Yet Another Photo Grav Question

[Trevor Watson]

Hi all I have been trying to engrave a Great Dane Picture on Marble and on wood with some mixed results.. The problem I am having is the Muzzle of the dog and around the eyes are Pure Black and end up either being solid white or so much wood etched out it looks like someone poured acid on the poor dogs nose ! .. I am using X3 and Photograv 3.0 I have tried adding a ton of contrast to the photo to no avail, I am guessing because it is pure black on the nose its just got no detail in it. Attatched here is the photograv Engraved photo and the original without any contrast changes.. Be interested if anyone else gets some good results outta this one..
Thanks in Advance

Trevor Watson
http://www.patienttransport.com.au/~watsont/album_260_538%20(ENG).tif

http://www.patienttransport.com.au/~watsont/album_260_538.jpg

[David Dustin]

You can try to increase the noise in photgrav.

Also play with the curves (little triangles under the black graph).

David

EDIT: If you have Photoshop you can use the shadow-highlight tool to bring out features.

[Richard Rumancik]

I would convert to grayscale, then use the Image -> adjust -> tone curve to lighten it up. Usually good input to Photograv looks a little washed out to the eye. Use the sample .bmp of the guy reading the newspaper on the PhotoGrav disk as a model.

You can tug at the slope of the tone curve; it does not have to be a straight line.

Even with this adjustment, the nose might be too dark. I would consider lightening it with the effect tool (beside the brush; looks like a cotton swab.) Use the "dodge midtones" to lighten up the nose. Select a brush of "reasonable" size - I'd use one with fuzzy edges so it doesn't leave tracks. Brush over the nose with the left mouse button down and it will lighten up. You can release the button and do another pass if needed. Play with the amount" parameter. You can also change transparency to something other than zero so selective lightening doesn't show as much.

It might not look great on the screen but you need to get rid of the 100% black zones. If you have solid black you will get a deep hole in your wood as you know.

I think the photo is probably useable with some tweaking.

[Roy Nicholson]

Trevor,

How did you set up the vignette border for the photo.

I like the effect that you've used.

Regards


Roy N.

[Andrey Anfimov]

Hello!
Your original picture is not good. I have made some changes... Try to use it.
One picture is "new" original, another two you can use with Photograv.

Please, change DPI of pictures!!!
If you will engrave with 250 dpi resample picture to 500 dpi and after that only use whit Photograv. In Photograv install Mashine Resolution = 250 dpi.

For marble don't use speed more than 50%.
Begin with S=50% P=24%. Don't change speed, but only change power.

Good luck!

[Dan Hintz]

Don't forget about the lasso tool, guys... temporarily masking out the background and modifying the contrast on just the dog would go a long way to fixing that image. I see a lot of people trying to modify the image as a whole when it's only portions that need touch-up.

[Trevor Watson]

Andrey Thanks muchly for the efforts will try them and see how i go. Roy not sure mate was customer supplied I will ask them and see I am sure it will be a effect from corel or adobe let me find out and shoot you the info. And Dan thanks if all else fails will do that :) .. On a steepe uphill learning curve with Corel always been the IT guy not the end user lol alot easier to install programs and servers than it is to utilise them ! :) ..

Thanks again to all replies will see how i go and post a pic of it when done

Trev

[Frank Corker]

Trevor, the problems you are encountering from the word go is the picture. It's very poor quality. It has been saved as a jpg at least once, I'd go as far as saying about 5 times. When you are editing in photoshop or whichever art program that you are using, save it in tif or bitmap picture. The true definition of that image is probably only screen viewing (72 dpi) and if you are using it as a test piece, then it is a really bad choice to practice and see results from.

[Richard Rumancik]

Don't forget about the lasso tool, guys... temporarily masking out the background and modifying the contrast on just the dog would go a long way to fixing that image. . .

Dan, you are right - sometimes lightening the whole picture isn't needed and may be worse.

The magic wand can be used as well if tolerance is tweaked to optimise the selection; sometimes you need to add or subtract from the resulting mask with a brush on mask. Or sometimes just the brush mask alone works.

One other comment; the border effect should be applied after all the editing is done so it is uniform.

[Trevor Watson]

Yea your right mate if I remember when i first opened this in X3 from the customer it was 72dpi I will contact them in the morning see if I can get the original unmodified 3 meg image

Will let you know how i go getting the orig..

Thanks for your time Frank

Trev