App for journalists: Marksta, for watermarking photos

App of the week: Marksta

Devices: iPhone / iPad

Cost: £1.49

What is it? An app for watermarking photos and attaching metadata

How is it of use to journalists? Marksta is a great app for photojournalists as it allows them to add watermarks and logos and embed metadata within photos.

The app has this week been updated to add the IPTC schema, which has been developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council.

The IPTC metadata allows photos to be embedded with details such as the name of the photographer, the date created, location information, the copyright owner and contact details of that person.

Once the watermark and copyright information is added, photos can then be shared and uploaded to sites such as Flickr.


Image courtesy of John D McHugh

The app has been created by John D McHugh, a photojournalist who specialises in working in "challenging environments" around the world. He has worked extensively in Afghanistan, and has also covered the Iraq war, Sudan (Darfur in 2008, and South Kordofan in 2011), and Bahrain during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

McHugh told Journalism.co.uk by email: "The rise of social media has coincided with a rise in photography copyright infringement, or theft. Social media encourages sharing, but many people seem to either not understand, or wilfully ignore, photographers' copyright. A simple right click, and save, and a photograph can be taken without permission or licence."

He added: "Marksta's dual approach, visible watermark and IPTC functionality, is designed to offer the greatest possible protection to photographs in the social media age."

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