Adi's Photography: Photoshop Tutorial 01: Watermarking!

Hey shutterbugs! So you guys clicked some cool pictures and you want to put your ID on it, what do you do? Watermark your photos!!

First, some info: (Skip if you are in a hurry!) Visible Watermarking is a process of placing your logo, signature or contact info or just your name on a picture to digitally secure your photograph, usually irreversibly, from theft. It is usually mistaken with a digital signature, which on the other hand is actually a logo or sign that is placed at the border of a photo to identify the author or creator.
Invisible Watermarking is a process of irreversibly embedding Copyright information into a digital photo. It is not visible on the picture itself, but can be detected via watermark detectors. All DSLRs have an option to embed the Author info, copyright info and other custom text into each and every file that comes out of it. So if you plan to steal a photo, you'll need a good lawyer! ;)

OK, now to the tutorial! Yes, this is officially the first tutorial that I'm posting. I always though I'll make one, but a few friends asked for this one, so here you go people. Note that this requires basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop or whatever image editing software you are used to. There are loads of tutorials to learn photoshop basics. Just remember the magic word: "GOOGLE".

Lets begin:

You will need :

Photo editing software. I prefer Adobe Photoshop and i will be using this software for all my tutorials.
A photo! Duh!
Some good looking fonts!
Artistic and Aesthetic Sense

Step 1:
Load up a copy of your photo on Photoshop (PS). Watermarking is the last phase of processing your photo for the web and you will need to have it at a low resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch).
To do this, after you have finished all your color correction (CC), Levels, etc., in photoshop:
Go to Image > Image Size
In the window,
Uncheck "Resample Image" and set the resolution to 72.
Ckick OK.

Step 2:
Use the "Text Tool" to make a new text layer on the photo. Type whatever you want (for example: "WATERMARK 2009") with your font of choice and then hit CTRL+ENTER to confirm. Resize the layer using free transform (shortcut CTRL+T) and place it where ever you want. Hit ENTER. This is faster and more pracitcal than playing around with the font sizes.

Step 3:
In the "Layers" panel, your new text layer will be visible. Now, you can adjust its Opacity (which is the opposite of Transparency) to whatever value you like. This makes your layer transparent if set to 0% or completely opaque at 100%. Play with it till you are satisfied.
As an additional step change the layer's blending mode to "Overlay" from the drop down list. This makes the layer adopt the luminance from the layer beneath itself keeping the color from the same layer. (Click the following image to enlarge)

Step 4:
Save your work as usual as a JPEG.

Thats basically it and you're done.
This is the very basic stuff you need to know and the rest you can experiment yourself.

Tips and Advanced Stuff:

Always make a copy of your photos before you edit them. I have copies of all orignals and the edited ones in two different sizes (one for the web and one for printing).
As an advanced step, you can add dropshadow or glow to your text layer, but remember it should not distract the viewer from enjoying your photo.
Still advanced, if you have a logo or a text layer that you use often, make sure the background is transparent (delete the background layer) and then you can convert the text/logo layer into a "Smart Object". You can later import this smart object into any photo via the Import option. Thats what i do to watermark my photos with my logo. Its so quick it takes around 10 seconds to watermark once this is done.

If you guys have any questions or issues, leave a comment and i will try my best to help. As usual, i do this out of my interest to help people and i take my time out for it. So i hope you find this stuff useful. If it has helped you, leave a comment so i know!

Keep Clickin'!