Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Image, the umbrella category, yes.
Sub-categories and sub-sub-categories exist.
Different types of images, just a different media.

Again, perception.....

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

I perceive that it would take a paint knife and careful work to remove a watermark (signature/ID) from a painting. That tool would not even make a dent in the digital file.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Obviously one tool will not work in all applications/instances.

One could always cut a piece of wood with a chisel...
or a pocket knife.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

A very dear friend of mine who is an Equine Photographer (travels everywhere to do stallion advertising for horse breeding farms) says the watermark is what you use on a PROOF. What you put down in the corner of the picture so someone knows who did the work is a COPYRIGHT signature. The watermark is removed on the purchased print.
She has trouble with clients posting watermarked photos on Facebook BEFORE purchasing them....that's a harsh NONO!
Place your signature in whichever bottom corner it fits best in and keep it small and faint. She has always said that if people want to know who made that shot, they will look for a name!

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

I don’t because I think they are distracting, but if i matte and frame a photo I will hand write in pencil my name on lower left and subject name on lower right. Then I put information about the photo on a card on the outside back of the framed picture.
Bud

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I put a lot of photos on Flickr with a Creative Commons copyright (or copyleft sometimes). If someone uses one of my images as long as they give me credit I allow it. I have not kept track (or tried to) of what photos get used but I know there are some out there that are used without attribution. I don't care. No skin off my back. I didn't expect to make money at photography and I have achieved my goal.

Every so often I get a request to use an image in a published work. I always grant the request. The grantee was good enough to ask and give a reason so I like to encourage them. Those that use my images without asking would have gotten permission also, but since I don't check, I'll never know.

By not caring about use of my images I avoid a lot of stress.

So I don't impact the 'artistic quality' (if any) in my photos by adding a watermark.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

A watermark is a faint logo, piece of text or signature superimposed onto a photograph to claim ownership and discourage unauthorized use. For utmost effectivity, it is scattered or centered in the image so that it allows the viewer to see the photo but cause enough distraction that no one would like to copy and keep/print the image as is.

If the mark is located in any of the sides or corners and small enough to be unobtrusive, then it is not a watermark but a signature or information.

If you are selling an image, then watermarks make them available for viewing but not useful for print. Therefore users are forced to buy the original print without the watermark.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

EXACTLY what my friend says. There is a big difference in a watermark and a signature. That's why I think the original post was asking about a signature.
Many would disagree but I think all prints should be signed. Someday when your great grandchildren have a print, don't make them unsure about whether great grandmother/great grandfather or someone they never heard of made that print.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

I too believe that if one is proud of his/her work, signing it is appropriate.
As for me, I mainly use an email and date and would sign only those few bits that really make me smile.

Many confuse the signature for a watermark especially when they get exposed to photographs that blur the distinction between the two like the images below. Therefore regarding any introduced elements into the image as something inappropriate and distracting.

These are signature-watermarks:

This one I opted to sign

CliffMcKenzie Loc: Lake Athens Texas

Prior comments have touched on the need to "make less attracting" or less in appearance the copyright\signature. This may help. In Lightroom Classic on export create a series of copyrights\signatures and save as presets. Example, MYNAME LR White 50 means the signature is set to lower bottom right in white at 50% opacity.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

Well watermarking and signing an image are as different as colour and B&W. You sign a photo to show you created the image. You watermark to try and stop people copying your work.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

No... a signature is never a watermark, otherwise there would not be two different words for it. A signature is just that. A signed print to show who the artist/photographer was that created the image.

A watermark is meant for one purpose only and that is to try and stop anyone from using the image for their own purposes, be it to print their own copy or to use the image somewhere and pretend that they took the photo.

Just like a copyright and a trademark are two different things, a signature and a water mark are two different things.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

Stupid statement to call a signature an "Ego Tag".

If you had a business whereby you paid your mortgage and put food on the table and clothes on your family's back with money you earned from selling your photography, you would not think the same way, if you found that a digital image was now being printed somewhere by someone that did not want to pay for your hard work you created, through your camera and PP computer work.

A digital file is what is used to create a piece of paper or canvas to hang on your wall. If the only way you could live was by selling your images in the form of a piece of paper or canvas that people wanted to buy to hang on your wall, you would not want to make it easy for people to copy your hard work and then not pay you. If you made it easy for them to just print them out at home for their use then you just lost a sale, or even worse, make it easy for people who see your prints somewhere, to be able to copy them and print them out and sell them somewhere else (say and art show or craft fair) and keep the money from their sales, for themselves.

I don't know what you did for a job but earning money through that job allowed you to pay your bills, eat, buy clothes, a house and a car and fuel for the car etc. And buy your camera, computer and printer, for example. Now let's say there was a way for anyone who wanted to, to copy your job and its end product by right clicking on a computer and choose copy, and.. save as.

These people who did that were now suddenly able to be paid by others for copying and selling the service your job entailed, but without the need for them to spend years learning that job and whatever education your needed to acquire, to get to a point, in order to be hired for that job. You could suddenly be out of a job because these other people were able to copy everything about you and your job.

So now how would you feel about that happening? Now you see where it could help you, if you had an option to sign the work you did, and or create a watermark on your work at the end of each day, to try and prevent anyone from copying and selling what it was that you produced at the end of your every workday? Hopefully you have a better understanding of what a signature and watermark can mean in this line of work.

By the way, I'm sure you had to write reports or other things in your line or work and at the end of those pieces of paper, you signed your name. I could now state you signing that piece of paper, was you, just trying to add your "Ego Tag". Understand that now, hmm????? Or think of it in another way. If you did write reports in your line of work and did not sign them, then someone who worked by you, could just pick up that report and sign their name and suddenly they would now get all the credit for the hard work you put into researching and typing up that report and you would not get a bit of credit for it. Maybe now you see the value in a signature and will never again call it an "Ego Tag".