How To Add a Custom Watermark To Your Instagram Photos {tutorial}

I had a message from Instagram in my inbox this morning reminding me that the new TOS (terms of service) will go into effect on January 19.  Which reminded me of last month and how people freaked the freak out about it.  I also remembered that I figured out how to put our custom blog logo on my images should I ever choose to do that before uploading to IG (or any other social sharing site for that matter).  And I thought maybe a few of you might like to know how to do it too.  So here goes:

First things first.  You need to have a graphic logo for this tutorial and it should be saved as a png file.  If you need instructions on how to create your own logo, here’s a nifty little tutorial I wrote last fall.  Now, email that png file to yourself so that you can open it on your phone.

Tap on the image so that the screen below pops up and then select Save to Camera Roll so that your logo will be saved there.

Next, you need to download the app iWatermark.  It costs $1.99.  Please don’t complain that it’s not FREE …. haven’t we all learned to quit complaining about things we don’t pay for yet?  And isn’t that the reason I’m actually writing this tutorial ….

Open the app and you should see this screen:

Tap on the Select Photo(s) option.  Grab a photo from your library.  Any photo will work because in this process we’re just setting up your watermark so that it’s saved in the app for future use.  (I did choose to use an image that is already cropped square so that my watermark is placed where I’d want it on my Instagram images.)  Once your image pops up in the background, choose Create Graphic Watermark from the menu.

You’ll now have a screen with your selected photo and a small menu of options at the bottom (edit, watermarks, save&exit). Tap on Edit and you’ll get additional options like you see below. Next tap on the Image option (we’re going to be grabbing that image/photo of your logo).

At this point, your photo library will open and you simply need to navigate to your camera roll and select your logo image.  Your logo image will now be placed on top of your photo and look a little something like what you see below:

Now the fun part – you can simply pinch to zoom, twirl and move your image around to just the size, location and angle you like it.

Once you have the image placed where you like it, tap on the Edit option again and this time choose Opacity.

Use the slider to change to opacity to a percentage that you like and click OK.

Now select the Save & Exit option at the bottom of your screen. You’ll get a screen like you see below prompting you to give your new watermark a title.  Type in a title and tap Save.

Now you can go back to the home screen and choose Select Photo(s) to open a new image.  When the new image opens choose iWatermark Photo from the menu.

From the bottom menu choose Watermarks.  A new scrolling menu will open with all of your watermark options, including the ones you’ve created and saved.  Simply navigate to the watermark you want to use and it will be applied to your image.

The app will place the watermark exactly as you saved it (location, opacity, etc.).  Note: you can still move the watermark around on the image if you need to or if it’s obstructing an important area of your image.  Then select Save from the bottom menu.

You’ll get several options on where you can save your new watermarked photo but for this, we’ll just choose Save to Photo Library.

And then this will happen:

And this …

And that’s it!  Easy peasy.  Once you’ve created the watermark, it takes all of about 15 seconds to open, add the watermark and save a new photo.

Now your photo is ready to be uploaded to IG, Facebook, twitter, etc. with a watermark already on it.

Again, I don’t plan to start watermarking my IG images, but I like having the option on a mobile platform.

You could also use this process or app if you had to send an image to a client while out and about , etc.   Lots of uses, lots of options, tuck it away for if and when …

And if you want to follow along with our craziness we call life on IG, I’m 2sisters_angie and Mindy is 2sisters_mindy