The object of this lesson is to familiarize yourself with one technique to place transparent 'watermark' text on our photos. If have this great shot that you want to show the world, but you don't want anyone stealing your work, or at least not give credit where credit is due, Or you just want to put a title or other information on a photo, BUT you really don't want to ruin the photo with that yucky 'date stamp' type lettering that some cameras let you put on a photo, then THIS will allow you a bit of compromise. (wow...big long run-on sentence)
First, let me say I did this in Adobe PhotoShop 7. It's what I use for 99% of my photo-editing. Similar methods will probably allow you to do this in Adobe Photo Elements 3. I haven't investigated it: PE3 may even have a one-step button to do this.
The two keys to success are: (Don't let these two points scare you...it's simple if you follow the steps)
1. The FOREGROUND color must be set to what we'll refer
to as 50% gray.
2. The Blend Mode of the TEXT must be set to 'SCREEN'
Everything else can be set and tweaked to your liking and I'll show you two separate results in the same photo.
Standard Disclaimer: The graphics might be a bit heavy on this page for those on dialup, but by the time your read this really, really, really, really long sentence they should be finished loading. Maybe even go make yourself a cup of coffee. Read the newspaper, do your taxes. You know you've been putting them off...by the time you get your refund these graphics should be done.
We'll start with this image...I think we all know where this was taken (Remember, always work with a copy, not your original photo):
1. Open Photoshop and the image to which you want to add
TEXT:
2. Click once on on the Black Square to 'Set Foreground Color':
3. The 'Color Picker' window will appear
4. Click on the dot next to 'R'
5. Enter the number '50' next to R, G, and B
6. Click 'OK' button
Congratulations! You've just completed the most important part of the lesson!
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