An effective image watermarking method was created through the combination of the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with a chaotic map-based encryption technique. The algorithm utilizes a method that analyzes blocks of the high-frequency sub-band (HH) derived from applying the DWT to the blue channel of an input RGB image. It identifies the block with the highest energy to integrate a grayscale watermark image encrypted by the Henon map. Specifically, the algorithm applies alpha blending to incorporate the encrypted watermark into the high-energy block of the HH component that has been identified. The effectiveness of the watermarking scheme is assessed using various metrics, including the NCC, SSIM, and PSNR. The proposed method achieves an average PSNR of 43.7211 dB and SSIM of 0.9950. When not under attack, the NCC of the proposed methodology falls within the range of 0.991 to 0.993. To extract the watermark, the algorithm analyzes the patterns within the high-frequency component of the image, which has been subjected to various attacks after initial watermarking. The inverse DWT and the inverse Henon map are used for decryption during extraction. This energy-based block selection approach strengthens the watermarking scheme’s ability to resist various image manipulation techniques.