Recommended ways to tag your photos?

[RealityCheck]

Hello all, I am a newcomer to this forum. I thought about getting into automotive photography. One thing I've been working on is on which way I should tag my photos. I know some photographers have different ways of marking their photos with their name/brand. Some put text or logo in the corner, or some place in either on the bottom center or somewhere around the picture where it fits best.

My question is: is there a guideline to placing your name on the shot? Any rules to which fonts or placements you should and should not use?

[Withers]

a watermark serves 2 purposes, but the purpose you put more weight on will affect which style you choose

1. it protects your image from being used without your permission. people that focus on this will usually plaster the watermark right through the center of the subject to make it difficult for people to clone it out

2. it provides advertisement for you/your company. people who focus on that aspect will typically make their watermarks small and out of the way so you can really appreciate the photo.

There's a third kind too, the ones where people make them stupidly large and obnoxious thinking it'll somehow get them more business, but in the end make them them look really unprofessional.

Your photos are automatically copyrighted, a watermark doesn't do anything to change that.

Examples:
This style is usually darker than this, but it gets the point across

[Withers]

here's a good example of what not to do

[Daffy]

Listen to Jason.

IMO if you're going to make a watermark make it simple and clean, and tuck it away on the picture. You don't want anything that will take attention away from what you are trying to capture. I make mine a little transparent as well so it doesn't stick out as much.

[RealityCheck]

I have the right idea on the second picture. I have tried different styles in photoshop using someone else's picture for a test. I have a simple clean watermark idea that will either be placed at the corner of the picture, or at the bottom center of it.

[Withers]

IMO if you're going to make a watermark make it simple and clean, and tuck it away on the picture. You don't want anything that will take attention away from what you are trying to capture. I make mine a little transparent as well so it doesn't stick out as much.

Most people do it that way, but some photographers are more concerned about people stealing their images than others, particularly the ones that make a living as photographers. Then again Konky makes his living as a photographer, so it just depends.