PhotoGrav/ Photo on LaserBits Alder

[keith culm]

Need a little Help

I am using PhotoGrav 3.1 and I am trying to engrave a Photo on to a sheet of 1/8 alder wood that I got form Laserbits but I am not having any luck.

I have tried more speed less power and more power less speed but it never comes out right . to light or to burnt.

My laser drive has a few advanced settings for image Dithering . Standard, Brighten, Low res, Floyd Steinberg, Jarvis and Stucki.

I can’t seem to get any of it right .

Has any one used the Alder sheets form LaserBits to engrave photos on if so can you tell me your settings/




I am using a Epilog Mini 18 35w


Thank you.

[Steve Eide]

Need a little Help

I am using PhotoGrav 3.1 and I am trying to engrave a Photo on to a sheet of 1/8 alder wood that I got form Laserbits but I am not having any luck.

I have tried more speed less power and more power less speed but it never comes out right . to light or to burnt.

My laser drive has a few advanced settings for image Dithering . Standard, Brighten, Low res, Floyd Steinberg, Jarvis and Stucki.

I can’t seem to get any of it right .

Has any one used the Alder sheets form LaserBits to engrave photos on if so can you tell me your settings/




I am using a Epilog Mini 18 35w


Thank you.


Keith, have you input your machine in the settings of Photograv? Also, after you process your photo image in Photograv, are you leaving the Photograv image as is, i.e., no changing of the dimensions or rotating.

I don't know how your Epilog prints the image, but on my Universal I don't vary any settings from what is the default through the Photograv settings and the driver. Most of the work is in making sure the image is good for engraving per the material, running a test, and then tweaking in Photograv. Sometimes I raise or lower the power after the test depending on the results.

[Dan Hintz]

Keith,

I'll expand on what Steve was getting to... make sure you are not changing the size or modifying your image in any way once PhotoGrav has finished processing it. Do not use any dithering settings for the laser, PhotoGrav has taken care of this for you. Rotation after processing is fine, as long as it's in 90 degree increments.

I manually process my photos, but for the few people here who use PhotoGrav, they usually process every image with the Cherry setting and ignore the suggested laser settings when burning.

[Randy Allen]

Hi Keith,

Depending on the photo, you might be seeing the best results that specific photo can offer...? If possible, post a picture of the original and what you are getting from PhotoGrav, there may or may not be a better solution...?
Ideas:
- have you knocked out the background?
- have you resampled the photograph First (before PhotoGrav)
- have you tried using a different DPI (lower is sometimes better)
- try using 400 DPI, fast to medium speed at a higher power then
increase the power from there.
Regards,
Randy Allen

[Barry Clark]

Keith,

but for the few people here who use PhotoGrav, they usually process every image with the Cherry setting and ignore the suggested laser settings when burning.

Good advice.. I find I have to decrease the power settings 20 to up to 40% otherwise it's either burnt or very poorly defined. As far as laserbits alder, I've never had a problem with it.

B

[Larry Bratton]

Photo preparation has a lot of influence on how your engraving looks. First, you need to start with a good quality photo, 300dpi for input into Photograv. I bring my photos into Photoshop. If they are color, I leave them color until I make any image adjustments as to contrast and color correction. Once I have a pretty good looking color photo at 300dpi, I convert it to greyscale. You need to try and size it (crop or resize) so that it will fit your final engraved material. I usually remove any unsightly backgrounds by masking, delete etc. Save the photo as a greyscale image in a format other than jpg. I normally use tiff as my choice. Then, import into Photograv. Choose your material. Usually those settings for Cherry wood work great for alder. Final process and save the ENG file. Don't pay any attention to the Photograv settings (you do need to have the info for your laser input into PG) it gives you. Import that image into Corel. I find that the recommended Epilog settings work pretty well. Engrave it at the dpi you processed it at-300dpi. I'm sure I probably left out something, but this gives acceptable results most every time. Good luck.

[Bill Cunningham]

I haven't used the laserbits alder, but on other woods, even small changes can make a difference. Most case when a photo engraves bad, it's because the operator is trying to etch from a web sized (75dpi) photo.. Even the change from vertical to horizontal grain can make a big difference. I have even found some jobs can be etched at say 28% speed might be a 'little' light, then a second pass at 40% speed gives it just the right amount of burn.. Start with a small section of the photo, and try different settings on some scrap. sometimes backing off the focus a bit to widen the beam works