't look the same. This image is the same dimension and resolution, 800 x 600 @ 72 dpi. To play the action and watermark this image with it, I first need to select it, by left clicking on it and making sure it is highlighted. Then I press the play button at the bottom of the "Actions" palette.
This is the result of playing the action on this image, a watermark, just like the original. Aren't actions great?
You can "Batch Watermark" a bunch of images with Photoshop's Batch feature. There are several ways to do this. One way is to open all the images you want to watermark in Photoshop and then run the Batch command. This can use up a lot of memory though, so if your system doesn't have much memory, then you should limit the images opened to a few at a time. If you do have a decent amount of memory you can open a lot more. Here we have some images opened, all the same size to work with our watermark action, and ready to go.
Once you have your images to be watermarked opened, select the "Batch" feature by going to the "File" menu, scroll down to "Automate" and then slide over and select "Batch."
You will be presented with this dialog box. In the "Set" field, select the "Action Set" where your watermark action is. In the "Action" field, select your watermark action. In the "Source" field, select "Opened Files." In the "Destination" field, select "None." In the "Errors" field, select "Stop for Errors." You could change source to "Folder" and run the watermark on a bunch of images in a folder, but sometimes this does not work right or smoothly, so I'm showing you how to do it on opened images. Click "OK" to run the action on all opened files.
Here's the effect of our batch watermarking. I'm happy with it ;)
I hope you found this tutorial useful in making actions to watermark your images. Remember to make a separate action for each standard size you want to watermark. In the process, I hope you learned something about the power of actions and how to create them. They are pretty simple, just press record and do something and it play it back!
Article by Rick and Jeremy Baker