I spent close to an hour this morning trying to understand the watermarking features of the Gallery2 module, but ended up finding a bug in the modules ability to process .PNG images. I also found the related thread on their forums: http://gallery.menalto.com/node/84808.
This may not actually be a bug in the Gallery2 module and could possibly be the way my hosting server addresses the .PNG file itself. I don’t suspect that however, and believe it to be the module’s handling of the file. I followed the thread and modified the SQL values, which did allow me to modify the placement of the watermark and apply it to images. Once I set the watermark to be the default for all uploaded images, I noticed that any new images I added were now showing up as broken photos, and I quickly became disinterested in worrying about fixing someone else’s software.
To work around the issue I used a .GIF with transparency instead. I am losing some of the nicer features I had with the PNG, like the drop shadow and embossing. I am however gaining the ability to move along with the project. I am not entirely sure why I am redoing the watermarking process, and moving away from Irfanview, but I suspect it has a lot to do with knowing that if I don’t do it now, it is only going to become one more thing I want to do later.