Watermarks and previews

What a watermark is for

A watermark is your store name or handle placed on the image so that any copy carries it. It does three things. It tells anyone who sees a leaked copy where the work came from and where to buy more. It discourages casual resharing, because a marked clip is obviously someone's property. And it supports a takedown notice by making ownership visible in the file itself.

It does not prevent leaking. Nothing does. Think of it as a return address, not a lock.

Watermarking sold clips and previews

Keep it legible, modest and consistent:

• Use your store name or the handle buyers would search for, not a logo nobody can read at phone size.
• Place it where cropping would ruin the frame, typically near a corner but not so close to the edge that a slight crop removes it. Some creators move it between a few positions through the clip so a single crop cannot remove it from every shot.
• Make it semi-transparent and small enough not to distract. A buyer should notice it once and then forget it.
• Apply it at export so it is baked into the file, not a separable layer.

A clean, well-placed mark reads as professional. A huge opaque one reads as distrust of the buyer who just paid you.

Previews and anything posted publicly deserve a heavier hand. They are expected to travel, so make sure your name travels with them: larger, more opaque, and positioned over the subject rather than in a corner. The same applies to thumbnails you post on social platforms and to any frames from a photo set used as promotion.

Cutting a preview that sells

A preview's job is to prove the clip is what the listing says, not to summarise it. Ten to twenty seconds is usually enough for a clip; two or three frames for a photo set. Choose moments that show the premise clearly: the setting, the persona, the tone. Leave out the moments buyers are paying for. If the preview gives away the best part, the clip has already been consumed for free.

Keep previews consistent in length and style across the store so buyers know what to expect from one. Cut them when you edit the clip, while the footage is fresh and the project is open, and export them watermarked at a modest resolution.

Mark preview images heavily and sold images lightly, in the same way. Export the sold set at full quality with a small corner mark; export the preview images smaller and with a central mark.

Keep the unmarked master

Always keep an unmarked master of every clip and set alongside your raw footage. You may need it for a re-export, a new preview, or a dispute. Never post or sell the unmarked master; if an unmarked copy appears online, you know it did not come from a buyer.