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The EVP

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I totally understand being scared of someone taking your work and watermarking it (we have all been there and its said to say but its will happen) but saturating your work in a watermark is not the way to go. It is totally distracting and kills every photograph and will kill it for possible clients viewing your work online. Stick to one clean watermark and be done brother, just make sure not to allow people to access your high res work on-line.
I do that because it's too easy to crop the watermark out of a picture unless it's directly centered over the subject. The site that I linked that from only has it on the webpage. If someone orders a print, it's sent without any watermarking at all. I would love to display my work without watermarks, but sadly we live in a time that we have to take such precautions.
 

The EVP

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Unfortunately, it was the best angle as the lake is surrounded by a very narrow walking trail and there wasn't really even a bank to speak of. Another few inches forward and I would have been standing in the lake and a few feet back, I'd have been standing knee deep in marsh. The tree in the middle was there and since it's in a nature preserve, you are not allowed to disturb anything. You were right to assume that I was using the stick to direct a viewers toward the trees and the reflection.
 
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Good to see some more action on this thread! Gonna have to scan through some more archive photos to post. Crappy weather has me down on shooting these days.
 
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Don't know what you are shooting on H3rrington, but I love the dog shot with the shallow depth, the watch shot seems underexposed and maybe you could brighten it up in post processing. I think with the Nat'l Forest shot I would have found a way to find a good angle to get the lake and trees without the sign. Tree reflections on water are always nice. Keep shooting man, it's an addictive hobby.
 
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Don't know what you are shooting on H3rrington, but I love the dog shot with the shallow depth, the watch shot seems underexposed and maybe you could brighten it up in post processing. I think with the Nat'l Forest shot I would have found a way to find a good angle to get the lake and trees without the sign. Tree reflections on water are always nice. Keep shooting man, it's an addictive hobby.
Cannon t3i rebel.

And I'll head back up to the cabin soon and try it again. And thanks for the tip on the bulova. I suck at macro.
 
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Don't know what you are shooting on H3rrington, but I love the dog shot with the shallow depth, the watch shot seems underexposed and maybe you could brighten it up in post processing. I think with the Nat'l Forest shot I would have found a way to find a good angle to get the lake and trees without the sign. Tree reflections on water are always nice. Keep shooting man, it's an addictive hobby.
Cannon t3i rebel.

And I'll head back up to the cabin soon and try it again. And thanks for the tip on the bulova. I suck at macro.
Nat'l Forest spot looks like a great location. Pines, water dead trees....lots of great options.
 
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Don't know what you are shooting on H3rrington, but I love the dog shot with the shallow depth, the watch shot seems underexposed and maybe you could brighten it up in post processing. I think with the Nat'l Forest shot I would have found a way to find a good angle to get the lake and trees without the sign. Tree reflections on water are always nice. Keep shooting man, it's an addictive hobby.
Cannon t3i rebel.

And I'll head back up to the cabin soon and try it again. And thanks for the tip on the bulova. I suck at macro.
Nat'l Forest spot looks like a great location. Pines, water dead trees....lots of great options.
It's my favorite place in the world. The cabins on private land right next to the forest. Hummingbirds fly up to the door in the morning. We have a single fox that loves to hang out close to the fire pit once we put it out. It's an old gold mine so there is quartz everywhere and tons of old mines.

Sadly all the beetle killed trees have made it one missed smokey the bear commercial away from all going away.

Anyway I digress. And am just rambling. I'm running on no sleep. Newborns are a blessing and a challenge
 
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I totally understand being scared of someone taking your work and watermarking it (we have all been there and its said to say but its will happen) but saturating your work in a watermark is not the way to go. It is totally distracting and kills every photograph and will kill it for possible clients viewing your work online. Stick to one clean watermark and be done brother, just make sure not to allow people to access your high res work on-line.
I do that because it's too easy to crop the watermark out of a picture unless it's directly centered over the subject. The site that I linked that from only has it on the webpage. If someone orders a print, it's sent without any watermarking at all. I would love to display my work without watermarks, but sadly we live in a time that we have to take such precautions.

I believe you're still new to the industry, trust me you'll get tired of having watermarks all over you photos. Like I said I know it's due to being scared of someone taking the photo, and it will happen, happens to us all.Its fun to spin as free publicity as well haha .

Just like this photo I did based off a old VW ad that we made into a t-shirt design.


Tons of people made these and posted it everywhere. Was fun to see a photo blow up such as it did.


Its a hard call because clients will defiantly get annoyed trying to see you skill sets and style with your watermark all over and move on, sad but true.
 

The EVP

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H3rrington, those are some great pics. I agree with RAC about the watch picture. Was that shot with a high ISO by some chance? The shot of the log is really nice....I like the foreground defocus as well as the background boken. But what I really like about the picture is that part of the picture that is in focus is offset from the center. Great way to use the rule of thirds! I do like the lake shot as well. Personally, I think the sign, and especially what I am assuming are bulletholes, adds a hint of human interaction in such an isolated place. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I feel like that picture tells me, "You're not the first on here and you won't be the last but for right now, this place is your own."
 

The EVP

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Yodis, to be honest, I hate having to watermark my photos. But as I am just a year into this, I have to do a lot of jobs for free just to get my name known and build whatever relationships that I can. As such, the only way I make money is by selling the pictures and most people aren't going to pay if they know they can right-click or crop a screen shot and have it for free. Maybe I can come up with one that I can place in the center that will still be obvious enough to protect it but not enough to distract it so much.
 
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Trail thru the Smokey Mountains.



Sorry if it's too small. I was trying to make it fit on my macbook without having to scroll up and do to see the entire photo.
 

AbeFroman

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Trail thru the Smokey Mountains.



Sorry if it's too small. I was trying to make it fit on my macbook without having to scroll up and do to see the entire photo.
Did you do any adjustments to it at all? Nothing stands out, it's a very flat looking photo. Try bumping the greens and the contrast on it. You don't have to go crazy on it, but something to help make it pop.

Yodis, to be honest, I hate having to watermark my photos. But as I am just a year into this, I have to do a lot of jobs for free just to get my name known and build whatever relationships that I can. As such, the only way I make money is by selling the pictures and most people aren't going to pay if they know they can right-click or crop a screen shot and have it for free. Maybe I can come up with one that I can place in the center that will still be obvious enough to protect it but not enough to distract it so much.
If you haven't, REGISTER YOUR PHOTOS WITH THE US COPYRIGHT OFFICE. The fee is less than $50 and you can submit as many photos as you want. People are cheap and don't want to pay photographers for their work and will find any way to save money. Stealing photos is something no photographer should be ok with, at all. I almost had to threaten a company with a copyright infringement lawsuit because they were using photos of mine that I did not give permission to use, but copyright lawsuits are night and day as long as it's registered to you. Protect your work.
 
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Yodis, to be honest, I hate having to watermark my photos. But as I am just a year into this, I have to do a lot of jobs for free just to get my name known and build whatever relationships that I can. As such, the only way I make money is by selling the pictures and most people aren't going to pay if they know they can right-click or crop a screen shot and have it for free. Maybe I can come up with one that I can place in the center that will still be obvious enough to protect it but not enough to distract it so much.
I've been doing this for many years and don't have the problem with images being stolen. put up 600px images on the long edge at 72dpi and no one is going to print from them. also on most hosting sites there are rmb blockers you can enable.
 
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Trail thru the Smokey Mountains.



Sorry if it's too small. I was trying to make it fit on my macbook without having to scroll up and do to see the entire photo.
Did you do any adjustments to it at all? Nothing stands out, it's a very flat looking photo. Try bumping the greens and the contrast on it. You don't have to go crazy on it, but something to help make it pop.
.
Pretty much straight out of the camera, haven't done much adjusting.
 

The EVP

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Yodis, to be honest, I hate having to watermark my photos. But as I am just a year into this, I have to do a lot of jobs for free just to get my name known and build whatever relationships that I can. As such, the only way I make money is by selling the pictures and most people aren't going to pay if they know they can right-click or crop a screen shot and have it for free. Maybe I can come up with one that I can place in the center that will still be obvious enough to protect it but not enough to distract it so much.
I've been doing this for many years and don't have the problem with images being stolen. put up 600px images on the long edge at 72dpi and no one is going to print from them. also on most hosting sites there are rmb blockers you can enable.
The sight I use does RMB block, however, it is still possible to do a screen capture and just crop the photo from that....which I've seen done before.
 
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