Borders And Watermarks

Borders and watermarks – and taking myself too seriously.

In the shower this morning, I began thinking about borders and watermarks, and whether I should use them on my photographs.

I also thought that perhaps I took myself, and my approach to this photoblog, too seriously too often, thereby putting pressure on myself to publish stories worthy of an “expert” rather than stories produced by an amateur. Which is, after all, what I am.

You might think it’s funny to think about such things in the bathroom, but very often the shower is where I come up with some of my (best?) ideas for stories. Either there, or when I am out dog walking. Not that I’m doing too much of that at the moment due to my gammy hip.

Borders

I’ve done some Google research about the pros and cons of borders, and as a result have decided that – yes – I am going to use borders going forward for several reasons:

1. In my view, it makes my photographs look finished. Would you print a photograph and then hang it on your wall using bluetack? and without a frame (border)?;
2. I feel a darker (than white) border isolates a photo from its background – in this case, the page’s white background;
3. Borders offer a kind of focus when photos are opened in the lightbox; and
4. I like them…

A Heads Up from Rick at AperturePriorityNZ: This story includes affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase, I may be paid a small commission at no cost to you. I only discuss and use products and services that I genuinely enjoy. If buying any DxO product, use the Discount Code PAR_RICKHARVEY at the checkout and save 15% when you buy any full DxO product. The discount does not apply to updates.

I started my photoblog back in May 2022 to share my photography journey (a clichéd phrase if ever there was one…) and to share photographs and stories with you, so here are a few photographs featuring borders and watermarks taken while on a recent road trip.

If I decide to use a white border on a photograph, then I’ll normally use the drop-shadow effect in the WordPress image block to give isolation from the background.

And now a quick word about watermarking photographs.

Watermarks

Originally, a watermark was a pattern, often embossed, that was printed into paper as a way of preventing unauthorised copying of whatever was printed on the paper, whether it was money, stamps, confidential documents, or so on.

These days, the definition has been broadened to include digital as well as physical documents.

I prefer to regard the use of a watermark on my photos in the same manner a painter uses his or her signature on a painting to prove ownership (copyright) of the work.

I have decided to “watermark” my photos primarily as a branding tool. However unlike a painter, I haven’t used my name/signature but rather the name of my photoblog, as you can see on my photographs.

I probably don’t have my watermark as bold as a painter’s signature either, and I tend to move it around in my photograph depending on the colours and brightness of the image. Sometimes the watermark will appear white in the bottom right-hand corner, sometimes black, and occasionally in another corner. But never too obtrusive – thanks to the opacity control.

I don’t see much point in using a watermark/signature to prevent image theft because, as we all know, it is now so easy, using AI techniques, to delete a watermark from a photograph.

Websites are springing up all the time that will do it for free, just as I did with the images below.

Lake Ruataniwha Freedom Camping Site | ISO500 | 35mm | 1/1600s | f10

I’m not going to say which website I used in case you decide to steal some of my photos!

Seriously, though, I am more than happy for anyone to use my photographs for non-commercial use provided I am asked first, and if for commercial use, please show me your money.

So there you have it – my take on borders and watermarks – and mainly why I am going to use both from here on in.

One final road trip photo before I sign off…

Thanks for looking.

So often I see photographs posted online with no indication of where they were taken, and this frustrates me, so I hope you have found the links to the locations of the photographs useful

I used a combination of DxO Photolab, Nik Collection, and Film Pack to post-process these images.

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