Can I etch this picture on wood??

[Cassondra Bennett]

Still getting my feet wet with all of this so not sure how to go about etching this photo or if it is even a good enough quality photo to attempt. I read several posts about doing photos but don't want to waste alot of time if its just simply not going to work
Any input would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Not even sure if I attached the photo correctly!! Uhhhhh!:mad:

Some one please tell me that this gets easier and that at some point I won't always feel like I am completely LOST!!!!

149878

[Gary Hair]

Cassondra,
If that is the only file you have then absolutely no, it won't work. It's small, low resolution and generally not a great photo. Even if you have the original "direct from the camera" file, it will be a challenge to get it to come out at all. A very over-exposed dress doesn't help things and, sorry to say, photos of African-Americans (or any darker skinned person) are difficult to laser onto wood. It's easier to engrave a lighter-skinned person on wood.

Lasering photos is all about contrast. There is lots between the persons face and the wedding dress, but I'm afraid this won't work well.

You could run it through PhotoGrav and see what happens, but I don't think it will be usable.

Gary

[James Jaragosky]

Cassondra,
If that is the only file you have then absolutely no, it won't work. It's small, low resolution and generally not a great photo. Even if you have the original "direct from the camera" file, it will be a challenge to get it to come out at all. A very over-exposed dress doesn't help things and, sorry to say, photos of African-Americans (or any darker skinned person) are difficult to laser onto wood. It's easier to engrave a lighter-skinned person on wood.

Lasering photos is all about contrast. There is lots between the persons face and the wedding dress, but I'm afraid this won't work well.

You could run it through PhotoGrav and see what happens, but I don't think it will be usable.

Gary
I agree with Gary.
Always start with a good quality photo, otherwise you will spend far to long tweeking it to get less than acceptable results.
Jim J.

[John Noell]

The only person who could do that is Frank Corker (aka "The Photo Magician").

[Gary Hair]

The only person who could do that is Frank Corker (aka "The Photo Magician").

If Frank pulls that off I will be impressed! Actually, I've seen some of Frank's posts and I'm already impressed, this one would be beyond belief!

[Bill Cunningham]

you can try it...
here's a quick and dirty photograv of the sim, and the engraving file in a .zip.. Don't change the size of the engraving file, or it will not work.. 2bit files do not display well on a monitor, Just load it into corel, and run it on a piece of wood..

[AL Ursich]

Photo to Sketch....

AL

[Gary Hair]

Don't change the size of the engraving file, or it will not work..

That's not exactly true, here's why. The dots in the image are sized based on the settings in PhotoGrav for your laser. If you resize the image then the dot's grow, or shrink, in size and may not match your laser any longer. If you double the size of the file then you increase the dots by about 4 times, which would still work. You lose resolution if you enlarge too much, but it's absolutely possible. You can also edit a processed image and removed dots. Some editing is much easier this way, compared to editing the original file.

This is not just my opinion, I verified this with the (very) helpful folks at PhotoGrav.

Gary

[Frank Corker]

Still getting my feet wet with all of this so not sure how to go about etching this photo or if it is even a good enough quality photo to attempt. I read several posts about doing photos but don't want to waste alot of time if its just simply not going to work
Any input would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Not even sure if I attached the photo correctly!! Uhhhhh!:mad:

Some one please tell me that this gets easier and that at some point I won't always feel like I am completely LOST!!!!

149878


Yes it does get easier. The photograph that you attached most likely isn't the best version that you have. As it is, the quality is poor, result will be that your engraving will be poor. From your original photograph I would recommend that you first sharpen the image. Convert it to greyscale, with an even greyness across the image and work from there. The picture you attached has been brightened up so high that you have lost all definition in the white dress and blasted it with too much contrast.

If you are concerned because of the persons cast, then you will need to isolate the skin areas and treat them as a different photograph, but you need to do that with care too. I have done a lot of images with coloured people, being a coloured myself I can assure you I have the right to call it as that. It is down to the preparation of your picture which will determine your result.

[Bill Cunningham]

That's not exactly true, here's why. The dots in the image are sized based on the settings in PhotoGrav for your laser. If you resize the image then the dot's grow, or shrink, in size and may not match your laser any longer. If you double the size of the file then you increase the dots by about 4 times, which would still work. You lose resolution if you enlarge too much, but it's absolutely possible. You can also edit a processed image and removed dots. Some editing is much easier this way, compared to editing the original file.

This is not just my opinion, I verified this with the (very) helpful folks at PhotoGrav.

Gary

You can remove dots, add dots, and clean up the image providing you maintain the binary format when you re-save it.. The reason I said don't change the size, is most new engravers are totally unaware you can increase or decrease providing you use multiples of the original dpi. Most just grab a corner, and stretch it out to the size they want, then wonder why it looks like crap when engraved.. I was on a sandblast site once, can't remember which one, but the author went through great detail about how to create a binary image to create a mask for sandblasting a photograph. Then, when he finished the detailed explanation, he then told the reader to save it as a .jpg .. The author seemed to be unaware that saving as a .jpg would totally destroy all the effort he just spent.. So, It's not always just newbe's it would seem :rolleyes: