Adding Copyright and Text to pics & Videos

[nmjameswilson]

I'd like to add copyright information to my photos and videos but do not know how. I read the copyright violation thread and i realized i should have something on there. Any help on how to do this and/or software recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[David Mikulec]

If you have Windows XP you can use Windows Movie Maker. It's free and the easiest way to get what you need. And simple to use.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

[nmjameswilson]

Thanks for the response.

I have Vista and used WMM to make the video and add a title to the beginning but i do not see where a copyright (watermark?) can be added.

[David Mikulec]

You can add the © to the text box while editing by holding down the ALT key while entering 0169 from your keypad (just verified that it works in WMM), make the text semi-transparent and let it display for the duration of the video.


Thanks for the response.

I have Vista and used WMM to make the video and add a title to the beginning but i do not see where a copyright (watermark?) can be added.

[Paul Hadfield]

Any text editor in your preferred image editing software will do it for making a go on your pics. To add a copyright symbol on a Windows pc go to [Start] > [Programs] > [Accessories] > [System Tools] > [Character Map]. In the box that opens, click the © hit [Select] then [Copy], go back to your editing software and with the text tool active, right click to select [Paste] and voila. There's a keyboard shortcut but if you aren't entirely sure then hopefully this wording is easy to follow.

Another way to achieve the statement is to surround a lower case c with parenthesis but IMO it's kind of lazy and not as powerful.

Not that there is an industry standard font but it seems that Arial is preferred among much of the wx community. I've been using it for as long as I have been online. FWIW, Comic Sans gets alot of flack these days so I would recommend avoiding it :)

http://pawleewurx.com/st/IMG_4392.jpg

You can add the © to the text box while editing by holding down the ALT key while entering 0169 from your keypad (just verified that it works in WMM), make the text semi-transparent and let it display for the duration of the video.

ps: can someone explain why on my HP laptop with the numbers keys in a row when I hold [alt] 0169, I get nothing? I have a toolbar shortcut to the character map so I haven't noticed till just now when David refreshed my memory. Does it have to do with the mjkluio789 numeric keys? Haven't figured those out yet...

[nmjameswilson]

I do not see where text can be added to the video in WMM, i can add effects and a title to the front or end but nothing during it.

[David Mikulec]

I'm working with version 5.1 here but near the bottom of the WMM is a button that will toggle your workspace between storyboard and timeline modes. If you select time line you can adjust the length of time that the text runs (in the title overlay track) by dragging the end of its box.

I do not see where text can be added to the video in WMM, i can add effects and a title to the front or end but nothing during it.

[Jim Hunt]

PhotoCeaner can quickly add copyright (or other text and frames) to a photo and do wntire batch files. http://photocleaner.com/

Cost is minimal and you can try before downloading. (Before I knew how to write my own actions in Photoshop, I used PhotoCleaner for all of my batch processing of sports action photos for the web.)

[Jason Foster]

Before I knew how to write my own actions in Photoshop
Yes....for anyone using Photoshop (not available in Elements edition), you need to learn how to use "Actions"....huge time saver!!!!

[Adam Lucio]

Danny showed me Google Picasa. Which is like another photobucket type photo sharing site, only they have a limit of space [so far i havent come close] which has a free download for editing and whatnot.

One of the options is when you upload all your photos to a new album is to have a watermark placed on them. Very quick and easy. Example below:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_xoj02CbX_0E/SfZ68SFebUI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/6nXzURLem6c/s720/04252609%20007.jpg

Any attempts to eat my pizza without my permission may result in a hostile me.

Seriously though, its a good program.

[Olivier Staiger]

I highly recommend Irfanview.

check out www.irfanview.com

it started long ago as an image-viewer, but today it is much more than just a viewer.

it is a free software, very fast, to resize-edit-view-etc. images and it has a lot of other functions , does video playback, audio , slideshows, special effects, LOTS of formats, etc etc.

Includes "insert text into image" with the copyright sign.

Do get the plug-ins, too.

[Richard Dickson]

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_xoj02CbX_0E/SfZ68SFebUI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/6nXzURLem6c/s720/04252609%20007.jpg

Any attempts to eat my pizza without my permission may result in a hostile me.

Adam,

Whew! Glad you clarified the photo for me.

I was starting to think that maybe you were going to create another reality TV series titled 'High-Plains Roadkills By Extreme Chasers'.

Richard (TANK) Dickson

[Justin Roberts]

Sorry to revive an older thread, I have some software to add the text to my images, this might be a stupid question, what do I need to add a copyright to my photos? Is it just as simple as I took the picture and add © Justin Roberts to it?

What if I buy a web domain, can I simply add that address as the © name?

[Olivier Staiger]

Sorry to revive an older thread, I have some software to add the text to my images, this might be a stupid question, what do I need to add a copyright to my photos? Is it just as simple as I took the picture and add © Justin Roberts to it?

What if I buy a web domain, can I simply add that address as the © name?


yes it is THAT simple. YOU took the photos, YOU own the rights to them. and if you want to 'give' that right to a website then you just do it, there is no need to ask for permission as YOU own the rights to those images.
I , too, write my website as copyright , klipsi.com .

[Justin Roberts]

Thanks for the info, It just seemed to me the term copyright was such a legal term like I needed to have some sort of license to copyright.

[Robert Rohloff]

I use Pinnacle 11 for my video and have not figured out how to put the copyright on the video. Anyone use this and know how it works to insert the copyright on the video?

[Steve Worthington]

you dont need a copyright as you own em in the first place.
We were just talking about this on TVN
Some pretty good info here.
http://www.tornadovideos.net/forum?func=view&catid=11&id=18769

and heres the place to go to get the complete info on the law and so on
http://www.copyright.gov/

[Scott Bennett]

For Photo's I am a big fan of Fastone photo resizer (http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm) it's free and can resize and watermark in batches for upload to the web. You can select an entire directory say watermark and reduce quality by xyz and put a copy in xyz directory using XYZ new name.

[Ryan McGinnis]

you dont need a copyright as you own em in the first place.
We were just talking about this on TVN
Some pretty good info here.
http://www.tornadovideos.net/forum?func=view&catid=11&id=18769

and heres the place to go to get the complete info on the law and so on
http://www.copyright.gov/

They always say that when photographers have plumbing questions, they call a plumber. When they have legal questions, they ask... other photographers. ;)

I am no attorney, however, from my own personal experience, I can say the following:

1. Putting copyright watermarks on your images vastly decreases the likelihood they will be infringed. This could be because people don't want to take the time to remove the watermark, though my hunch is that it's because some people (erroneously) think that everything on the internet is free for the taking unless it has a copyright notice on it. If they see the notice, they go "Oh, that's not free. I'd better find something else."

2. Putting copyright watermarks on your images vastly increases your leverage should some knucklehead infringe your photos, both due to the "willful infringement" enhanced damages clause in Title 15, Chapter 5, § 504, and the DMCA.

You don't need to do anything fancy, just put "Copyright 2009 Your Name" or "© 2009 Your Name". The year, of course, changes depending on when you took the image or video. It also helps to add metadata inside the image or video itself that specifies that the image is copyrighted and that it can not be used without license.

Lastly, you MUST MUST MUST register your copyrights with the U.S. Copyright office and you must do this BEFORE your images are infringed, not after.

Do these things and you will be in a very strong position if you suddenly find a company infringing your images or video.

You can find a wealth of information on this topic at http://photoattorney.com.

[Darren Addy]

What RAW Converter do you use? If you are a Bibble 4 user, you can get a $10 plug-in called Matty Pro (http://nexi.com/172) that will do it for you, non-destructively.

UMark Lite (http://www.uconomix.com/Downloads.aspx) is a free standalone windows program and works great. (May require the .NET framework). You can apply logo or text (or logo AND text). One really nice feature of UMark Lite is that you can choose both text color and shadow color. I recommend a strong contrast between them so the letters will be readable whether on a light portion of your photo or a dark portion.

ImageXYZ (http://www.designworkz.com/ImageXYZ.htm) is another free Windows standalone program (requiring the .NET framework). It gives you more positioning options for your watermark than UMark Lite, and the option of "3D" or "Drop Shadow". However, it appears to make you do your images one-at-a-time, whereas UMark Lite lets you do 50 at a time.

[Steve Worthington]

They always say that when photographers have plumbing questions, they call a plumber.
Not always true....lol
I should know, I`m a plumber rotflmao :D

Anyway, I feel the same way as you thus why all my images have a mark of some kind ;)
Just saves time later down the road.