Back to Work Monday | Why Watermark Your Images

In the state of Maryland, a photographer owns the copyrights to images they take.  Many photographers, including myself, will offer to sell digital images from a client session.  This means the client will receive a disk or flash drive of edited images with a print release.  The print release gives the client printing rights to make reproductions as per the guidelines set in the release.  Some photographers limit the size in which you are allowed to print and others are more flexible on sizes and kinds of prints.  Many photographers will release a set of images for online use with watermarks.  Many clients want to know if they purchase the digital images then why the watermark?

Here is the answer, while the client is purchasing the digital images, the photographer still owns the copyright.  A print release is not a release of copyrights, a print release is just what it says, a release to make prints.  Images are stolen everyday for various reasons.  By having watermarked images, this first reduces the risk of an image being stolen and second if a watermarked image is stolen, it will be easier to recover or cease unauthorized usage than an image without a watermark.  I personally have in my contract that the client can not sell their images to a third party.  This means that if little "Susie" is wearing a name brand dress in the photos, little Susie's mom can not turn around and sell the image to the name brand for profit.

Some photographers have rules in their contracts against submitting images for contests with other photographers or for print.  It is up to the client to read the contract and understand what they are signing and agreeing to.  If the client would like to take the images with the purpose of using for print on a commercial level or selling to a vendor, this should be discussed and appropriately handled with the photographer ahead of time.

An image is considered copyrighted the moment it is made public.  Altering or copying of copyrighted work is against the law and is punishable with fines or even jailtime if convicted.

Bottom line to copyrights is that once an image is online, it is online.  While photographers can safe guard as much as possible, there are some criminals that if they are going to steal the image, they are going to take it watermarked or not.

Are you a photographer looking to watermark your images?  You can contact a local graphic designer to work with you on coming up with your own creative mark or start by typing your name across your images.  I recommend including a website for easy contact also but that is just me.