It’s a new year, and that means updating your copyright information! For photographers, this oftentimes means making updates in more than one place, like your Camera, post-processing software (such as Adobe Lightroom), and possibly your website.

On Your Camera

All camera models will be a little different, but they should each have a place to enter your info. For this example, I’ll show how to set your info using a Canon 70D.

First, go into the Menu and locate the setting for the copyright information.

Next, select Enter copyright details to enter in the copyright terms, along with the year. (If you have not done this step in the past, I would suggest entering your author name as well.)

Then, enter in the copyright details. Since there is no copyright symbol, I prefer to just added parentheses between the letter c. Its not necessary to add the (c) before the year, in fact, its not even necessary to add the year. Feel free to leave it out, and add the appropriate copyright terms for your images.

In Lightroom

Heres how to create (or change) a copyright metadata preset:

1. First, go into the Library module.

2. Then, in the menu at the top select Metadata > Edit Metadata Presets

3. In the window that pops up, check the IPTC Copyright box and fill in the boxes however you like.

4. Next, save your settings as a new preset.

5. Now you can apply this preset to images using the Metadata panel on the right, or when importing your images into Lightroom.

On Your Website or Blog

Many photographers also have websites and blogs where they share their work or interact with clients. The copyright for most blogs is typically at the bottom of the page, and if its not updated automatically then you’ll need to go in and make the change yourself. Oftentimes this is a change to the footer, and it will differ for almost every website.

For my blog, I have to go into my theme options and make the changes to the footer. Also, if you have an additional text added to the footer of your RSS (using a plugin, etc.), don’t forget to change that as well!

Watermarks

If you use watermarks on your photos and typically add the date, don’t forget to update that as well! Here are a few articles to get you started:

How to Add Watermarks in Lightroom 5 by Howard Pinsky

Creating Your Own Signature Watermark by Pamela Ann Berry