creating and saving a photoshop brush watermark

I’ve never taken a class or read a book about Photoshop.

I do watch YouTube videos of PS tutorials and also read blogs and online tutorials.

But I’ve never upgraded past Photoshop Elements 5.0.

In other words, you don’t necessarily need professional quality programs to have a professional looking image.

But here’s my disclaimer: if you’re looking to become a professional photographer, a basic knowledge of GOOD editing programs is a must. And I firmly believe in hiring a professional to work up some branding & logos for you, unless you’re really good at that sort of thing.

ANYWAY … if you’re looking for a basic way to protect your images, then this is the tutorial for you.

Creating and Saving a Photoshop Brush Watermark

I discussed creating a watermark here, but I’m going to go ahead and go over that again with the addition of saving it to have everything in one neat and tidy tutorial.

Also, I have since changed my watermark, because I, personally, felt weird having the word “photography” included when I’m not a professional photographer. Just personal preference there.

Step 1: create new file (I started with 800px X 800px just to make sure I’d have a nice big file)

Step 2: type whatever you want (all brushes are created grayscale, so use black #000000)

Step 3: whenever you have the text or image or text & image combo that you want, do a fairly tight crop

Step 4: go to “select all” (or type CTRL-A), then go to “edit – define brush from selection”

Step 5: name your brush

At this very second, you can use it as a brush, but it’s currently hanging out in limbo in the brush category where you created it. If you want a special “watermark” folder for this brush, you need to go ahead and save it before you lose it.

Step 6: go to the brush drop-down menu and click on the >> and then select “preset manager”

Step 7: select the brush that you want to save (if you have more than one brush that you would like to use as a watermark [like I do], then select all of those brushes and click “save set”)

Step 8: name the set whatever you want – I super creatively named mine “watermarks.abr”

note: the folder will be located under C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 5.0\Presets\Brushes (or whatever program you have)

Step 9: click on “done”

Step 10: use your new brush / watermark!

Now, a couple of things to mention …

• Even though you created your watermark using black #000000, you can change it to whatever color you would like once you are finished. After you select the brush you want to use, just set the foreground color to whatever you would like before you “brush” it onto the image.

• You can change the size and opacity of the brush to suit your needs, but you need to do that before you “brush” the watermark onto the image. Once you “brush” it, you can’t change anything. You may have to “undo” a couple of times to get it right, but I usually aim for opacity around 20-30% depending on the image.

• The fonts I used in this brush are the ever popular Fonts for Peas found at Kevin and Amanda Fonts – the text is “Pea Frankie” and the heart is “Pea Bethany’s Doodles.” Please follow the rules when it comes to using free fonts you find online.

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