Watermarking and branding photos

[BritishTwinks]

What software do you guys use? Is there one that stands out as the best?

[Xstr8guy]

Arles by Digital Dutch does a fantastic job of watermaking pictures. It also is a gallery generator but the watermarking feature can be used on it's own.

[BritishTwinks]

Thanks.

One thing I need it to be able to do is put the logo in a different place depending on whether the picture is landscape or portrait. I don't think Arles can do that.

[gaybucks_chip]

We've used a bunch of different things, but Eyebatch is far and away the best I've run into. It's like $30 or something and allows flexibility in location of the watermark, automatic/batch resizing, multiple steps (as in, open pic | watermark | save | resize to thumbnail | save again | rename | save again )

It also supports sequential numbering and renaming, format conversion (.bmp to .jpg or whatever in about 15 different formats). And no, I don't have any connection with the company that makes it

[Xstr8guy]

Arles lets you put the watermark anywhere you want. But it can't distinguish potrait from landscape. But it's all relative... if you always want your logo in the upper right corner 5 pixels from the side and 3 pixels from the top, it will always be where you want it.

[BritishTwinks]

I guess you're right.

The only difficulty will be that if I put a logo in exactly the same place on 150,000 different pictures, it will sometimes cover the model's face. I was thinking it'd be better to add a new strip along the bottom to avoid that.

A small logo in the top left corner might be the easiest solution thought.

What do other people do?

[Xstr8guy]

If you make your watermark small, semi-transparent and placed in a corner there would be very few pictures that would be ruined.

[BritishTwinks]

Good advice, thanks! :love:

[BritishTwinks]

This is how the photos are ending up looking.

http://www.britishtwinks.com/example.jpg

Do you guys think it's ok? Too big, too small?

[Xstr8guy]

That looks great! Maybe a little smaller though.

[Bec]

I like it, and think the size is good - you want it where if they try to crop it off it'll reduce the value of the theft

[basschick]

i like it for free galleries and the tour, but i would reduce it for the member area. it's true that it would make it easier to steal, but it will also increase your member satisfaction.

[BritishTwinks]

Thanks everyone!

Is the photo itself a good size? That's the size we've (almost) decided on for all member area pics.

[Xstr8guy]

I personally think members are pics should be a little bigger than 750 on the long side.

The logo does look good in that location. And you managed to pull off red in a jpeg which I find incredibly difficult. I always get some weird artifacting unless I barely optimize the jpeg or use a gif.

[BritishTwinks]

It took quite a lot of work to get the red not to go weird, but it's ok now as long as the pics are not heavily compressed.

What size do you like for the members area? 750 is the biggest I can fit on my screen. If I make it bigger, the browser resizes it (and makes it look weird) but maybe my screen resolution isn't average.

What size pics do you prefer? What do you guys use in your member areas?