I have had a web presence for over 10 years now and I have always added a © watermark to all of my photos that I have uploaded online. Adding a copyright (©) watermark is necessary for me as I have made a living from my photography for over 19 years now. I am in the business of selling photos – not giving them away. Adding a © watermark to my online photos helps to protect the unauthorized use of my work in that it sends a message that the photo is copyrighted and not available for free use.

Up until now the only way I could add a © watermark to photos I wanted to post online from my iPhone camera was to download the photo to my laptop or desktop, add the watermark in Photoshop, then upload to the internet or back to my iPhone to then post online. Quite cumbersome especially considering how easy it is to post photos from the iPhone direct to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, blogs and other locations with the press of a few buttons. Convenience forced me to upload many non-watermarked photos to places such as twitpic, yfrog, etc.

Frustrated, the other day I posted a question to my Twitter followers asking if anyone knew of an app for the iPhone that “can add a user defined © watermark to a #photo – preferably to a copy of a photo”. Two minutes later @SuperFarm tweeted me info on an application called PhotoMarkr. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Using PhotoMarkr is extremely simple. You can either add your own © text in the application itself, or import a graphic that you previously created into the program. Simply create your watermark in Photoshop on a black background and save the flattened image as a jpg. Upload to your iPhone using iPhoto/iTunes or just email the photo to your iPhone. You can save as many © watermarks as you want in the Photo Albums section of your iPhone and change them as often as you want in PhotoMarkr.

The settings page in PhotoMarkr

Once your setting preferences are finished tap done. You are then returned to the main application page. What’s nice is that your settings are saved and each time you re-launch the app your previously used setting is applied.

Main application page.

The main application page is displayed above. Tapping the 5 icons, from left to right, will do the following: a) open up your photo library on the iPhone to select an already taken photo, b) turn on the camera to immediately take a photo, c) save a watermarked copy of your photo, d) turn off the watermark, e) open the settings page. It is worth mentioning again that by saving a watermarked photo, you are saving a copy of the original photo – your original photo remains untouched and you end up with a watermarked copy.

Change opacity, twist and turn your watermark.

As seen above, you have full control over the opacity – or transparency – of your watermark. By pinching the screen with your fingers you can change the size and even rotate your watermark. Simple, quick, intuitive and effective. Your saved watermark photo will appear in your camera roll ready for uploading online.

PhotoMarkr sells in the app store for just $2.99. It is worth every penny. Very simple and fast to use, it does just what it is supposed to do and I highly recommend it.