Watermark Placement Question

[mouselovenfamily]

I'm getting busier with my photography and have decided to add watermarks to my photos I sell. When I send the photos off to be developed, some of my watermarks are being cut off as the photos are being cropped to size. I usually place the watermark in the lower right like most do. Is there a safe distance to place the watermark without getting it cropped off and yet have it not seem too far into the photo??

Thanks~
Renee

 

[VVFF]

I'm getting busier with my photography and have decided to add watermarks to my photos I sell. When I send the photos off to be developed, some of my watermarks are being cut off as the photos are being cropped to size. I usually place the watermark in the lower right like most do. Is there a safe distance to place the watermark without getting it cropped off and yet have it not seem too far into the photo??

Thanks~
Renee

Why not crop your photos to size yourself?

 

[mouselovenfamily]

I do crop them, yet when I send them over to be printed and I select say an 8x10, it does an additional crop and that's where the problem comes in.

 

[VVFF]

I do crop them, yet when I send them over to be printed and I select say an 8x10, it does an additional crop and that's where the problem comes in.

Do you crop them to the same aspect of what your printing them at? For instance 4 x 6 and 8 x 10 are two different aspect ratios and need different cropping. I so, perhaps its time to try a new vendor. I've never seen "additional" cropping, at least nothing to noticeable.

 

[MICKEY88]

Do you crop them to the same aspect of what your printing them at? For instance 4 x 6 and 8 x 10 are two different aspect ratios and need different cropping. I so, perhaps its time to try a new vendor. I've never seen "additional" cropping, at least nothing to noticeable.

this is definitely the key, cropping each print to size for each size you are ordering,
also what lab are you using..with mpix after uploading you can crop to make sure it turns out the way you want it to..

another option is to add a border befor uploading, withthe right size border the print can be cropped to any size without losing important data, just the border gets trimmed..

I generally use black and white, but for the second pic used the school colors..

 

[mouselovenfamily]

Hopefully this is where time and experience will catch up to me! here is my current problem...I edited a photo in Elements 7, turned to black and white, then I added a grunge effect tot he edging. It's wanted in a poster size photo. When I upload my photo, the photo is made more narrow for the size I'm ordering, which removes most of the effect on the sides.

Am I missing something in elements that will allow me to choose sizes prior to editing??

 

[jann1033]

if you are using the crop tool along the top of the window are settings where you can put in whatever size and resolution you want. use the custom setting then fill in the boxes to whatever size if it isn't displayed in the drop down box. at the bottom left it will show what size the photo open in the window is. not sure if that is what you mean or not.

if you have a site you sell on,put a finished jpg on that but save the tiff file after you do everything but the border( ie some borders i use have old looking tape or torn edges what would look funny 1/2 cropped). then you can crop to whatever size is wanted and add the border or whatever. course you can only do that if you have the option to ok the sale before it's sent . then you can do whatever you need to the tiff and download that for the sale..at least that is what i did with zenfolio/ mpix . shwoo, which is in part why i went to imagekind where i don't have to do that. they only sell each photo in the same ratio but different sizes

 

[chrisblank]

Each photo size has a different aspect ratio. 4x6 is 1.5:1, 5x7 is 1.4:1 and 8x10 is 1.25:1. So unless your lab allows you to preview the crop you will have to crop yourself for each size. In Elements 6.0 when you select the crop tool you can select the crop ratio for the type of print you want. I am not sure how Elements 7.0 works but I am sure it is close to the same.

For most of my photos I use a 1.4:1 crop which works well for 4x6 and 5x7. 8x10's require additional cropping. I use smugmug and when you order prints it allows you to adjust the crop of the photo. Their help page on this can be found searching on google for, smugmug help cropping. I don't have 10 posts yet so I can't do a direct link, Sorry

 

[VVFF]

if you are using the crop tool along the top of the window are settings where you can put in whatever size and resolution you want. use the custom setting then fill in the boxes to whatever size if it isn't displayed in the drop down box. at the bottom left it will show what size the photo open in the window is. not sure if that is what you mean or not.

if you have a site you sell on,put a finished jpg on that but save the tiff file after you do everything but the border( ie some borders i use have old looking tape or torn edges what would look funny 1/2 cropped). then you can crop to whatever size is wanted and add the border or whatever. course you can only do that if you have the option to ok the sale before it's sent . then you can do whatever you need to the tiff and download that for the sale..at least that is what i did with zenfolio/ mpix . shwoo, which is in part why i went to imagekind where i don't have to do that. they only sell each photo in the same ratio but different sizes

Jann beat me to further explanation but is correct, crop before you apply any edge effects. You don't have to save it like this, you can make a copy only for printing. So if you want a 4x6 make sure the crop selection tool is set to a 4x6 aspect ratio. If you want a 8x10 or 5x7 make sure you set it to that. Then only use that version of the image when ordering that size print.

 

[jann1033]

sorry , I always just ship it back to lightroom which is tiff for me , but you could do it jpg. thanks for clarifying

 

[VVFF]

sorry , I always just ship it back to lightroom which is tiff for me , but you could do it jpg. thanks for clarifying

Actually I wasn't referring to that. I was just commenting to the OP that if she crops I wouldn't normally save that version just in case you want to print it at a different aspect ratio later. At least don't save over the original copy.

On a different note Lightroom not allowing to save to png is

 

[mouselovenfamily]

Thanks so much everyone! That is what I needed! I'm looking at Mpix right now and trying them, better pricing too! Thanks Jann1033 for the Mpix idea!

You all are so wonderful and helpful here! I really appreciate your knowledge and help!! I learn something new all the time and maybe some day I'll be able to help people too!!

 

[pyrxtc]

Can I just comment on your original post ? If you are to the point that you think you can sell your photographs, you should be well beyond the point of knowing how to resize and mark your pictures for uploading to the web and cropping and getting them to print correctly.

Also, most people that do photography do not watermark the ones that they sell, they only watermark the image to keep anyone else from printing it without their permission, or at least printing a nice copy of it. A watermark is like the word Proof written across Mickey88's pictures they posted here, not the signature line I'm sure you are thinking of in the lower right.