What to do to make this better? Photo on Granite.

[Shane Black]

What is your opinion on this photo? This was my first try at granite. I wish it had better detail in the picture. I have searched the forums and looked a the Youtube videos on how to change the picture. This is what I ended up with. I engraved it at 100speed 35power I know there are several threads about this but wanted your opinions.

[Dee Gallo]

Hi Shane,

First of all, this photo is very hard to see, so we can't tell how much detail is in there really. It's small, it's blurry. For your first attempt, I don't think it's horrible, but you are right, it would be improved if it had more detail. I'm also confused by the grey areas in the middle. I find that playing with the "shadow/highlights" control in PhotoShop helps to reveal more detail in all black and all white areas. It would also help to see what the original photo looks like, to see if you have more to work with or not. I think your settings might be adjusted too, but I'd have to refer to my notebook to say any more there... I"m not near it at the moment. There are some people on this forum who are experts with granite, so maybe some of them will have more insight. But I'm glad to see you are diving right in! I like the layout's concept.

cheers, dee

[walter hofmann]

Hi shane
how did you prepare the whole thing and what programm did you use for preparing? black granite is tricky if the picture is not prepaired right.
you need to give the picture mare detail more contrast the best looking picture in the photoprogramm is the worst for the laser engraving . the picture should look like a bit washed out but still has contrast. then another importand fact is that the picture should be at 318 dpi and because I dont know what machine you have , in a K40 40W chinese machine with a AWC DSP the scan gap should then be 0.04.
greetings
waltfl

[Cindy Rhoades]

Shane

First question is what is the orginal photo resolution and what size is it? The quality of your engraving depends on what you have to work with. I engrave a lot of granite and marble but at a much lower speed than what you are using and a bit more power.

[Frank Corker]

Dreadful picture to ask for judgement I have to say. Quick look, you overcooked the brightness and contrast.

[Bruce Dorworth]

Cindy, don't keep us in the dark. What is your machine(it is not in your signature) and what speeds and feeds do you use?

Thanks,
Bruce

[Cindy Rhoades]

Bruce

Sorry I thought I had put it in my signature. I have an Epilog mini 45 watt 2412. I make sure the picture is at least 300dpi then I run it at 150 dpi 50 speed and 40-42 power depending on type of material. When I got my machine I was told to start slow with wood items because marble and granite were very difficult well that being said I did a couple of wood items then went into figuring out the marble and granite. Most of my orders now are for marble and granite.

[Dan Hintz]

Cindy,

I think you're cheating yourself by only engraving marble at 150dpi... it's good for at least twice that.

[Shane Black]

Here is the original image and a better photo of the granite. Sorry the other one was taken with my phone. The original picture's dpi is very low I see. I did not check that before. I tried to follow Mike Clarke's method. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZubRDUrg_7k. I prepared the picture in Corel X5. Thanks for any advise.
253731253732

[Dan Hintz]

Select his jacket, her dress, and her veil, then increase the contrast and darken it. Remove the empty space around his hand. That will improve the picture 100%.

[Cindy Rhoades]

Dan

I will try a few samples at 300 and see what happens. I have only had problems with a couple of photos but they were snapshots that were at least 25 years old so the quality of the photo was bad to start with but one customer liked it so much she ordered another.

[Shane Black]

Thanks for the help everyone. Here is what I ended up with for now. Much better I think. Could be improved but good for this. Sorry for the Flash. Ended up running this at 40 power 75 speed. picture 300 dpi resolution 300 dpi
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[Dee Gallo]

Much better, Shane! We learn with every project.

cheers, dee

[Dan Hintz]

MUCH better, Shane. If it was a high-priced unit I might spend a bit more time trying to get some more contrast out of his jacket and such, but for a commodity price I'd be comfortable letting that out of my shop as it is.

[Larry Bratton]

Huge improvement. Practice makes perfect.