Can I put a personal signature in my photos

[Marisela]

I got a 7D camera and I would like put my signature in my photos

[TCampbell]

The EOS Utility will let you add 'author' data and also a 'copyright' message to the EXIF data of every image your camera creates.   If you want the camera to do this, then you have to connect the camera to your computer and use EOS Utility to tell it what you want added to those fields.

If you're thinking of a 'watermark' (e.g. photographer's name -- which might resemble a signature) which is visible on the image itself (not hidden in the image EXIF data), this has to be done using a photo-editing software on your computer.  I use Aperture (which supports watermarks -- but Aperture is Mac software).  I believe Lightroom will also create watermarks (I'd be surprised if it didn't but I'm not a Lightroom user).  

[Marisela]

Thanks, that is what I want 'watermark'.

Regards 

Marisela

[ebiggs1]

If you are on a PC, than you want Light Room 5. It is really aimed towards the Pro user but anyone can use it even if you only do a few photos. It has every kind of "marking" I know of. It even allows you to assign "keywords" for later searches if you want to find that 'one' shot you took years ago.

The learning curve is a little long but not bad if you are only doing the easy common stuff.

[Marisela]

Thanks and  yes Im on a PC. I want my pictures with my name on it

[ebiggs1]

"I want my pictures with my name on it"

Than you need Light Room 5. If I can help with getting you started in it, just ask!  

It is an Adobe product. You can buy it retail or from their web site. It is around $149 bucks but you can find deals on it.

[Marisela]

Thanks again, Im going to keep in mind you offer and I will let you know,

Regards

[mls13]

You can use Zoom Browser that came with your camera to add text. Under the edit menu - edit image - add text.

Also for Windows you can use XNView for free to add text.

[Marisela]

Thanks

[TCampbell]

BTW, a LOT of image editing apps (free and non-free) will let you do this... but for some the method to do it may not be so obvious.

Some apps have a watermarking feature because it's commonly used by photographers.  In my app, I create an image of the watermark and just tell it where to place it and also what opacity/transparency it should have.  The watermarks are only applied by my software when I export an image (when I view them inside the application I don't see the watermark.)  But once the watermark is defined, it's automatic -- anything I export gets one (unless I turn it off) so I don't have to concieously remember to apply the watermark on an image-by-image basis.

Other apps aren't going to be so direct as to use the term "watermark".  It may be as simple as creating a layer to add text on top of your image... picking a nice font and adding the text, and then setting it to some medium level of opacity/transparency so that the image partially shows through the text to create the effect of a "watermark" even though they never use the term "watermark".

You could do this with GIMP (which is free, but has a bit of a learning curve.  The other limitation of GIMP is that it can only handle 8-bit color so that means you're usually limited to JPEG and it can't deal with RAW files from the camera).  You can do this with Photoshop Elements (not free, but generally priced at less than $100.)  There are many choices out there.