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Aperture, iWeb, and Watermarks
Apple has made it really easy to upload your Aperture images into your iWeb albums and galleries. Any image in your Aperture library that has a preview will appear in the Media Manager in iWeb and can be dragged onto an iWeb page or gallery. The problem is that there’s no way to place a visible watermark overlay on those images. Since I’ve had several images stolen from my website, I know the value of having those © symbol overlays when you confront the perpetrator. (It’s also a really smart idea to register your images with the US copyright office before posting them. I’m not sure about international law, but it makes a huge difference in what you can recover in the U.S.)
My solution is to select the images in Aperture that I want to post on the website and then export these images to a folder on my desktop using a special preset. I created an Export Preset called " iWeb" that is limited to 500 pixels and takes advantage of the export watermark option. That way it’s quick and easy to export small watermarked images to a folder. I import those images back into an album in my project that I label “For Web.” Then in iWeb I use the watermarked JPEGs rather than the full files. Hopefully the Aperture or the iWeb team will make this work around unnecessary before long, but for now, this system works.
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Out of interest, why is this a good idea? Aren't all your images already protected by the inherent copyright you have on them? (i.e., you created the pics, so you already have copyright over them.)
Stewart
Stewart there's a difference between owning the copyright and registering it. You are correct that you own the copyright since you created the image but registering it gives you the ability to use the legal system to collect if someone uses your image without your permission. If the image is already registered when it's used illegally, the amount you can collect is large enough that a lawyer will be willing to take your case. If it's not, the damages that you can claim are quite limited, so the chances are you'll be on your own. For a far more in depth discussion of the reasons why you need to register your images, as well as instruction son how to do it yourself, see www.photoattorney.com. If you don't care if someone else uses your images, then you don't need to register them.
As a personal example, a year or two ago a company hired a national company to create their website and do their advertising. Imagine my surprise when I saw an image from my website in the newspaper (including ©Ellen (they removed my last name, go figure!) and on the home page for the company! And this is despite the fact that the images I post are quite small!