"Discussions" regarding visual watermarks; those lovely "embossed" copyright symbols, artist signatures and website listings you see on many artist portfolio images can be entertaining. Thomas Hawk has a particularly good rant discussion going in his blog "On Watermarks and Signatures" and his "You Are a Thief" motif is an excellent example of going over the top with a visual watermark. It looked like fun, so I made my own.

As Thomas Hawk points out the primary issue really comes down to overall purpose:

• As Thomas Hawk feels about it, are you like many just making "an advertisement for your work?"
• Are you using visual watermarks like "photo signatures to stop the 'photo thieves?'"

Did you know that Digimarc for Images supports Photoshop Elements (PSE)? Also, we've just updated our plug-in to support version 9.

 What's included already with your PSE installation is the ability to read Digimarc for Images watermarks. With that you can identify copyright ownership and usage information on a Digimarc for Images watermarked image. The ability to also embed your own copyright and usage information into your images is only a simple installation away.

Once you download the file, just simply unzip the executable and run it to start up your PSE software. You will see a new "Embed Watermark" option in the Filter menu under the "Digimarc" filter.

Stop by our exhibit at Photoshop World expo for a chat! We want to meet you and offer a chance to talk directly to us about Digimarc for Images and Digimarc Discover. We're ready to answer questions regarding both, demo each technology and have special pricing available. We can even chat about Photoshop World classes; I know I'll have a few favorites to discuss.

Of course we’ll have swag and contest giveaways for you to enter. Did you know you can get a free pass to the expo if you don’t want to take classes?

Come by and say "Hi!" (Booth 219)

Greetings from Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona Spain. This conference is the largest gathering for anything related to mobile and yours truly was there, not only to witness the swarm of 55,000 people, but to launch the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal (OSP). We had our own booth right in the App Planet, where many of the folks that stopped by thought we were the coolest new technology around. You can see some panaromic photos of the the entire show right here.

With the Online Services Portal you can now turn your printed content into new rich interactive experiences, and all of it can be done directly from the portal. That's right, just create a free acount, watermark your image, identify the URL that the image will link to, and select when and how long it will be active. Once your watermarked images are printed, they can be read using our free Digimarc Discover reader, downloadable from the iTunes App Store or the Android Market. No barcodes cluttering up your layout. Setting up an account is simple and during our Open Beta ( through May 31st 2011) you can turn your printed content interactive for free. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.digimarc.com/portal to get started!

I first want to apologize for the recent lack of activity here on the blog. There's good reason though as we here at Digimarc have been very busy and are extremely excited about things to come.

You may have noticed that we've made a few minor changes to the blog site and have welcomed a few more authors (see to the right). Yes, Don and I are going to continue to share with you lots of valuable information about Digimarc for Images, but also wanted to expand the the focus of the blog to better showcase Digimarc's vision for a world where intuitive computing is part of our everyday lives. I touched on this briefly already in my previous post "Digimarc Discover: The Future" but now we'll have more experts who will be able to help keep us better informed.

Watch this amazing video here.

 

I have yet to pull the trigger on a new camera; a little lost in research and all the options. So what to do?

The iPhone4 has come to come to my rescue. Apple introduced an HDR photo option in the iOS 4.1 update. While it won't make every photo a work of art, it sure can help. "What's HDR and how can it help me?" you ask...

Many moons ago I blogged about people's misconceptions regarding digital watermarks and how often they're misconstrued for visual watermarks. (You can read that choice post here if you like.) I failed to mention that yes, you can add both a visual and digital watermark to your images. 

There are quite a number of available visual watermarking applications out there, so choose carefully (for onesy-twosies, we recommend just using a layer in Photoshop, but there are also automatic tools out there). However, when it comes to digital watermarking, Digimarc is the expert, so don't search any further. Don't forget though, the visible watermark, which is most often text or some sort of a logo sitting on top of your image, can negatively impact the visible quality of what you want to showcase. 

I recently ran across this About.com article that actually talks about "How to Watermark Your Photos" and they give you many options to choose from. I found it pretty accurate, so if you have time... check it out here.

We all strive to be rugged individuals with the will and energy to make informed decisions based on our own research, but who has the time???

So I'm going to save you time!

This year was my first time attending Photoshop World and I must say it was a great show. Really fun. For anyone interested in photography or Photoshop, no matter whether you're a beginner or expert, I highly recommend attending as there is a lot to learn and never a dull moment.

Did you miss out? You'll have another change in 2011. Digimarc will host another booth at the show in Orlando, Florida from March 30th through April 1st. Find out more by clicking on the logo below. Also, for you Facebookers, check out some images from our booth by clicking here (including yours truly and my colleagues!).

After five years I've decided that my trusted Canon A700 is getting a little long in the tooth.  

It's been a trouper while I trekked the Andes (), ate cake with slippery-fingered nephews () and attempted to shoot in RAW format.