I have always really, really hated watermarks on images when I’m looking through other photographers’ websites. But I understand why photographers choose to do it. We (at least, I) invest a lot in getting the pictures I post and it seems that so many people think that they are free for the taking to use in any way that they want just because they have a link to my site. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to rake in so much cash that I’d be drowning in it - in fact, I’m quite generous with my pictures and knowledge of my subjects, techniques, and gear. I often simply give all that away to friends, family, people who let me go on their property to search for shots, non-profit groups who I support., etc….
However, in the quickly evolving age of NFT development and AI-scraping, I have come to the conclusion that I need to start including watermarks on my images shared on my website. This is because they tend to be images large enough for unscrupulous people to grab and reproduce without my authorization. I have been contacted numerous times by people wanting permission to create NFTs of my images. I personally think that is a huge scam and always deny permission. However, my gut tells me that such people are likely stealing the photos anyway.
Case in point, Zuckerberg (in supporting the concept of training AI on webpages such as mine) has said "Individual creators or publishers tend to overestimate the value of their specific content." Honestly, I often cannot disagree with that statement. However, content made by photographers is not without value. - but to him our overestimation of value is any amount greater than $0. So, Mark, allow me to give you a little bit of interpersonal relationship advice - people outside your sphere of the ultra-wealthy (and the work that they do) have value.
Maybe placing a watermark won’t solve anything with AI being illegally trained on images of others but, for the time being it is the best solution I can think of. At least it will likely make them undesirable to use in creating NFTs without my permission.
So, for now, each image that I upload will have a watermark. When I have the time, I will be taking down older pics and replacing them with marked pics. I realize that the older pics have likely already been used to train AI and some taken for NFTs. However, I’m hoping that will change in the future with my pics.
I thank you for understanding this dilemma.
If you find it annoying to view the images in this format, I offer my sincerest apologies…I’m with you (I truly am). I wish that I had a different solution. For now, though, I recommend that for viewing my pics in un-watermarked format (though at a very much lower-quality) please visit the social media I have linked through this website. (Though, admittedly, my social media participation may be changing soon also due to the evolving rights-grabs that the various social media are building into their user agreements….Zuckerberg, again, taking the things that he says hold no value.)