Photoshop Creative

If I place a signature on my pics,does that protect them,as in ,does that stop anyone else from being able to use them without my permission.Or do you need some type of special copyright mark.I have noticed that some people have the letter c in a circle followed by their name,while others just have a signature ?.
It's ok I have just found the answere in the general elements forum.

To my understanding you own the rights to the pictures you take period. That being said If someone really wants to grab your pic and has the know how they can usually remove your signature. Sometimes i will put the copyright symbol sometime i put nothing. It may remind an individual that it is not there picture that it belongs to you and that you have the copyright but you do have that right without putting the copyright on it. If i am mistaken on any of this i am sure more informed individuals will be along.

Min (and any others), just remember...
...your image may be "protected", but that doesn't mean somebody can't "take it"

This is no different than my automobile. It belongs to me. Does that mean that I'm absolutely protected from a thief stealing it?

Thus..... don't ever put anything out on the web, the misappropriation of which would be devastating.

Rusty

You know, when I do portraits or sports photos for work purposes, I always put my copyright logo on them. When I do things that I post for personal means, I find I forget most of the time to put my logo on it. I know I should remember to do it on everything. Your copyright can always be cloned or cropped out of your photos so as Rusty says, are you really protected?

You can make it less desirable for being stolen by only posting low res images at low quality. Still good enough for computer viewing, but looks terrible when trying to print and not as easy for enlarging programs to make something usable out of them.

In Scott Kelby's book,"Photpshop Elements fo Digital Photographers", he shows you how to do a digital watermark for your photos and also how to embed the watermark in the photo's file.
Chas

Thanks everyone,I can see the water mark being the most use, if you were to do a paying job for some one, and they needed to veiw the pics before deciding what to keep, and coughing up the dosh,they would still be able to veiw them pretty well ,but it would really cock up them trying to copy any.
Can I do the water mark in PSE 5? hun.
Not sure about dropping the res,as I'm not a techno nut yet,loss of pixells is a bit of a worry for me ?.

Here a challenge that could make someone a small fortune, invent some type of default for a copyright that once attached to a pic no matter how many times the pic is cropped ,the copy right always automaticly pops up in the bottom corner.like perminant marker pens!.Anyone

Min, the watermark is the easiest thing in the world to make.

All you have to do is make your text/object/whatever white in color, apply a bevel (I usually use 'simple emboss') and then change the blend mode of that layer to multiply.



I learned this easy routine from Kev. It works because white is a 100% neutral color when the blend mode is multiply. Thus, the only thing that's showing up is the outline of the layer style that was applied -- the bevel.

I can't imagine any way in the world somebody could crop this out of the image or otherwise easily remove it.

Rusty

Rusty's instructions are spot-on..... and don't forget you could make that copyright/signature/watermark and save it unflattened, as a PSD; then you can always open it, drag that layer over any picture you like, move and resize - saves a little time.

I say Rusty ,my name looks quite good across that pic hun,will be trying it out.It appears to be easy enough.
will try saving as a psd as well ,to save time.thanks for the help.this is such a great ,freindly site.