Creating a Photoshop Action to Watermark your Images

Watermarking your images

Watermarks come in different colours, shapes and sizes, it all depends on the look of your brand and the image you need to watermark. They prevent the public from using your work without your permission, so it is important for you to know how to create and apply them to your photographs.

Here are some simple Photoshop steps to create your watermark as well as the process to create an action that automatically watermarks your photos.

Step 1: Creating your watermark

The ideal size for a watermark can be anything between 500-1000 pixels, but you can make it any size you want.

You can create a Photoshop file of your preferred size, we’ll be using the following dimensions: 1000 x 650 px as well as simple text with a colour icon included.

Once you’re happy with your design you can group all of the different components together, and add a drop shadow effect (this is ideal if you have a white watermark, as it will make your design visible on white or bright images). Then, hide your background layer to show the transparent background.

To save your watermark, click on File > Save a Copy or use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + S (Windows) / Alt + Command + S (Mac). 

Make sure you selected PNG as the final file format.

Save your watermark somewhere where you know it won’t be moved. This is crucial because when you create your Photoshop Action, it will reference your watermark from where you saved it. We suggest placing it in either your Documents or Pictures folder.

Step 2 – Creating the Photoshop Action

Before you start watermarking a batch of images, you will have to do the process manually on one image while recording it in Photoshop. Only then will you be able to watermark batches of images, with a simple click of a button.

Firstly, you’ll need to open one of your high-resolution images in Photoshop, then go to your Actions window by clicking on the icon displayed, or if it’s not visible on your screen, you can go to Window > Actions.

When your Action tab is open you can press the + icon to create a new Action. Give the action a name eg. Watermark, and click record. Everything you do now will be recorded and included in your action.

Your Action window should look like this:

To get your watermark on your image, go to the menu bar, click on your File > Place Embedded > find your watermark where you stored it.

Your png-file will pop up on your window, press Enter to complete the place command. You’ll notice that the “Place” command has been recorded into your action.

Select both layers, go to your menu bar, and click on Layer > Align > Top Edges or Bottom Edges – to send your watermark to the preferred edge.

Click on your watermark layer, hold down shift and move your watermark using the up/down arrows on your keyboard.

It’s helpful to keep your watermark in the middle of your image because the automatic action places the watermark in the same place every time. So if you’re working on a landscape image and your watermark is in the bottom right corner, it won’t be visible in your portrait images. 

Once you’ve finalised your watermark placement, and you want your action to recognise the movement, press stop on the action tab. You’ll see that the “move current layer” step has been added to the list, press record again to continue. Right-click on one of your layers and flatten the image.

The last step is to save your image. Click on File > Save a Copy and make sure your file format is set to JPEG. Once the image is saved you can stop recording. 

Now you can automatically start adding your watermark to a batch of images.

Step 3 – Use your Photoshop Action to process a batch of images

In the menu bar, choose File > Automate > Batch.

Please take note of the following setting:

• Under the “Play” section make sure you select the watermark action.
• Under the “Source” section, select Opened Files, which processes all images currently open in Photoshop, or you can choose to select a folder on your hard drive.
• Under the “Destination” section, you can choose where to save your watermarked images. Make sure to check the box that says Override Action Save As Commands. This box tells Photoshop to save your watermarked images in the location you’ve selected under the “Destination” section. If you leave this box unchecked, your watermarked images will go to where you saved the file you used to create the action itself.

Click OK and watch Photoshop watermark all your images for you.

Now that you’re a pro at watermarking your images, you can protect and advertise your work confidently. Keep in mind that it’s not always necessary to watermark your photos, for instance, if you are printing a canvas for a bride, it’s only needed when you want to prevent people from using your work without your permission.