Times they are a changin’. Screens get bigger, native resolution increases, printers get better. I recently have been torn about whether or not to watermark my photos or at least include the customary frame with my name and URL so none of my work gets orphaned, stolen, used without permission etc. My feeling is really that watermarks and frames, although useful for advertising and security, always seem to take a  little something away from the most important thing: the image itself. They also carry a slight air of “I don’t trust you”, which is not something I want to convey.

In the process of trying to decide about watermarking, I have been mulling over some articles about only posting in “low resolution” or “web size” so as to protect your images from ending up on a billboard somewhere raking in megabucks for some big corporation, all whilst the struggling photographer cringes in a cold basement starving. While the latter scenario seems a bit far fetched, its important to consider the new definition of “low res” or “web size”.

Many articles argue that you can’t print with any quality from a “web size” image, but the meaning of “web size”  has changed greatly in recent years.

Here’s an example-

Facebook now takes a large image and reduces it to 720 pixels on the longest edge (constraining the other edge to preserve your aspect ratio).  A DSLR like my Canon 50d spits out a 2:3 type file that would start out at 4752 pixels x 3168 pixels.  Uploaded to Facebook, it would be reduced to 720 x 480 pixels. (Its better to resize them first, by the way).

This means one could download your image from Facebook and make a 7.2″ by 4.8″ print at 100ppi quite easily. If you think 100ppi ain’t enough, you’d be surprised. I’ve seen a few  of my images printed from Facebook (watermark and all!) and at a normal viewing distance, they look like a regular, bona fide,  photo quality print.

Does this mean you should watermark the heck out of your images? I don’t think so. I don’t know. Still haven’t decided whether to keep my watermark or just move on. But I do know this- if you want to keep people from making acceptable looking prints from your web sized images-consider sizing them under 400×400, or at the lowest possible resolution for your needs. If you’re not worried about it, go ahead and post that monster of a Hasselblad 60 megapixel beast on the web for everyone to download!

For a great article on the ins and outs of pixels and PPI, check here. -Oh, and thanks for reading!