I'm looking at posting my images on the web and wanted to get some advice on the steps that i should follow to ensuring my images are copyrighted.
Unless you live in a country that hasn't signed on to the Berne convention, your images are copyrighted the instant you've made them.
I've been surfing the web and have read that it is recommended that images are watermarks and the watermark be registered by Digimarc. There wasn't a whole lot of information, so i was hoping to get further advice on what i should do before posting images on the web or creating a website with my images.
Digimarc provides a plug-in for various Photoshop versions (not CS3).
The idea is that there is a hidden watermark (unseen by human eyes) that can easily be read by Digimarc's software. This works even with screenshots in Windows, but there are probably ways around it.
For usable results, you apparently need to subscribe to their
MyPictureMarc service.
Basically, I'd suggest that you don't worry too much, and rather make sure that the images you post to the web are of a sufficient quality to be enjoyed on the web, but essentially useless for printing.
If you're worried about people using your images for desktop backgrounds, screensavers etc, you can restrict the size similarly to what Michael does on this site (i.e. no more than 800 pixels in any dimension).
A more or less discreet visible signature can also be used, see
Jack Flesher's signature brush tutorial for how you can create a simple brush you can use wherever you want in the image.
