Using PicMark for the Macintosh, I built a watermark that satisfies my objective: To put a proprietary mark on photos that does not destroy the beauty of the image. I also wanted to satisfy Thomas Johnson’s goal, to put a web address on each photo.
The ten examples below show the watermark I built. It’s not perfect — there is one photo where I can’t find the semi-invisible mark. But if we presume any thieves are likely to steal more than one picture, we have an excellent chance of catching them. Moreover, being so obviously marked, it’s seems at least plausible that they won’t steal our photos at all.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, real estate photography
Derek Burress says:
Swann: I tried to find your water mark this afternoon in the Cameron photo. In fact I even saved it to my disk so that I could blow it up and you know, I never did find it. Now that it has turned dark and the sun is not shinning through the windows, I can see it clearly.
BTW: I think you have too many rich clients. looking at the pictures, I do not think anyone in my neck of the woods could afford any of the homes which you have taken pictures of.
Here is what most of the homes in my neighborhood looks like: http://compostingtoilet.org/images/2007/composting-outhouse-781814.jpg
May 22, 2007 — 6:15 pm
Tony says:
only saw a part of one in the swimming pool. Great examples.
May 22, 2007 — 9:14 pm
Kevin Boer says:
Since they’re all the same color and in the same place on each picture, you can only see the ones where that particular spot is a different color. Is there an easy way to automatically vary the color so that it stands out, regardless of what the background color is? Or, if the objective is to make it nearly invisible to would-be thieves, but visible to copyright police, then would it be possible to automatically vary the color so that it blends in?
May 23, 2007 — 12:48 am
Greg Swann says:
> Since they’re all the same color and in the same place on each picture, you can only see the ones where that particular spot is a different color.
The way to think of it is as being about 5% of transparent lightness. Ergo, you’re only going to see it in fairly solid spaces of color. The pattern is regular, covering the whole photo.
> Is there an easy way to automatically vary the color so that it stands out, regardless of what the background color is?
None that I know of.
May 23, 2007 — 9:49 am
Kris Berg says:
Where are you using these? Our MLS won’t allow any identifying marks on the photos which could link the agent/company to the property. I suppose I could put a watermark my pics that says “Don’t steal this”, but that is hardly the point.
May 23, 2007 — 11:31 am
Greg Swann says:
> Our MLS won’t allow any identifying marks on the photos which could link the agent/company to the property.
For the MLS, we’ll use the patterned watermark without the copyright line.
May 23, 2007 — 11:48 am
Rhonda Porter says:
Greg, do you know what program will work for this if you (gasp) don’t use a Mac?
May 23, 2007 — 11:56 am
Greg Swann says:
Start here. No opinion on quality. Freeware in the Mac world is free. In the Windows world, it’s often crippleware — in fact watermarking is a common way of crippling Windows imaging software. If you find something you like, let us know about it.
May 23, 2007 — 1:02 pm
Rhonda Porter says:
Thanks, Greg. Will do!
May 23, 2007 — 1:03 pm
Jay Thompson says:
*Very* nicely done! The “hidden” mark definitely does not interfere with viewing the photo. And looking for it is kinda like one of those “spot the differences between these photos” challenges. I could see it in all but the second and last photo (though I swear I saw it in the last photo once, but I can’t find it again…)
Paint.net *might* work for Windoze. I’m graphically challenged, but will try giving it a shot when time permits.
May 24, 2007 — 12:41 pm