Camera Labs

What this tutorial will show you
This tutorial will show you how to make an action in Photoshop that will add your information and a copyright within a file's properties. This is useful so that your name will be "hidden" within your photo or artwork. It is recommended that you do this for all images you post online to help protect your work.

To see the HTML version of this tutorial go to mydigitalmind.com.

Note: The screenshots in this tutorial were made using Photoshop CS3.

Creating an action

• To create an action in Photoshop, you must have a file open.
  
• In the Actions Panel, press the Create New Action button (inbetween new folder and the trash can):
  
  
  
  
• Name your action and press the Record button:
  
  

Edit File Info

• In the main Photoshop menu, Go to File, then select File Info:
  
  
  
  
• Fill in the information that you want to go into the proprties of the photo. I'd recommend filling in the Author (your name), a Description, and Copyright Notice. You may not want to put the Document Title in yet since this is an automatic action that you are creating for many files - you can do this to your files individually since it will differ from image to image. Also be sure to select Copyrighted in the Copyright Status dropdown.
  
  When you are done entering your information, press OK:
  
  
  
  
• You should see a © symbol in the title bar of your Photoshop file:
  
  
  
  
• In the Actions Panel, press the Stop Recording button (to the left of the record button):
  
  

Using your action
You can now put your information and copyright on all of your images with just one click.

• To use this on future images, when you have a file opened press the Play Selection button in the Actions Panel:
  
  
  
  
• To see your information, locate your file on your harddrive. Right click on the file and select Properties. In the file's properties, select the Details tabs. You should see your information in various places:
  
  

Hope this helps!

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Wildlife/Bird Photographer
Canon 5D & Digital Rebel T1i
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, EF 70-200mm F4L IS USM, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Kenko DG Auto Extension Tube Set - 36mm, 20mm, 12mm
My Photography: mydigitalmind : flickr

Great tutorial, Serenity!
Thank's for the useful tidbits for one of the most complex image processing software in the market

Any ideas how you can easily add a frame to a photo with a similar simple ection in photoshop? Some asked already which software can do it and how: http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10935

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Framing is not something I do - All I do is add a 2px stroke for my borders. I'll look into it though to see if I can help. Someone must make an action that will automatically do this.

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Wildlife/Bird Photographer
Canon 5D & Digital Rebel T1i
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, EF 70-200mm F4L IS USM, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Kenko DG Auto Extension Tube Set - 36mm, 20mm, 12mm
My Photography: mydigitalmind : flickr

I know this is an old thread but I'd just like to point out that in Nikon cameras you can set a "comment" that will be added to the EXIF of every image you shoot. I put my name in the comment, but you could also put a copyright notice in it. It's also one way of proving the camera is yours, if it happened to get lost or stolen!

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