Digital technology has totally transformed the world of professional photography. The latest digital cameras and software used for editing (that are easily available for free) have enabled many people to turn their photography hobby into successful businesses. Unfortunately, there are also a few downsides to it. Most importantly, the growing ease for people to steal work that professional photographers and designers have put so much time and effort into creating.

Many professional photographers have reportedly spent a lot of time and money tracking down image theft and copyright violations for their work. A lack of understanding about copyright laws and intellectual property rights is the main reason for the increasing cases of image theft.

Protecting Your Images From Theft

The good news is that there are many ways a photographer can protect their work from image theft. One of the most common methods is watermarking photographs. Photographers superimpose a piece of text or their logo on the image file, which can only be removed if someone purchases the document or the photograph is willing to freely share their work.

While it’s the easiest way to prevent image theft, it isn’t 100% effective.

Let’s take a look at the various pros and cons of watermarking your images before publishing:

Advantages Of Watermarking Images

Watermarking is a way of signing your image to show ownership and offers partial theft protection by preventing people from accidentally using your image wrongfully. It is also a great way of promoting your brand and makes your pictures recognizable as they spread into the far corners of the world wide web.  

Watermarking images can also help generate more traffic to your website and can be quite good for your business. It also gives a signal to potential clients that your work might be available for purchase, and you get more sales by offering pictures without the watermark for a price.

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Disadvantages Of Watermarking Images

The biggest disadvantage of watermarks is that they can be an obtrusive element that can ruin the mood and composition of an otherwise great image.  

Adding a watermark to each image can also be quite time-consuming and eventually has no legal value. Whether your work has a watermark or not, you will have to provide proper proof that you shot the image in case the images were wrongfully used for commercial purposes.  

And finally, anyone with very little photoshop experience can easily remove watermarks from most images, and for serious and determined image thieves, it is just a minor inconvenience.  

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Protect Your Media With Image Copyright protection From Pic Match

Are you worried that your media is not protected, and someone might be using it for commercial purposes? Protect your published images and creative work with the exceptional image theft protection and visual content discovery services offered by picMatch. Visit getpicmatch.com or picmatch.io to signup for a free account and get started today.

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