My First Photograve Run

[Dean Fowell]

Here is a picture of my first laser photo with my new photograve that arrived thursday,

184168

[Mike Null]

It looks like you did quite a good job considering the substrate. Clarity and contrast appear to be right on. (not a fan of pictures on wood)

[Dan Hintz]

Mike is spot on about the contrast... I don't mind images on wood, but this piece of wood has entirely too much figure and contrast itself to allow the picture to stand out. Ideally, you want a very bland piece of wood.

[Larry Bratton]

Looks good Dean. Dan is right though, it would look better on some plainer wood without all the grain character.

[Joseph Belangia]

I agree that the grain character can be quite distracting, but you can do a few things like making the background behind her hair much lighter...that will give the eye more of an illusion of depth, which can help that grain start to make itself less noticeable. Increase that contrast, so those glasses frames jump out a bit more.


I think one of the most important things to remember about PhotoGrav, is that shadows and highlights often need to be exaggerated so that what you come out with looks natural. Don't think like a human, think like a computer. You know what you want the final product to look like, but the software doesn't. Photograv is kinda optimized for an overall general appearance that works well for a wide variety of things. As you run more things and see what the actual result vs. what you saw in your head before you started, you'll get a better sense of the little photo-manipulations you'll need to make to get certain elements to outshine others.

Keep at it!! You've got a good start and a good community of smart people here to help.

[Dean Fowell]

Yes that wood was a bad choice it is too grainy I brought from Michaels Craft Store , to save dollars I should of got it from LaserBits or someone else thanks

[Ernie DeMartino]

Dean, try Basswood, I've had decent success, it's cheap and bland as can be.


Ernie

[Dean Fowell]

Dean, try Basswood, I've had decent success, it's cheap and bland as can be.


Ernie

Where do you get that from woodcrafters?

[Ernie DeMartino]

I purchased mine locally, Live in New Hampshire. You could probably find a hardwood retailer closer to you.

[Mike Null]

Most woodworking stores will have it. It is the favorite wood of carvers.

[Bill Cunningham]

Michael's also sells Baltic Birch, (a little pricey there).. Horiz. grain on birch seems to work OK for me. It's a light coloured wood that engraves with a nice brown, and gives decent contrast..

[Jamie Bell]

Well, I'm jealous! I have an Epilog 75W helix, bought in 2006. I still cannot get a decent photo consistantly. Certainly not the calibur I should be getting. Tried all sorts of settings, both in corel, Photograv, speed/power, you name it. Admittedly, my laser tube is going bad these last few months (losing power) but that doesn't explain my failures. I think I just need to try again from scratch, but frankly, don't know where to start? Any suggestions? We mainly engrave photos on wood (maple or alder) and granite tiles. Thanks!

[Bill Cunningham]

Maple is not a dark engraving wood, of the two, I like Alder best.. The biggest problem with wood engraving is a good photo source. Most just starting out, make the mistake of trying to use low res 75dpi web images. They will engrave 'sometimes' but not at the quality that I or my customers would accept. I will not accept any photo under 1500 x 2000 pixels (minimum, for a 5x7 engraved image), You can get away with less, but the better image allows you to see what your working on while making it better. Once converted from colour to greyscale it must also have good contrast. I then tweak it in photopaint till it looks good 'to my eye'.. Not All photos are even engravable! This is something you have to practice at. Then, process it PG using the 'cherry' setting only.. Import it into C.D. and engrave it at the best setting for your machine. This is another thing that has to be determined, all machines engrave a bit different. Because I am totally unfamiliar with Chinese machines and what to expect from them, I couldn't even hazard a guess, but there are plenty of users here that are getting good result with some of them.. Practice practice practice..