Watermarking your instagram images & why

Okay, so finally I've decided to watermark my images for Instagram.

I've seen lots of people doing it, and I've never before as I was worried of what others would think of me. That people would be like, who does she think she is. That I would look like a bit if a knob really.

So why have I now?

I'm being told more and more that my images are appearing on sites like Tumblr. It's not a great place to be without credit. I've then seen brands featuring me on their Instagram pages as "inspirational" hair images. It's very disheartening to see your images getting so many likes with no reference to yourself. I'm lucky that some people recognise me and let me know, but more often than not the page doesn't respond. One brand kindly aapologised letting me know they found the image on Tumblr and proceeded to tag me in the image. I guess at least now people can amend the description and add your name in there, as that would give you more publicity.

It might all sound a little dramatic, but I, like many others, spend a lot of time and effort on even our Instagram pics. It's part of our business and if people could credit us it would help us grow too, instead of people just using others' images to increase their public profile. It's so frustrating seeing people using others work, not creating things for themselves, instead relying on the effort put in by others and not giving anything back to them.

A recent example of a watermark working on an image which came to my attention was via Grav3yardgirl. The spotted a mac lipstick on Pinterest which seemed to be made up of glitter. A girl on Instagram had posted this image, she'd dipped her lipstick in glitter to create this. This was making the rounds via the internet, but Bunny was able to see who'd done it from the watermark and checked out her page. Realising she'd done it herself and it wasn't a new release from Mac.

As it's so rare to be credited on the internet, a watermark will give you this at least.

Tips:

* Make sure it's in the main part of the image so cannot be cropped out.

* Make it small, not too in your face, but still noticeable.

* Make sure it's readable & doesn't distract too much from your image.

I reached out to the world of the internet for people's suggestions of apps to use to watermark my images. Lots of people suggested I bulk edited images through photoshop, but I don't think they quite got what I meant. I needed an app for on the go editing. I don't have time to send pics to my computer to add the watermark, then send back to my phone. Also I couldn't bulk process them as I'd want the watermark on different areas of my pictures.

I ended up getting two apps upon people's recommendations, Phonto and iWatermark.

Phonto - Free (Can buy an add free version for 69p)

*More than 400 fonts are available.

* You can install other fonts.

* Text size is changeable.

* Text color is changeable.

* Text gradient is changeable.

* Text's stroke color is changeable.

* Text's shadow color is changeable.

* Text's background color is changeable.

* Text is rotatable.

* Text kerning is changeable.

* Line spacing is changeable.

* Curved text

You can create your own presets so you don't need to write out the text each time! This is found in menu>settings.

To add text, just tap your image and select your text.

 You can then decide your size, placement etc each time.

I usually alter the opacity each time to suit the image. I also adjust the size and tilt so it's in the most suitable placement each time.

 You can also create a curve to your text, I've seen a lot of people who do nail art use this, you can then wrap it around the bottom of your nails.

Some examples: Along the chain is how I did it. I also tried wrapping it around the necklace and it with more spacing between the letters.

iWatermark - £1.49

* Click to move the watermark location.

* Pinch/zoom to expand/contract the size of the watermark. 

* Two fingers at once to rotate the watermark to any angle.

* Batch processing (all at once) or sequential.

* Easily adjust the watermarks scale, opacity, font, colour, size, position & angle.

* Can create your own subtle text or graphic watermarks.

* 157 fonts for your text watermarks 113 + 44 iOS 7 fonts.

* 34 high-res watermarks.

* Import your own graphic watermarks.

* One button import of your signature for use as a watermark.

* Create a QR watermark which is like a barcode. QR codes can contain up to 4000 chars of information. QR codes can then be read with a scanner or smartphone with the right app revealing the info you encoded. 

This app does offer more, and it's quick to move and rotate your watermark by pinching with two fingers or rotating with two fingers, but I couldn't see how you could easily change opacity or colour of it. You also cannot curve the text.

It depends on what your needs are. iWatermark lets you create QR code watermarks. You can also import graphics to use instead of text.

I actually prefer using Phonto and it's free.

Have you used either of these apps? Or do you use another? If so would you recommend that?

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