How to Watermark Your Photos in Photoshop Elements
Biz Mavens

How to Watermark Your Photos in Photoshop Elements

Welcome back to Photoshop Elements for Bloggers! In the last lesson, you learned how to add text to your photos with the goal of creating Pinnable images for your blog.

In this lesson, I’m going to share how you can create a brush in Elements to watermark your photos and protect them from theft. Forget manually typing your copyright notice on every single photo – we’re taking the shortcut!

Note: Don’t forget to adjust the video’s image quality so you can see things better! Just click on the little “gear” symbol at the bottom of the video player and select 720px, or the HD (high definition) option.

Let’s get started!

 

Video Notes

A few things I didn’t point out in the video, but perhaps should have:

  • When you select the dimensions for your watermark brush (I set the width as 2000px and the height at 300px), you’ll want to choose dimensions that fit your logo or your blog’s name.  If you have a square logo, for example, it will look different from mine.  You can always start out with a square canvas (like 2000 x 2000px) and crop the whole image to the size of your brush before you save it.
  • If you already have a logo that you want to use for the watermark, go to File > Place to place the hi-res logo on your canvas.  Then proceed as normal.

A quick review of the steps, in case you don’t want to watch the video again:

  1. Create a new document with a transparent background and high resolution. See the first “video note” above.
  2. Click the Type tool (shortcut key: T) and choose a font.  Click and type on your canvas to add text, making adjustments as necessary to get the look *you* want.
  3. If your type doesn’t take up the whole canvas, you can use the Crop tool (shortcut: C) to fit the edges of your canvas to your artwork (not shown in video).
  4. Select the brush tool (shortcut: B) and go to your brush selection palette on the top bar.  Make sure “Default Brushes” is selected on the dropdown.
  5. On the top tool bar, select Edit > Define Brush.  Give your brush a descriptive name. Click OK.
  6. Check out your new brush in the Brushes palette (top left).  On the flyout menu on the right side of the Brushes palette, select “Save Brush.”  Make sure you know the location you’re saving this brush to!  I usually save to my desktop and then move the file to a more sensible spot later.
  7. That’s it!

To use your new brush:

  1. Open up the photo you want to watermark.
  2. Select your Brush tool (shortcut: B).
  3. If your watermark brush isn’t already available on the brushes palette, you’ll need to use the flyout menu and select “Load Brushes” and find the brush you’ve saved.  It should then be available on the brushes palette.
  4. Choose your brush.  Use the toggle at the top of the palette to select a width for your brush that makes sense for your photo.
  5. Make sure your foreground color is set to white.
  6. Create a New Layer for your document.
  7. Apply the brush.
  8. Select the layer of your document that you applied the watermark to, then turn down the opacity to whatever works best for this particular photo.
  9. Save your photo and use it!

If this seems like a lot of work, don’t worry – it’s going to save you lots of time in the long run, and you’ll get quicker at applying that watermark brush every time you use it.  After doing this just a handful of times, I can open a photo, add my watermark, and save in about 20 seconds.

Have fun!

Next Time…

In the next lesson in our series, I’m going to introduce you to one of my favorite bloggers and a Photoshop Elements expert! She’s going to take you from beginner to Power User and has the road already mapped out.

Questions or Tips to Share?

Please leave them in the comments below!

Do you know a blogger who would benefit from this workshop?

Please share the home page for this course. After all, life is too short to blog with bad photos.

Kelly Holmes

Go from burned-out blogger to Smart CEO.

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Leave a Comment:

27 comments
KT Fit Kitty says

Hello – This was great – thank you! However, I still have a question. I am new to Photoshop and have a 30-day trial to see if I want to purchase. I have been given a watermark to use on my photos to put on my blog. How do I add it to my photos since I’m not creating it as a brush? It is a logo that’s saved as a PNG file. Any help you can give would be great. I’m at fitkitty1@gmail.com . Thank you!

Reply
    jeni says

    Hi there! You didn’t leave your name, so I’ll have to call you Fit Kitty. 🙂

    To add a brush that’s already made, just hit “B” for brushes, then go to your brush selector at the top left. Click to toggle the whole set of brushes open. Then at the top right of that drop-down box, you’ll see a little “out” arrow. Click that and it will open a menu of options. Select “Load Brushes” and locate the brushes file you’re trying to load. Click “Load.”

    You should see the new brush at the bottom of the brush choices, so just select it to use it. Hope this helps!

    Reply
Kelly Knowles says

Hi, great tutorial. I am brand new to PS, and this was very helpful. However, I made a mistake somewhere, because the last letter of my name is cut off in the watermark. I saved the old watermark onto my desktop and deleted it, but now whenever I open PS again, the old watermark shows up just hovering around wherever I move the mouse. Do you know how to completely delete the old one? Thanks!

Reply
    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Kelly, you should be able to go to the dropdown that shows the little thumbnails of all your brushes and use the little toggle-out arrow on the top right. On that menu, select “Reset Brushes” and it will return the brushes palette to the default Photoshop ones. Then you can reload the correct version of your watermark there. Hope this helps!

    Reply
kinderfarmhomeschool says

Great tutorial! We did it along with you and will not start watermarking our photos on our blog. Thank you so much!

Reply
Deborah says

Thank you so much for the tutorial. I tripped across it doing a google search. I didn’t know you could do such a thing! Definitely makes things a lot easier. Your video was excellent and informative! Thank you so much! I learned something today!!!! 🙂

Reply
    Jeni Elliott says

    Glad you found it useful, Deborah! Hope it saves you lots of time in the future!

    Reply
Nina says

Thanks so much for this guide – I love the idea of using brushes to watermark. Just what I needed. You can find some of the first photos I’ve watermarked right here: http://ellajocolors.blogspot.dk/2015/03/watermark-dine-photos-i-photoshop.html

I’d love to learn how to add shadow in a better way, so my logo is more visible – that’ll be next time.

Reply
Chris says

So if i understand correct, if i want a watermark that is not easy visible, i just play around with the opacity (learned a new word BTW), correct ?

Reply
    Jeni Elliott says

    Yep! You got it, Chris. Work with the opacity until you get a watermark quality that works well for the image you’re using it on.

    Reply
ElementsDummy says

Thanks so much for the tutorial! I was able to do a horizontal watermark with no trouble. Can I rotate the watermark vertically (in either direction) so that I can put along the edge of the pic? I keep rotating the picture and not the watermark… or do I need to enter the text in either direction when I’m making the brush (and make 2 more)?

Reply
Joshua Guenther says

Hey, thanks for the tip! Is there any way to process multiple files with the watermark brush we’ve created?

Thanks so much.

Reply
    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Josh,

    Sorry I’m just now seeing this! As far as I know, Elements doesn’t have the ability to process multiple files at once. What you’re looking for is called an “action” and those are available in regular Photoshop – just google “watermark action photoshop” and you’ll see the way to batch edit photos with a watermark. Hope this helps!

    Reply
      Gary says

      Action is available in Elements 14, but cannot be used with the custom brush. You can only use a watermark you create within the action. Make sense?

      Reply
Di says

So great and easy to follow, thank you. Once i stamp the watermark, I am not able to resize it to fit. Ant tips please? I am including one I did to demonstrate. Many thanks./Users/dianelymbury/Desktop/watermarkedoimage.jpg

Reply
    Jeni Elliott says

    Hi Di,

    You need to use the size control on your brush before you use it. That’s the easiest method. Hope this helps!

    Jeni

    Reply
      Di says

      Thank you for all the tips. I somehow started to work it out before your reply. This was a very helpful site!

      Reply
Chasity says

Hi there! I performed all the steps that you went through in the video. My watermark is there as my brush and I see it waving around wherever I move my mouse, but it won’t actually stamp onto the picture. I even have it on the new layer. Any ideas why it won’t stamp onto the picture?

Reply
Jessica says

Hello Jeni ! Thanks for this lesson I much needed it. I am new to photoshop but this course makes things a lot easier. Thank you. I’d not able to create splatter action for my photos can you guide me or point me into right direction ?? TIA !

Reply
Teresa says

Treat tutorial, however, when I save the photo w/my watermark on it, the watermark does not save. What am I doing wrong?

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Cassie says

I just started a new blog where I can show off my work and needed to figure out how to add watermarks. Thank you so much for the tutorial!

Reply
Amy Elizabeth says

I watched your video, and took notes. Thank you, by the way. But here’s my problem. Apparently I am stuck with 72pt being the biggest my text can go. I cannot figure out how to change it to pixels to fit my background. Can you please help? I have Adobe Photoshop Element 10 that I’m working with. Thank you for your time and energy.

Reply
Diana DIehl says

This was so clear! I followed it step-by-step to add my illustrator’s first color spread to my author blog.

Reply
Arlene Luscombe says

Like Teresa above I cannot save it either. How can I save it with the watermark to post on my blog?

Reply
Milena Stefanovic says

Awesome video! The instructions were clear, and I was able to follow along on a different release of Photoshop Elements easily. Thanks for the great content!

Reply
Bonny Clayton says

Thank you! What a time saver this will be for me!! Your demo was quick but still thorough. Now I will probably be making my own brushes for lots of other things, too! Hehe.

Reply
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