Anybody doing smart watermarking?

adrintoul · 2017-10-31 10:42:22

In some cases, my photos in a single album are by different photographers, and I'd like the watermarks to represent that. I had the bright idea to store the photographer's name in the IPTC Copyright tag, and somehow pull that into the watermark to make a smart watermark. I chased down this road only to realize Adobe doesn't support embedding IPTC tags in watermarks, unless using the "Simple Copyright Watermark", which offers no flexibility when it comes to styling the watermarks.

Next step, I found the LR/Mogrify 2 plugin, which does what I need as far as smart watermarking without compromising style. It works fantastic, but works by adding post-process actions into the export/publish process.

However, after it not working with TTG Publisher, and doing some research on this forum, I found I found this post. It confirms that post-process actions won't function with Publisher, since Publisher generates multiple renditions of the image.

So now I'm back where I started. Has anyone else gone down this road? Is there an obvious solution I'm missing to accomplish my original goal of choosing per-image watermarks instead of per-album watermarks?

rod barbee · 2017-10-31 13:52:21

since you can set the watermark for Publisher to apply in the Publisher settings in Lightroom, set it for one photographer and publish a batch of his or her images. Change the watermark in settings and publish another batch, etc.

adrintoul · 2017-11-01 05:20:38

Thanks for your suggestion, and I suppose that's always a possibility.

I'm hoping to come up with a cleaner solution that required less maintenance. The more I look though, I'm not sure a cleaner solution exists today.

Daniel Leu · 2017-11-01 06:48:40

adrintoul wrote:

Thanks for your suggestion, and I suppose that's always a possibility.
I'm hoping to come up with a cleaner solution that required less maintenance. The more I look though, I'm not sure a cleaner solution exists today.

I'm with you. Haven't found a solution yet...

Ben · 2017-11-01 08:35:40

Thinking aloud. One way might be to designate a metadata field editable within the Library metadata pane, to add the name of a preferred watermark. Publisher could check the field and use that watermark if found on disk, overriding the selected watermark in the album settings.
If that's feasible, are there any preferences for the metadata field to use for this?

rod barbee · 2017-11-01 08:52:46

Ah. I forgot you can change the watermark right in the album. That's much easier than changing it in the Publisher settings.

Ben · 2017-11-01 09:06:15

I hadn't realised this was related to CE4 Publisher. We're unlikely to add new features to CE4.

Daniel Leu · 2017-11-01 11:15:50

Ben wrote:

I hadn't realised this was related to CE4 Publisher. We're unlikely to add new features to CE4.

But the idea could be used for Backlight as well.... Instead of using an existing metadata field, how about creating your own? Here is an example plugin doing it: http://www.lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/big-note

(From John Beardy, the author of BigNote: I left BigNote unencrypted so anyone can learn to add their own fields. )

Ben · 2017-11-01 14:08:49

Daniel Leu wrote:

Ben wrote:
I hadn't realised this was related to CE4 Publisher. We're unlikely to add new features to CE4.
But the idea could be used for Backlight as well.... Instead of using an existing metadata field, how about creating your own? Here is an example plugin doing it: http://www.lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/big-note
(From John Beardy, the author of BigNote: I left BigNote unencrypted so anyone can learn to add their own fields. )

Interesting. I hadn't looked at adding a metadata plugin (though I've skimmed through the documentation on it). We could add something similar in our zip file specifically for a Watermark setting.

I would consider adding this support to Backlight.

Daniel Leu · 2017-11-01 14:55:55

Ben wrote:

Daniel Leu wrote:
Ben wrote:
I hadn't realised this was related to CE4 Publisher. We're unlikely to add new features to CE4.
But the idea could be used for Backlight as well.... Instead of using an existing metadata field, how about creating your own? Here is an example plugin doing it: http://www.lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/big-note
(From John Beardy, the author of BigNote: I left BigNote unencrypted so anyone can learn to add their own fields. )
Interesting. I hadn't looked at adding a metadata plugin (though I've skimmed through the documentation on it). We could add something similar in our zip file specifically for a Watermark setting.
I would consider adding this support to Backlight.

I would love to have the year the photo was taken in the watermark. But even if I can select the watermark from a metadata field, this field first needs to be propagated. It doesn't look like a custom metadata field is available at import. This means that manual labor is required :-(

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2017-10-31 10:42:22

Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#2 2017-10-31 13:52:21

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#3 2017-11-01 05:20:38

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#4 2017-11-01 06:48:40

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#5 2017-11-01 08:35:40

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#6 2017-11-01 08:52:46

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#7 2017-11-01 09:06:15

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#8 2017-11-01 11:15:50

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#9 2017-11-01 14:08:49

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

#10 2017-11-01 14:55:55

Re: Anybody doing smart watermarking?

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