shadowed photo

[John W. Love]

Ok, I'm trying to engrave a valentine's day present for our son from his new wife... however the photo she wants engraved on granite was taken outside and one side of her face is heavily shadowed. I lightened the photo and increased the contrast but when engraved one side of her face doesn't even appear... is there a way to correct this?

sorry the pic is small had to resample to .75 inches wide to get it to fit on here lol

Thanks!

[Tim Bateson]

Use the Burn tool over the lighter areas, the Dodge tool over her left eye to lighten it. Then adjust the contrast. Here is a quick shot at it. It would look better if done with the original photo.

[Scott Shepherd]

You can zip the file and it will allow you to post a much larger file. Just right click on it and send it to "Compressed Folder", then you can upload that.

[Mike Null]

I adjusted this using the tone curve and the vignette tool.

[Anthony Welch]

Tim,

What program has these tools. If Photopaint, I've been unaware of them and could have accepted some photos from clients that I rejected. Some guidance is requested, if you don't mind.

Anthony

[Chip Peterson]

Those are in PhotoPaint

1- Adjust ..tone curve
2- Effects...Creative...Vignete

I know it's not much, but after all I've received from you all, I just got thrilled by helping someone else!

[Tim Bateson]

I used Photoshop CS

[Scott Shepherd]

Tom Knight, new guy on this forum, and the creator of AdvancedArtist.com does some killer things with Photopaint. It's one of the training sessions in the package I mentioned on the other thread.

I honestly had no idea how powerful Photopaint was until I saw Tom using it.

[Steve Clarkson]

Tom Knight, new guy on this forum, and the creator of AdvancedArtist.com does some killer things with Photopaint. It's one of the training sessions in the package I mentioned on the other thread.

I honestly had no idea how powerful Photopaint was until I saw Tom using it.

Does he cover how to read a histogram????? I need tone curve and contrast help!

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't know, I haven't gotten that far yet :) It's 30 some hours worth of lessons and stupid work keeps getting in the way of my leisure time :mad:

[Mike Null]

Anthony

I just use PhotoPaint for my own amusement but it is a fine program--especially since it's "free" with CD.

Do a search for tutorials on google. There are a bunch of them --again--free.

I'd send links but I'm on a new PC and haven't got my favs listed yet.

[Anthony Welch]

Thanks Mike,

I use the tone curve and vignette quite often. It's the shadows mentioned earlier I'd like to lighten and leave the rest of photo as is. I will do some research and see how it's done. I just never have heard of or know of a "burn" or "dodge" tool, unless they are called something else.

Now that I know they exist and this is possible to do I'll figure it out.

Anthony

[Mike Null]

Anthony

I just bought a tutorial from Jeff Harrison at Graphics Unleashed. (very much against my principles)

But I needed it for a project I'm working on. It's about how to make various metallic effects. here's one.

edit: Well that doesn't look nearly as good here as it does in Photopaint.

[Leo Graywacz]

Screwed around with it quite a bit, used Paint Shop Pro

http://fototime.com/880C134F451AFEF/orig.jpg

[Steve Eide]

Mike, it looks like metal to me. Just use some highlighting for reflections and it would become very heavy.;)

[Richard Rumancik]

For anyone interested, a back issue of CorelDrawPro (Feb 2008) had some techniques for "digital plastic surgery". They show how to remove wrinkles, adjust red face, use a touch-up brush, etc. Some of the color adjustment procedures may not be needed for lasering but some of the tools are applicable for lasering applications as well.

You can download this issue at
http://www.coreldrawpro.com/Library/CP-208.pdf

[Tim Bateson]

A hint I alluded to earlier - When engraving onto dark granite or marble, try to dodge (brighten) eyes and teeth. Go beyond what looks good in the photo, so they pop in the granite or marble.

[John W. Love]

Ok, so I'm still learning here...if I were to use the photo as edited by Mike or Tim they are actually darker than the photo I was using originally. So would I just send it to the engraver direct from Coreldraw and skip the photograv step? If I run it through photograv won't it still allow the right side of her face to disappear into the granite? I'm so confused! I have seen several people talk about Stucki (did I spell that right???) but I don't know what it is...is it another program or an option in Corel? I really want this to come out nice since it's for thier first valentine's day as a married couple... I also want to learn how to do this well just for general principles lol

Thanks for all the help!

Edit: By the way, Tim, do you know what the command is for dodge in Photopaint? I don't have photoshop just Coreldraw and photopaint...

[Mike Null]

John

I have only engraved on piece of marble and that was the first day I got my laser 10 years ago. I'm afraid I have nothing more that would be helpful.

Leo, your photo looks like it would work.

[Frank Corker]

Ok, so I'm still learning here...if I were to use the photo as edited by Mike or Tim they are actually darker than the photo I was using originally. So would I just send it to the engraver direct from Coreldraw and skip the photograv step? If I run it through photograv won't it still allow the right side of her face to disappear into the granite? I'm so confused! I have seen several people talk about Stucki (did I spell that right???) but I don't know what it is...is it another program or an option in Corel? I really want this to come out nice since it's for thier first valentine's day as a married couple... I also want to learn how to do this well just for general principles lol

Thanks for all the help!

Edit: By the way, Tim, do you know what the command is for dodge in Photopaint? I don't have photoshop just Coreldraw and photopaint...


John the stucki is an option with Epilog lasers and it is just a dispersement of dots on the image, there are about 3 choices, it just groups the dots in a slightly different way. It never guarantees how the image will come out and only practice will allow you to guess which is the better option.

In order to get the best image for your picture, you need to get the lighter side and the darker side as close together as possible to avoid the shadow. In this instance the left side of the girls face has been contrasted out from the bright light. The 'dodge' and 'burn' tools are available in Photoshop and a few other programs, but I don't see those in Corel photopaint. They are just ways of being able to add a little shadow to certain areas or lighten depending on which one you are using. It is however a hit and miss affair.

Manipulating a picture using these techniques, unless you are pretty good at it, don't always turn out too well. The reason is that although in the art program the picture looks perfect, but on someone else's screen it could look bad, screens on everyone's computer are different. The printers are different to the screens which is why when you print them out, the alterations can sometimes show up even though they were not visible on your computer screen.

Leo's photo is most likely going to be the one that will get you the best picture here. He has managed to even the picture out by sacrificing contrast on the left. But as I mentioned before, it can be hit or miss, the altering of the girl's forehead has changed the format of the dots and so it might show when printed. Mike's picture using a vignette has enhanced the girls face by darkening the outer areas, but it will still show very noticeable chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark) in the printing.

Photoshop has been very popular with a lot of wedding photographers because it can use lots of tricks. This is one those occasions where you would need to use it. There are additions (filters) which allow you to add another light, even flash to the photograph which can be placed and dragged around by the mouse.

[Tim Bateson]

John, You're running out of time guy. I'd suggest you email the original to one or even several of us and we'd send back an 8bit Grayscale for your use.

[Martin Boekers]

For those of you that use Photoshop CS, If you go under Image on the main bar, check mode and make sure you are on greyscale or RGB and not index.

Then move down to adjustments and near the bottom you'll find a shadow and highlight adjustment. This tool really helps quickly for most photos.

You may still need to tweek it in others areas to refine it.

Also when dodging and burning make sure you have the right box checked on the header bar (shadow midtone or highlight)


Marty

[Scott Shepherd]

It's about how to make various metallic effects.

Mike, have you seen this one :

http://vectortuts.com/tutorials/designing/create-a-vector-lock-icon-design/

[Scott Shepherd]

Anthony, have a look at this example. It's screen shots from the free tutorial on Skulls with Flames. Look at the phone he started with (on left) and the end result, on right is a vector object.

Pretty powerful program to go from the left to the right. You can see the 5 part tutorial for free on Tom's website. It's Skulls with Flames Tutorial.

[John W. Love]

I was given a bit of a reprieve on this...unfortunately our daughter-in-law's grandmother passed away and she had to head to Ohio this morning. So now I have until Wednesday to finish it. Rather than start sending out emails I decided the way to go is to zip the original photos and post them. I actually don't know how to email from this board so this is the way I chose to go lol. There were 3 photos in all. I also included a picture of the file in Corel as I created it to show her before I started engraving (see? I am learning...even on a piece I don't plan on charging on I sought approval before sending it to engrave :) ). Basically I edited the photos in photopaint, then imported them to coreldraw to set up the layout, then grouped them and opened again in photopaint to add a black background and save as bmp, then opened in photograv and processed then took them back into Coreldraw and edited the layout document for actual printing (ie. I removed the black square and changed the text to black). The other two pictures look okay...but I think even those two could look better. I wish I would get the hang of this photo manipulation lol

Btw, when you see posting during the day it's more likely than not me and not John...I'm currently unemployed (unless you count the 1 day a week I work at Chili's lol) and am spending my time (almost all of it) frantically trying to get better at engraving and making items to sell in the hopes that our business can support the loss of my income and I can work for myself and not someone else. I really enjoy working with our laser and making things :)

I guess we are going to have to get Photoshop...since we are wanting to do a lot of photos *sigh* That just means I need to sell more stuff to pay for it lol

Again guys thanks for all the help!

[Tim Bateson]

Alicia, I like the layout. However, I would flip your son's picture, so he faces his bride. That can easily be done right there in CorelDaw.

[John W. Love]

Tim, that's a great idea...and one I didn't even think about! Thanks!