Last week we looked at adding a text watermark to our photos. We often use this to identify us as the photographer. But you may prefer to use a graphical watermark, perhaps to add your signature. Or businesses often want to include their logo. How do you add a graphical watermark to your photos?
As we learned with text watermarks, you can select and edit a watermark to apply to your photos in the Watermarking section of the Export dialog.
In Lightroom Classic’s Export dialog, check the Watermark checkbox and then select Edit Watermarks from the pop-up to create a watermark preset.
With Lightroom Desktop (cloud-based), select Custom Settings in the Export dialog and enable Include Watermark, and then click on the cog icon to access the watermark settings.
Select Graphic and navigate to the PNG or JPG of your choice.
On mobile, enable the Include Watermark switch in the Export Options, then tap Customize to design your watermark.
Press the Choose button in the Image Options section and navigate to the PNG or JPEG file of your choice.
The PNG format has the advantage of allowing transparency, or semi-transparency. For example, you may want a large © symbol across your photo, without a large white square showing.
If you want to give it a try, you can download some sample watermarks here. If you’re looking for your signature to be designed, Photologo are a popular choice.
Watermark options
Once you’ve decided on the content of your graphic watermark, you can set the size and position on the photo. The settings are very similar, whether you’re using Lightroom Classic or the Lightroom Cloud ecosystem.
Opacity—Depending on the purpose of the watermark, reduce the opacity to fade it into the photo, making it less obvious.
Size—The Proportional (LR Classic) / Size (LR Cloud) slider is relative to the size of the photo. This means it automatically adjusts for horizontal and vertical photos.
Anchor & Inset/Offset Distance—You set the position of the watermark by anchoring it to one of 9 points on the corners, edges or center of the photo, and then add additional spacing using the Inset (LR Classic) / Offset (LR Cloud) sliders. Traditionally, artists signed their work in the lower left or right corner, inset slightly from the edges.
Rotation—By rotating the watermark by 90°, you may find it’s less distracting, as your viewers will be less inclined to stop and read it.
When you’re happy with your watermark, save the settings by pressing Done. To start over, click Cancel to return to the Export dialog without saving your changes.
To apply your watermark to photos as you save or share them, enable the Watermark checkbox (LR Classic) / Include Watermark switch (LR Cloud) when exporting. Note that watermarks don’t display on shared web galleries.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
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I have a Photologo. How do I get into Lightroom Classic?
Which part of the instructions are you having trouble with?
Thanks — BUT — I use LRC 11.5 on a Mac Studio Ultra running macOS Monterey 12.6 and for the last few months I have not seen any Graphical Watermark added to any of my exports. Text watermarks are OK.
This is NOT an ever since I “decided” to use dropbox issue it is clearly something else. Do you have any thoughts?
I was finally able to speak to adobe support who had me role LRC back to 11.4.1 which worked as expected LRC is running using Rosetta/Emulation ON. They said to wait for adobe to release an update to 11.5 before upgrading LRC again — there clearly is an issue with LRC and Apple Silicon..
Um, hang on, I think there’s two different issues there. 11.5 can run under Rosetta, so are you seeing an issue in 11.5, or in the Silicon code? With old watermark presets or new ones?
I just did a test export in 11.5 (not on Rosetta) on a Mac Studio running Monterey 12.6 and the graphical watermark showed up ok.
I recently came across LrWatermark.com, which allows you to place a logo in the develop module, which is neat!
Thanks so much. This was very helpful.