App: Apple Aperture

Did you know that Aperture can watermark your photos on export? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t; a lot of people don’t know it’s there. It’s a feature that has remained essentially unchanged since v.1, and to be honest it’s not that straight forward. It appears simple enough, but can do strange and confusing things on export.

I’ve been using essentially the same watermark for years (I just kept changing the year on it) and probably just got lucky in making one that worked so long ago! So I decided that once and for all, I’d figure out what is and isn’t happening in Aperture when you choose to watermark your images.

Also, one of the frustrations for many is that you need to create the actual watermark file outside of Aperture—and frankly, not everyone owns Photoshop. So part of this adventure was to find a way to create a watermark file for cheap, or even better, for free.

I succeeded.

The Easy Part

To enable watermarking, all you have to do is open the Export presets, and turn on watermarking for one of the presets, and add a PNG or PSD file to it. That’s it. Of course, it’s not really that easy, but here’s where the work is done.

The Image Export settings in Aperture 3 reveal the Watermark options

So really, all you should need to do is choose an image, decide where to put it, and off you go. But notice that little Scale Watermark option? Bizarre behavior. What opacity works best? What kind of file works best? All of this and more is what we’re gonna cover here.

The ApertureExpert Podcast is not a traditional podcast; we’re not on a weekly schedule, nor is it an interview show. It’s simply a visual version of the tips that are posted on the main ApertureExpert Tips page (that’s this one).

These new podcasts allows you to read a tip, watch a tip, or do both—whatever suits your nature. And best of all, it’s all free!

Greetings folks!

I’m thrilled to announce the latest Preset Packs, #3 and #4 — both chock full of delicious textured goodness!

(And no you didn’t miss anything… #2 is still in development)