Step 4 - Compress Before Uploads

The previous step was focused on reducing the picture quality, while this step talks about reducing size. When you compress an image, there is a significant drop in the quality of the picture. No matter the compression technique or algorithm, the picture quality is reduced when compressed.

And since your focus is to prevent the theft of your pictures, compressing will do you much good. It will reduce the picture quality and the number of options the picture can be used for.

Anyone looking for high-quality pictures will definitely skip pictures that you have compressed this way.

You can use any good image editing software to compress your picture to a much smaller JPEG size. There are also tools online that can be used to compress pictures, but you need to be sure that these sites are safe to use.

You can also limit the download size of any images from your website to 500kb.

Step 5 - Include Copyright Metadata

Adding copyright Metadata to your pictures may not be very effective due to certain reasons, but it still offers a means of discouraging the copyright theft of your pictures.

You can use Photoshop or any other photo editor to include the Metadata on the picture. To use Photoshop, navigate to File -> File Info ... and adjust the Metadata of the current picture.

Note that some platforms strip the Metadata once the pictures are uploaded. This shouldn't stop you from including it in any of your pictures.