Online Sales: Good News with Some Risk
Those of us who have had images online for many years realize there are many advantages to showing work online. For every person who walks into a brick and mortar gallery to look at a painting, within a short period of time there are thousands of people who browse a website. Because we show multiple artists’ work and we use Search Engine Optimization, on WaterMediaGallery.com your work will get many views! That’s the good news.
The down side of showing work online is the possibility of image theft. Theft seldom occurs but we feel it is wise to provide deterrents. Think of this as locking your door when you leave the house.
We recommend you watermark your online images. Here’s how:
1) Watermarks can be made with any photo software that allows you to add text. Just put your curser on the area of your painting you wish to watermark (somewhere within the center of interest, not a margin that could easily be cropped). Click Option G on your Mac or Alt 0169 in Windows for the © symbol. Then type your name, your initials or whatever title you wish to use to indicate the image is protected.
2) Free or low-cost photo editing software will allow you to add text. If you wish to go a step further, more sophisticated (therefore, expensive) photo software such as Photoshop provide a layering feature. This way it is possible to add a layer with your watermark, then “flatten” the layer into the image making it more difficult for a determined thief to remove a watermark.
2) To better guard against image theft, WaterMediaGallery has disabled Right Click on all images on our site. We have also disabled the use of Cut/Paste shortcut keys on images, Save shortcut key and Image drag-and-drop.
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