How Do I Copyright My Photos on Windows 10/8/7 and macOS
Last Updated on September 23, 2025 by Peter Wood
Pictures are among the most commonly misused types of content through the Internet. If you are an artist or photographer that creates images for the Internet, you would be happy to see people like your works. However, photo use is more than putting them in their blog or Facebook. There have been several cases of photos posted online for commercial purposes. Now it’s significant to copyright photos legally.
Photo Copyright means the right to copy. This right is a legal construct designed for the artist to support their artistic endeavors. Whether your work is painting, photograph, or statues, you get the exclusive right to make and sell copies of the photo. That’s to say, get the photos copyrighted. If someone wants to use your work, they have to get your permission. You can negotiate a “license” to copy and perhaps even get paid in real money. Don’t think copyright photos are some governmental things that far away from your life since everyone could post photos through the Internet and get exposed. Every work should be copyrighted and protected. Now we list three methods to copyright photos in the following article.
Part 1. Copyright Photos with Watermark on Windows and Mac
When you search on the Internet for high-resolution images, you can find most of them are watermarked with the author’s text or image. Adding a watermark on your work is a direct declaration to people who see them: I am the photo owner to get my permission before using it.
As time goes by, adding watermark in an art way becomes a trend. Photos you post on social media, like Facebook and Instagram, are all watermarked with your profile name on them. What if you want to make your mark apart from what social media stamp on. WidsMob ImageConvert should be the best tool to copyright photos with watermark in batch process and instant preview.
Step 1. Download and Install Photo Converter. After that, you can launch the program as a screenshot.
Step 2. Check the Watermark menu to add watermark in both text and image.
Step 3. Select Text from the list, and then add text as an image.
Part 2. Register from U.S. Copyright Office
That’s the most effective way to copyright photos by protecting your works. It is much easier to fight back against intellectual property infringements. With the registration, you will get legal proof that you own the copyright on your photos. The rules for copyright photosystem altered by different countries, we take U.S. Copyright rules as an example here. Follow the steps to complete the pictures copyrighting.
Step 1. You can copyright photos online. Visit U.S. Copyright Office website: copyright.gov. If you register your photographs, you are eligible to collect statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each copyright infringement case.
Step 2. Tap Register a Copyright. The money cost to copyright your photos varies by the number of pictures you are filling at one time.
Step 3. You wait another eight or more months for the case processing. After eight months, you will get a formal copyright registration certificate. Keep this legal proof in your safe in case you ever need it.
Part 3. Copyright Photos with EXIF Editing
Actually, in the U.S., according to Berne Convention, at the moment of creation, when you press the shutter release, photo copyright applies automatically. But you want to tell people that you are the creator of the photos, even you put them on copyright-free photo websites. EXIF is the way to make a verification of ownership in the image.
EXIF (Exchangeable image file format) is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners, and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras. These settings can use to organize photographs, perform searches and provide vital information to photographers. It could be another form of protection and copyright of your photos. You need to add your information to the files and edit the EXIF.
Step 1. Before editing the information of the photo, you need to remove the unnecessary information automatically recorded by a camera.
Step 2. Windows Explorer is a powerful tool to view and remove EXIF data from the picture. Right-click on the photos you want to view the EXIF data, select Properties, and navigate to Details.
Step 3. In order to remove EXIF data, select all images having the same EXIF data, tap the Details tab > Remove Properties > Personal Information. Now, on the next window screen, you can selectively choose to remove EXIF information from images.
Step 4. When you need to use Windows Explorer to edit the EXIF data, you can use Opanda PowerExif Editor for EXIF editing or another similar program. You could manage and record photographic data freely and keep a maximum of 60K characters as multi-language code to write your information and copyright the photos.
Bottom Line
If you post photos on the Internet, no matter what purpose you share them at first. Do copyright photos! Although getting a paper certification from the government to protect your work may be costly, it would be much easier to fight back against intellectual property infringements in the future. Do some tricks to tell people that the photos are copyrighted is another way of protecting them. If you think saving and editing the EXIF data of your photo is a challenge, adding a watermark on images to declare the ownership might be an easy way to copyright photos.