J. Rinaldi Photography- powered by SmugMug

After many attempts at creating a working action to add a custom watermark to my pictures (and I tried all the tutorials, from books and online), I came up with this method, follow it through and you'll end up with an action that will always place your logo where you want in the same size (relative to image size) no matter which orientation you use.

A PDF version of the tutorial is also available here

Gallery pages: < 1 2 3 4 5 >

Select the place command from the file menu.

Select your newly saved 'Copyright Logo.psd' image

The bounding box for the new layer should be limited by your lesser dimension, regardless of aspect ratio. Also note that your image will always appear in the the center of the canvas by using the 'place' command.

Use the transform tools that appear automatically after you place the image to scale your logo to the desired dimensions. Use the percentage controls to make sure that your logo is always the same size relative to the shortest dimension of your image.

Select both layers by pressing shift and selecting your background layer.

Use the 'layer>align' menu tools to align your logo to any corner you'd like, or just leave it in the center. Make sure to use the menu for alignment and not the toolbar buttons, these won't register in the action.

Select your Copyright Logo layer

Select the move tool from the tools palette

Move or translate your icon a little further from the corner (unless you're leaving it in the center) and press the checkmark (if you used the transform tool)

If you want, adjust any layer properties, but these are better changed in your 'Copyright Logo.psd' did I mention you can create a new logo anytime and use just by replacing the old file, well you can! also any changes will be ported with creating a new action.

Gallery pages: < 1 2 3 4 5 >