Add A Copyright Watermark Pattern To A Photo With Photoshop

I recently joined an online gardening forum, and to keep their costs down instead of enabling me to upload a profile pic I was given a choice of various photos - one of which was mine . . .

Although I'm happy for my work to be used, I don't want it used without crediting that work to me.

And I've subsequently discovered that when you post images onto places like Facebook, Pinterest or your blog even, they get swept up by search engines and divorced from your website, your name doesn't travel with them, ownership becomes lost.

Which means your images become what is known as ‘orphan works’, meaning ‘creator unknown’, which could lead to your work being used by others without your permission or payment, and maybe even supporting causes that you don't.

I took a look around t'internet and found a great little tutorial for putting a watermark on an image. If you place a copyright on your images, when they get swept up by search engines and divorced from your website, you can still be credited as the owner and contacted for permission to use them.

Below is the image which the gardening forum offered me, (from a post, Preserving the Bounty, made in October 2010) now with added watermark.