Newbie Hello and Photo Question for Marble

[Michelle Norrid]

Hello all...I have been a "lurker" now for about a year and a half and have learned SO much by reading the expert advice in these threads. We've had our machine about two years now and have mainly been engraving lettering in glass, but now we we are ready to spread our wings and begin working more with photographs.

I've etched marble before and am familiar with most of what I need to know as far as etching wording...but photos are eating my lunch! I knew they would based on all the threads of people pulling their hair out with it, so i'm trying to be patient.

I realize there is a huge portion of it that is just artistic expression, BUT I need advice on where to start. For instance, on the pic I am currently with (attached), I don't know whether to cutout the background (the tile) or soften it as some have suggested on other pictures, or to put an artistic oval frame around it?

Then, when I did try this one on my lasersketch marble, I got the infamous blob. I know it probably boils down to my work (or lack of) work on the photo, but I was wondering also about what to do with the shadows (especially under the baby's chin).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to many more posts on this forum.

[Michelle Norrid]

Oops forgot....

I'm working with

Epilog 45 w Helix
Corel 4X Paint
Corel 4X Draw

[Scott Shepherd]

Michelle, this is what I would do- I'd edit the shadow out using a cloning tool. I don't use photopaint, but I'm sure you can do it.

I'd also adjust the levels to be more midtone, less of the heavy black.

I've attached a quick sample. The file was small, so I couldn't do much with with, but I did a quick sample of cutting out the shadow (very quick and not very pretty) as well as bringing up the midtones some.

[Dee Gallo]

Michelle -

Welcome to the Creek, officially!

Please tell us you did not try to use this picture as you posted it - 72 dpi? about 80kb? Less than 2" square on a 12" tile? Did you resize it? Before or after you played with the image?

These are all things which would explain poor results. The most important things these guys on the Creek have taught me is to believe in the "garbage in, garbage out" philosophy and practice makes almost perfect most of the time.

If I were doing your photo, I would definitely remove the background. This would focus attention on the people and eliminate that shadow, the cinderblock-looking wall and the dark box - none of which are attractive or add to the composition. There isn't a lot of depth to the tones on the faces, which you should enhance if you don't want flat white areas.

You brought up the "artistic oval" - at the risk of insulting someone, I think this is a dated way to treat an image and only appropriate for wedding and funeral photos. There are many other ways to border a photo, especially ones with kids. Maybe you should consider angled lines, a wavy line, confetti squares, ripped paper edges, a patterned border perhaps with an ethnic twist (Swedish floral, German heraldic, Italian flourishes, etc.) or even a one sided border consisting of a simplistic landscape or children's theme on either the side or bottom or top.

What I am suggesting is that not only is the photo prep work important, but the entire layout is essential. If you were planning to add names, poetry, a saying, quote or title, these must be used as design elements. In fact, the size, shape and feel of the font has a lot of impact on the overall impression of your piece. Playing with the words as shapes is another valuable asset in layout, so experiment with envelopes, converting to shapes, attaching to paths, etc. You can control the mood of the piece for better or worse.

Sorry to make this a long-winded post - Good luck with your photo of those cute kids - :)

cheers, dee

[Michelle Norrid]

Thanks so much Steve,
I did try the clone tool earlier, but didn't think about the midtones. I remember now that I've read also that the contrast and brightness affects alot as well.
I'm gonna get out to my shop tomorrow and give it a whirl- I'll let you know how it goes.:confused:
Michelle

Epilog 45 Watt Helix
Corel x4 Paint. Draw

[Michelle Norrid]

Hi Dee! Thanks for the advice and warm welcome. I LOVE this forum and visit several times weekly.:)


Michelle -
Please tell us you did not try to use this picture as you posted it - 72 dpi? about 80kb? Less than 2" square on a 12" tile? Did you resize it? Before or after you played with the image?


No, I PROMISE I didn't use that dpi....I did resample it to
300. I just posted the original.. (Note to self...attach resampled photos in future :D)

I will lose the oval idea....you can tell I'm a newbie- I'm so in awe of all of it! (even ovals)

Another question...something I haven't tried yet...I read on an earlier thread that Frank advised someone to use an unsharp mask at 500%...in your opinion, would that work well with this photo- I'm really wanting a "soft, feathered look".
When I sharpen it to 500 %, that seems to make it really rough looking. But I haven't etched it yet to see....
PS...the cute kids are mine- I thought I'd rather foul up an engraving of my own kids before I start on other people's kids!:p


Epilog 45 w Helix
Corel 4X Paint
Corel 4X Draw

[Bill Cunningham]

Remember, 'real' marble is just about goof proof, and will accept a grayscale file direct from your driver 100% power, 35-40% speed.. You can even do it twice to make it whiter. This will NOT work on lasersketch 'marble' cuz it ain't marble, it's more like a very fine grain granite and must be etched at lower power and much higher speed and should be run through photograve or a similar 8 to 1 bit conversion for decent results... HD sells empidor 'brown' marble (real marble) buy a couple if 12 inch tiles of that to see how real marble etches.. there is quite a difference.. The laser sketch stone is fine for outdoor use, where real marble will oxidize (acid rain)

[Dan Hintz]

No, I PROMISE I didn't use that dpi....I did resample it to 300. I just posted the original..Resampling a small image to such a large size (without the proper software) is no different than if you had used the original photo. That image is entirely too small to be run on a 12x12 tile (or even a 6x6 tile) if you want any sort of quality in the final product.

[Michelle Norrid]

Dan,


Resampling a small image to such a large size (without the proper software)

Would Corel X4 Paint do the trick with resampling?

Michelle

[Scott Shepherd]

You can't really upsample anything very well. You would need the original image. Is the original image a photograph or a digital photo? If it's digital, what camera was it taken with?

That might help us help you.

[Dan Hintz]

Would Corel X4 Paint do the trick with resampling?
Not for such a small image... your best bet is a separate image processing package, usually those that involve fractals. A number of posts have been made here about several packages (from $80-$250, give or take), so try a search on the word fractal.

EDIT: I remember posting about a freebie enlarger a couple of months back... I know at least one person tried it and was very happy with the results.

[Michelle Norrid]

Thanks for ALL your advice guys! I got it and it turned out FABULOUS (for my first REAL attempt!) I'll post a pic soon. High speed, low power was the "sweet spot" I've heard tell of on this site for my lasersketch-faux- marble.

Dan was right about the image sizing...4x6 was about as big as I could go with it, but it looks beautiful.

Keep the good advice coming. Maybe more of us "lurkers" will come out of hiding. ;)
Michelle

[Mark Ross]

SmillaEnlarger is free, seems to work, got the tip from somewhere in this forum, I have only been able to read around the first 225 pages of postings.

[Dan Hintz]

SmillaEnlarger is free, seems to work, got the tip from somewhere in this forum, I have only been able to read around the first 225 pages of postings.
Yeah, that was the freebie I was talking about... I bookmarked it when I first posted about it, but anything I bookmark gets buried under at least 10 more bookmarks a day. The only chance I have of finding stuff again is when I take my yearly stroll through all of my bookmarks and start adding keywords and sorting them into folders... that's a good 8-9 months away ;)

[Bill Cunningham]

Yeah, that was the freebie I was talking about... I bookmarked it when I first posted about it, but anything I bookmark gets buried under at least 10 more bookmarks a day. The only chance I have of finding stuff again is when I take my yearly stroll through all of my bookmarks and start adding keywords and sorting them into folders... that's a good 8-9 months away ;)

I just installed a nifty little program called AM-Deadlink (it's free, google it), it scans your bookmarks, tests them all, and arranges them in groups of deadlinks, forwards, etc.. and allows you to delete all those old ones that kept collecting, and expired years ago.. It sure allowed me to clean a bunch of crud out of my bookmarks..

[Dan Hintz]

I just installed a nifty little program called AM-Deadlink (it's free, google it), it scans your bookmarks, tests them all, and arranges them in groups of deadlinks, forwards, etc.. and allows you to delete all those old ones that kept collecting, and expired years ago.. It sure allowed me to clean a bunch of crud out of my bookmarks..
Got it... very few of my links are dead, I'm just a hoarder of info by nature. About once a year I sort the new bookmarks, maybe remove a few that are no longer useful. I have links to almost every imaginable material out there, and it comes in handy (when I remember to add keywords for the searches).

[Bill Cunningham]

Ya I know what you mean.. I usually try to put them into folders like clipart, Fonts, Coreldraw, Funny, Porn .. etc..:D I just ran the AM-deadlink a few days ago, and cleaned up a bookmark 'clump' that had been growing for 10 years..ha..

[Mark Ross]

Depending on the link, you can use the wayback machine. It stores pages of websites going back to 1999 I think.