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I have had TONS of people asking about watermarks on my photos. I have asked many myself,(Including this forum) and learned a few tricks on the way.

I will ATTEMPT to guide you through the basics, and plan to follow up with video segments of each task. SO here we go!



I do most of this in Adobe Photoshop CS, but this first step I prefer Adobe Elements.

In Adobe Elements, open the photo in which you would like to make a watermark. (I found this

silhouette of a girl with a gun.) It doesn't have to be a B&W photo, I have created some really

cool effects with color as well.

Click Image>Resize>Image Size.....and take note of the pixel width and height.

Now click File>New>Blank File....Make the file the same pixel W&H, and make sure Background

Contents = Transparent.

Take a look towards the left where the pointer is. That is Quick Selection Tool. One way is to

select the white area, then click Select>Invert Selection.

Edit>Copy.

Click on your new file to activate it, then click Edit>Paste.





File>Save as PSD file...that's it! You made your watermark template! Now close the program and get into photoshop.


In Photoshop, open the PSD file you just made as well as the photo you would like to place the

watermark onto. Notice the pointer in the upper left. That is the move tool. Click it, then click on the girl and drag it to the other photo. Notice it is so small? We'll fix that.


2.jpg



Click Edit>Transform>Scale. This will put a box around the girl and you can drag the corners to

the size you desire.


3.jpg


If you wish to move the girl....use the move tool as you did earlier. Or you can do It later.

Layer 1 should still be active at this point. (Check lower right pane to see it is highlighted.)

Now comes the fun part! Layer>LayerStyle>Blending options.


4.jpg


This brings up all the magic! As you can see, I have Blending Options:Custom highlighted, and my pointer is on the Opacity slider. This is the main one I like to use to tell it how transparent
I want it to be. Also note the check marks on Outer Glow and Bevel and Emboss. You can check the boxes on and off, but you must click on the actual words and have it highlighted in blue to see and adjust all the settings. Be sure to experiment with the different drop downs within each page....it is endless what can be done here!


5.jpg


Once I have my watermark the way I want, I use the move tool to position it exactly where I want it.


6.jpg


Now if you want to post your photo on the forums, you should resize your finished image. 99% of my photo's I post here have a width of 4 to 6 inches. We'll use 6 for the purpose of this tutorial. I just go into Image and resize...very similar to the Elements program.


7.jpg


Now save your photo. File>Save

Name the photo whatever you want, then file format JPEG. It will then ask for save quality, I always use the highest. (12)


8.jpg


Now upload your pic to Photobucket. Use the code that has *** Final.jpg 3/Watermark%20Tutorial/Final.jpg[/IMG]
 
A quick video shows how to open image, select it and make your PSD file in Adobe Elements.





This video shows the PSD file you made and the photo that you want the watermark on. Shown here is how to add PSD as layer, and resize it.







And here is a taste of how to change the opacity, and maybe add some bevels or emboss, outer glow, etc. Then move it to it's final resting place.

th_girl-1.jpg th_Layerresizemove.jpg th_layeropacityetc.jpg
 
That looks really cool and I am sure you explained it well, but man that seems like a lot of work so I am going to remain uncool. I am just old school lazy like that.

SF-

Well I have a habit of explaining how to drink a glass of water nearly impossible, so that doesn't help. It's really fast and easy, one of those things you have to do a little at a time until it is second nature.

All in all, it took me less than 2 minutes from start to finish. You know the saying....if I can do it, anyone can do it. Hopefully the video segments will help explain as well.
 

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