Why Watermark?

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy

I’ve been asked on multiple occasions and quite often several times a week, why don’t I watermark my images.  The images I put on this website are licensed with the Creative Commons, Non-Commercial, Attribution licenses.  Which basically says you can take it, use it, reuse it as long as you don’t make money with it but give me some credit as the original artist.  But some of my  photography does get a watermark and that is generally hosted on my Zenfolio site.  These are photos I want to sell as artwork to help pay for the bills and a watermark is justified, I just wish I had a little more control on how and where the watermarks are placed.

Reasons to not watermark:

1. Watermarks are annoying and distracting to the image.
2. If someone wants to “steal” the image, they can likely remove the watermark anyway.
3. Automatic watermarking is often not well placed on the image, so you have to spend time to manually watermark.
4. The image may not hold specific value and you just want to share it.

Reasons to add watermarks:

1. A watermark is a notification that the image is protected under a copyright.
2. Watermarking is part of showing your brand.  (Actually thats were the term came from, branding your property.)
3. If someone does take the image and forward it to someone else, they will see it and go to your site based on your watermark.
4. There is also a notion that adding a watermark makes you appear professional.  I don’t know if I agree with this or not.

Some people may think that those that don’t watermark are saying that they don’t care about their photography and their art.  Other may think that those who watermark are snobs and control freaks.  Both of these may be true.  But I prefer to look at it this way, when I don’t watermark I’m being generous and wanting to share what I do freely but when I do watermark I’m asking for a bit of respect and consideration.

Which camp do you fall in, do you or do not watermark and why?