Add a Watermark to Your Contact Sheets

A contact sheet that leaves your machine is a set of your photographs in somebody else's inbox, usually before the invoice is paid. A watermark does not make that safe, but it makes the sheet obviously a proof rather than a delivery — and it puts your name on every page that gets forwarded.

Text or logo

Both work. They solve slightly different problems.

• Text is for status. PROOF — NOT FOR PUBLICATION, or a studio name and year. It reads at any size, costs nothing to set up, and it is the right choice when the point is to stop a proof being mistaken for a final file.
• A logo is for identity. Use it when the sheet is a piece of presentation as much as a working document — a pitch, a shortlist, anything going in front of somebody who has not hired you yet.

Upload a PNG with a transparent background for a logo. A JPEG logo arrives with a white box around it, which looks worse on a contact sheet than no logo at all.

Placement and opacity

The tension is real: a watermark heavy enough to deter is heavy enough to get in the way of the decision the sheet exists to support. Where you land depends on who is looking.

Start at 15% and go up only if you have a reason. On a contact sheet the frames are already small; a 50% mark across the middle means nobody can judge an expression, and you will get asked for a clean version — which defeats the point entirely.

What a watermark does and does not do

It is worth being clear-eyed, because watermarks are often sold as protection they do not provide.

• It does stop casual reuse — the screenshot that ends up on a listing or a social post is visibly a proof.
• It does keep your name attached when a PDF is forwarded through three people and the covering email is lost.
• It does remove the "we thought these were the finals" conversation.
• It does not stop anyone determined. Corner marks crop out and a clone tool handles the rest.
• It does not replace a licence. The thing that protects the work is the contract; the watermark just makes the status visible.

The stronger protection for unpaid work is resolution. Export the proof sheet at 150dpi: fine on screen, fine marked up on paper, useless to anybody wanting to print it.

Adding one

1. 01Open the contact sheet maker and add your photos.
2. 02Open the Watermark panel and pick text or image.
3. 03For text, type the line and choose a size. For a logo, upload a transparent PNG.
4. 04Set the corner or centre placement, then set opacity — start at 15%.
5. 05Check it against a dark frame and a light one. A mark that reads over a bright sky often vanishes over a black suit.
6. 06Add a header with the client and shoot name so the page is self-describing, then export.

Watermarks and brand presets are a Pro feature; the pricing page has the detail. The grid, labels and PDF export are free and need no account.

A sensible default

For most working photographers: text mark reading PROOF plus the studio name, bottom-right corner, 15% opacity, 150dpi export, header with the client and date. It takes ten seconds once it is a saved preset, it never obstructs a decision, and it answers the only question a watermark needs to answer — is this final? No.