Can anyone tell me the steps to create a transparent overlay in Photoshop CS3?

[master design decals 6]

Hi there. Hope you are all going good!

I am trying to figure out the steps in Photoshop CS3 to create a transparent overlay to help protect my images on my website as well as some that are on ebay.  I want them to show up as a blank image if they right click it.  There is some jackass selling on another website that stole my copyrighted images, vectorized them, ignored a cease and desist from my lawyer, and continues on his merry way and I am trying to protect new designs that I have made.  I can figure out just about anything except this and I'm sure it's just an easy miss on my part, but any help would be appreciated very much.

Thanks a million!

Casey

[puffhead 1]

How about watermarking the images? Just create a new layer (it will be transparent), place your logo or website name, then set the opacity on it.

[master design decals 6]

Hi.  I did that on my other ones and he was still able to remove the watermark somehow and vectorize the image. 

Thank you though!

Casey

[rrc1962 0]

A watermark is not hard to Photoshop out.  Anything you do is only going to keep an honest person honest.  You could embed the photos in a flash app.  They won't be downloadable, but all someone would have to do is screen capture the image.

[master design decals 6]

How do you do that?

[rrc1962 0]

You need Adobe Flash, then you just create a slideshow.  I'm not real sure how to do it.  I haven't used Flash for a couple years and it has changed quite a bit since Adobe bought out Macromedia.

[jeremySI 18]

flash wont work- as previous post said they could just screen capture

disabling right click wont work- it is done through javascript so all you have to do is disable javascript or even screen capture that way

they could also just drag the image from the webpage onto the desktop and it will save the image that way.

there is really no fool proof way to stop it, semitransparent watermark over the image is about the best you can do, but as you already found out it still wont stop it.

[rrc1962 0]

As long as it's displayed on screen, there is a way to capture it.  The only way to prevent it 100% is to not post your artwork on the web.

[roxanneupnorth 106]

There is software out there that will capture any image that can be viewed.....Also, the new version of Photoshop CS5 has technology in it that removes stuff you do not want....Watermarks, trees, people, etc.....So what you are trying to do will simply add more frustration to an already frustrating situation......

[windasm 0]

You can use css"cascade style sheets" on your website and place a solid color image over top of your images. Then you can use css to make the color of the solid color image transparent on your webpage.

[NukleoN 34]

The suggestions here are pretty good.

Simply make a new layer, add your desired watermark graphics and set the opacity.

Also, you can only show your images in very low resolution if you're worried about theft. Up-rezzing is a pain. I've had to up-rez some customer images and it's almost as much work as creating it from scratch.

A dedicated and skilled Photoshop-user can always get around watermarks, but then again someone with Photoshop skill probably could make their own graphics for about the same amount of work, and in print-resolution. Most people know about the 'print screen' option for saving anything you see on a monitor. But, any kind of deterrent helps the more casual 'save picture as' person who might seek to use your images without permission.

Perhaps your best weapon against copyright violation is a lawyer (or at least a stern warning with their letterhead).