This tutorial will show you how to add a watermark in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. There are other programs available for image editing and some can add a watermark to an image for you. Google’s Picasa is one of them. But based on a recent poll on the Owen Sound Camera Club’s Facebook page, Photoshop seems to be the program of choice.
The first thing you will do once you have an image opened in Photoshop is make a duplicate and work on it rather than the original. Once you have the duplicate file, its best to make it the right size before going forward. When sizing an image, always set the resolution first, then the dimensions. As outlined in the Photo Re-sizing tutorial, a photo destined for the internet or email should be 72 pixels per inch, and the length of the longest side, be it vertical or horizontal should be around 1000 pixels.
Once you have the image sized properly, go to you tool palette and select the Text Tool. It’s the icon that is a “T”. Across the top of the Photoshop window is a Tool Options area. Here you can adjust the size, style and colour of your font. Click on the image where you would like to start typing your watermark. You will notice that this creates a new layer in your file. IF you’d like to add the copyright symbol to the beginning of your name, copy and paste the following symbol to the place where you plan on typing: ©
Once you have your watermark typed out, you may wish to relocate it to a more suitable place on your image. To do this, select the Move Tool at the top of the list of tools on the left of the screen (the arrow with a small four way set of arrows), click and hold the mouse button and drag the text to the desired location. Once you have it where you want it, go to the menu at the top of the window and click on Layer then select Flatten Image at the bottom of the pop up menu. Your image is now watermarked and ready to save.
For those using other versions of Photoshop, the exact locations of the tools and their options may be different than what I’ve outlined here. This is just a general guideline for watermarking images and you may need to experiment a little to get the same result.
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