How I Watermark My Photos using Photoshop

A watermark is simply a transparent layer applied over a photo.  What I'm going to show is the method of watermarking that I use.  I can't say that it is the only way, or the best way, to watermark a photo ... it's just the way I know, and I'm sharing it here in the hopes of helping anyone who may need a bit of advice on the subject.

I format my photos using Photoshop 6.0.  It is the oldest version of Photoshop that we have that will run on my Dell laptop.  When we bought this computer three years ago (or was it four?), my genius computer guy husband wanted to upgrade all my software to the latest and greatest versions.  I protested, since I didn't want to have to learn a whole heap of new programs, so we compromised.  I have the newer versions of some programs, and older versions of others.  I don't know how these instructions will apply to you if you run a different photo program, or a newer version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

I also want to say that all of the photos I publish here on the blog are formatted to be 640 pixels on the long side for horizontal photos, or 480 pixels on the short side for vertical photos.  This significantly reduces the file size and reduces the chance of running out of storage space on Blogger.  My watermark is formatted to be used on this size photo.

Let's get started.  First thing is to make a photo file to use as your watermark.  It can be anything you want.  Mine is simply a file with 'Hartwood Roses' typed in pale grey in Blackadder font.  It looks like this:

 

 

 

How to Make Your Watermark File.

 

1.  In Photoshop, Click 'File' and 'New' and create a blank file 500 pixels wide.  The height can be whatever, since it doesn't really matter.  Click 'OK'.

 

 

 

2.  Click on the Type Tool.  Choose a font and size and color.  Type your desired watermark text onto your file.  (For this example I used my same watermark size and font, but a different color so you can see it easier.)  This creates a second layer in your image.

 

 

 

3.  Do not flatten your image!  You need the two layers to be able to use it later.

 

4.  Click 'Save', name your file, and you now have a watermark to use whenever you are editing your photos.  I store my watermark file in the same folder where my formatted blog photos are stored, and I named the file so it's always the first file in the folder for easy access.  This is a .psd file (not the .jpg or any other image file that you are used to seeing.)

 

 

 

 

How to Use Your Watermark File.

 

Whenever I format and edit photos for the blog, I open my Watermark File along with all the other photo files I want to use.  For this example, let's use a photo of Ruby napping on the sofa.

 

 

 

After formatting and resizing your chosen photo, use the Rectangular Marquee tool to section off and copy the text portion of your Watermark File.

 

 

 

Now paste the copy onto your photo.  It pastes right into the center of your photo, but don't worry ... we'll move it in the next step.

 

 

 

Use the Move Tool to slide the text where you want it.

 

 

 

I forgot to say that your Watermark layer shows up as 'Layer 1'.  Your original photo layer is 'Background'.

 

 

 

I adjust the opacity of my Watermark so it fits the tone of the photo, so it doesn't interfere too much with the photo itself (but will still be a b*tch for anyone who may try to remove it).  The percentage of opacity is different for every photo ... I usually just wing it.  For this photo of Ruby, I reduced it to 35%.

 

 

 

Flatten your photo, save it in your choice of file format (I use .jpg) and you're finished!!

 

 

 

Photoshop is the only photo program I have really used for my online photo formatting.  (Occasionally I will play with PicMonkey, but the fact that I can only open one photo at a time using that site is a pain ... and I always open my resulting image in Photoshop afterward to add the watermark.)   Since I don't know how other programs work, this tutorial may or may not be of any use to you.  At the very least, perhaps this will help some folks understand the process of watermarking a little bit better.

 

... and I hope you aren't completely confused.

 

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Tune in tomorrow to see what some of our fellow bloggers see as they look out their kitchen windows.  There's still time to show everyone YOUR view, if you want to participate.  Send your photo, and a short description, to connie@hartwoodroses.com.  Make sure I get it by this evening, please.

 

It All Started While I Was Wasting Time on Pinterest ...

Last week, I was surfing around on Pinterest, looking at some boards with interesting garden ideas.  As I scrolled through one board, I saw one of the photos from my online rose rooting tutorial.  It's neat to know that folks I have never met like my stuff well enough to save it for later and share it with their friends.

 

 

My amusement quickly faded as I realized that the link in the pin DIDN'T come from my Hartwood Roses web site ... and that it had hundreds of repins ... who knows how far this has spread?

 

 

 

The link on the Pin led to a reputable web site that publishes independent articles ... in this case, an article on rooting roses that contained the stolen content.  I submitted a report to the site, telling them that the article used my photos without permission or attribution.  Yesterday, I received a response ... the article has been taken down. 

 

The damage is done, though.  I wrote that rose rooting tutorial a long time ago, when I was a more trusting soul and before I knew the importance of watermarking all of my online photos.  The hundreds of people who pinned and repinned this now have a dead link ... it never led them to my tutorial anyway, which is a shame.  (I have rooted a LOT of roses using this method, and so have many other people.)

 

For now, I have asked The Husband (my genius computer guy) to temporarily remove the tutorial from my web site.  It's not done as well as I would like, so this gives me the incentive to rework it a bit, to add some steps and photos (watermarked this time) to the process, and put up a better product.  Until I get this done, anyone who wants to learn to root roses using my method will be disappointed.  It's a shame ... but I don't think I have a choice.

 

Do you watermark the photos you publish online?  I use Photoshop 6.0 to edit and format photos and add my watermark.  I will be happy to work up a quick tutorial, if we have enough interest.  If you watermark your photos with a different program, I'd love for you to tell us about it.  It's WAY too easy for photos to lose their connection to their original creator, and I have a feeling that there's a need give bloggers the knowledge and tools to protect their intellectual property.

 

Let me finish by saying this ... I welcome ANYONE to pin my images and ideas ... just make sure that your pins are linked to original source.  Let this apply to ANYTHING you pin, and this corner of the Internet of ours will be a much more honest place to hang out.

 

Putting Down Roots

Earlier this year, I announced that I will no longer be propagating and growing masses and masses of roses for sale.  The business of a retail specialty nursery, along with maintaining and expanding my rose gardens, was too much work for one person ... especially one person who wants to do anything else at all with their time.

I'm still rooting roses, though.  Instead of producing the same popular roses over and over every year, now I have a limited number of roses that I am rooting for my own garden, for friends, and there may be some leftover that I could offer for sale.  We'll see how it goes. 

Rooting roses isn't rocket science.  Years ago, I attended a propagation workshop given by a rose friend, and the method she teaches changed my life!  She showed how the top of a two-liter soda bottle will fit into the bottom half-gallon milk jug, making a little self-contained greenhouse.  Genius!! 

My collection of jugs of cuttings live on a shelf in the north-facing window of my basement workshop.

 

 

I keep the lid on the soda-bottle top until the cuttings show good root development ... like this:

 

 

 

To harden the cuttings to outside conditions, I simply remove the screw lid on the soda bottle to let them acclimate.   (Look at the first photo and you will see a couple of jugs without lids.)   After a week or so without a lid, the cuttings are ready to be carefully separated and planted into small pots.

 

I had quite a few containers of cuttings that were ready to pot up, so I spent some time doing just that yesterday afternoon.  It seems that one of the cuttings in this container was being impatient and was already heading for the sky  ... I've never had one grow through the lid like this before.  (These are cuttings of a yellow Tea rose at Hollywood Cemetery.  I think it may be 'Isabella Sprunt', but I'm not sure.)

 

 

Look at these beautiful roots!!

 

 

 

It feels wonderful to have my hands in dirt ... no wonder I can't keep a decent manicure.  After a couple of hours, I had potted up 42 new plants.  I will let these little babies settle into their pots for a few days, sitting under the grow lights in the basement window, then I will take them to live in the greenhouse for the rest of the winter.

 

 

 

Speaking of the greenhouse, I should go out there and tidy things up a bit.  I practically shoved all my potted roses in there to protect them in preparation for Hurricane Sandy, and it's going to take some effort to get them arranged in any sort of logical order.  Working in the greenhouse doesn't feel like work at all, though ... it's warm and comfortable in there on sunny days.  For example, our current outdoor temperature is 50 degrees, and my remote thermometer in the kitchen window tells me that the inside of the greenhouse is 77.9  Shirt sleeve weather!  What a great way to pass the time till spring.

All That Glitters ...

I've been feeling crafty.  The only one of this past weekend's sales that held any appeal for me was the one at Michael's (craft store).  I have an idea for a really unique decoration for our front porch, and I needed to get the components for some of the ornaments.  I left Michael's with a basket full of clear plastic Christmas balls, and a sixteen papier mache stars ... all half price!

I will show you the balls later, once I'm finished with them.  For now, this is what I did to the stars.

 

 

And here is a step-by-step of how I did it.   Normally, I wouldn't do a tutorial about how to paint and glitter some papier mache stars, assuming that everyone knows how how this is done.  I discovered while helping Janet at her shop last week, though, that there are folks out there who have never used glitter and needed to be shown what to do with it. 

 

It seems like most projects around here involve Chalk Paint in some way.  In this case, I used Old White to put a quick base coat onto my stars.

 

 

 

 

 

After the paint dried (which didn't take any time at all), it was time for glitter.  I used Diamond Dust, which is a clear glass glitter that's available in just about any craft store.  It looks like coarse sugar and was exactly what I needed to make my stars sparkle.

 

 

 

Brush a generous coat of glue (I used Elmer's) onto one side of the star. 

 

 

 

Use a spoon to sprinkle glitter all over the glue.  The excess falls into the pan.  Keep scooping and sprinkling till no more glitter will stick to the star, then gently shake any loose glitter into the pan.  Glass glitter is great because it's heavier than synthetic glitter and it doesn't get all over the place.

 

 

 

All done.

 

 

 

I applied glue and glitter to one side of each of my stars, and I laid them out on the counter to dry.  By the time I did the last star, the first one was dry enough for me to carefully do the reverse side.

 

The transformation from brown papier mache star to sparkly ornament is simple and perfect for what I'm planning.  (No hints ... I don't want to spoil the surprise.)

 

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Sending a special Thank You for those of you who have sent your Kitchen Window photos.  I am so excited to share these next week!  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Click HERE for details.

Through the Window

My sweet husband has the flu.  I'm doing what I can to limit my exposure to him and his germs, while making sure that he takes his medicine and gets enough to drink.  I don't want to be this disease's next victim. 

Last night was my second night sleeping on the sofa, leaving our bed to my husband and his germs ... I'm thankful that our family room sofa is really comfortable to sleep on.  When I woke up yesterday morning, the room was filled with lovely violet light.  I turned toward the window, and this is what I saw.

 

 

That's Dorothy on the left and Alice on the right, silhouetted against the sunrise, mesmerized by all the birds that were outside the window.  How lucky was it that I had my iPad at hand to capture the scene!

 

I hope my husband will feel a bit better when he wakes up this morning.  The flu is a nasty, nasty thing.

 

Christmas Lights

I prefer to keep our outdoor Christmas lights simple.  White only, please, and only on the roof of our porch. 

Our porch is nine feet square, and the roof is almost flat ... perfect for setting a Christmas scene.

 

The Christmas tree is seven feet tall, one of those white, prelit ones without needles ... labeled for indoor or outdoor use, and perfect for this spot.  The icicle lights on the eaves create a 'stage' for the scene.  One of our neighbors tells me that satellites can probably see this tree from space.  It's not THAT bright, is it?

 

Next up ... the front door and the porch itself.  You're gonna love what I have planned!  (Our oldest grandson is here with us this weekend, and he and I will go shopping in a little while to get what we need to make some decorations.)

 

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Don't forget about the 'Through the Kitchen Window" project for next week.  (The idea is to share views from all over the world, if possible.)  If you didn't see my post about this, click HERE to see my kitchen window view.  If you've promised a photo, don't forget to send it to me.  email: connie@hartwoodroses.com. 

The View from Up Here

My goal for yesterday was to get our outdoor Christmas lights up.  The only place we put lights is on the eaves and roof of the porch, and I can walk right out onto the porch roof to do this ... no need for a ladder.

As I was sitting up there cross-legged on the roof, working to untangle and straighten out the icicle lights, I realized that you would probably like to see what it looks like from up there.  A few quick iPad photos later, and this is what we have ... going from left to right. 

Our house faces east.  This is the view toward the north.  The leaves are almost all off the trees now, but there are still a surprising number of roses in the Hybrid Tea Garden.  Look in the background and you can see the round hay bales that Hartwood Winery next door uses for their fall decoration. 

 

 

When I tell folks that I live next door to a winery, some of them can't comprehend that I REALLY mean next door ... in country road terms, that is.  (Our pasture separates the two driveways)  This photo also shows a peek at our across-the-street neighbors' house.  It's a lovely early 20th Century farmhouse, which was built when one of the granddaughters of our home's original owner married into the Courtney family down the road.

 

 

 

Our front yard needs a BIG renovation next year.  It's vast and empty, and we HAVE to do something about it.  The only feature the storms have left us is this large Southern Magnolia tree.  Losing our big trees has opened up the whole yard to sunshine, so we have lots of landscaping choices to make ... have to repair the fence, too.

 

 

 

This is where you can REALLY see the devastation.  There used to be two huge oak trees, where there are now just piles of wood chips (from the stump grinder).  The stack of wood that we saved from the one tree is still sitting in the yard under that brown tarp.  Each piece huge and heavy, and we will soon put together a work crew with strong young men, a trailer and a couple of tractors to get it moved to the barn so it can dry.

 

 

 

Here is our view to the south.  The white fence holds my Van Fleet Ramblers, and the brown fence is the beginning of the Barbier Rambler Fence.  You also get a good look at the top of the bay window in our family room.  The 4-sided, 2-story bays are very distinctive feature of our house.

 

 

 

It didn't take very long for me to put up the Christmas lights.  This evening, once the sun goes down, I will take a photo and show you what they look like.