Brent Franker
12-21-2020, 1:57 PM
Hello!
I'm a novice laser user and still figuring this thing out. I have an Epilog 36EXT 75watt. I tried my hand at laser engraving a black granite tile for the first time the other day. I used PhotoGrav with their recommended settings. It came out just "OK" to me and seemed a little dark. Without spending a bunch of money experimenting too much, I figure I'd ask you guys what the best way to increase the brightness of the engraving? More power? More resolution (did 300 dpi)? Feed PhotoGrav a picture that I actually make lighter/brighter first? Any recommendations from the pros? I did change the resolution of the picture to 300dpi and sized it exactly the same as I needed it in Photograv so I didn't do any stretching or anything like that after processing the photo.
Here is my original picture.
447631
Here is what Photograv "estimates" it should look like (ignore the black backgrounds and text, I added that for the customer).
447632
Here's the finished result. This picture actually makes it look brighter than it does just holding it up and looking at it. It's in a bright room too. Finished black granite below...
447633
And here's another example... same 300 dpi and same settings recommended by Photograv which was 100% speed and 52% power.
Original picture
447634
Photograv estimate
447636
Finished tile. Again, the darn camera actually improves what they look like as compared to looking at them with the naked eye... they are a bit darker.
447635
I've seen some YouTube examples of a guy engraving on these $5 12" black granite tiles at 300 dpi using just what Photograv gives him and his final results look like a black and white picture and incredible?!?! Anyway, just wondering if any of you had some recommendations as to the best way to get these to come out a little "brighter"? Thank you and Merry Christmas!
I'm a novice laser user and still figuring this thing out. I have an Epilog 36EXT 75watt. I tried my hand at laser engraving a black granite tile for the first time the other day. I used PhotoGrav with their recommended settings. It came out just "OK" to me and seemed a little dark. Without spending a bunch of money experimenting too much, I figure I'd ask you guys what the best way to increase the brightness of the engraving? More power? More resolution (did 300 dpi)? Feed PhotoGrav a picture that I actually make lighter/brighter first? Any recommendations from the pros? I did change the resolution of the picture to 300dpi and sized it exactly the same as I needed it in Photograv so I didn't do any stretching or anything like that after processing the photo.
Here is my original picture.
447631
Here is what Photograv "estimates" it should look like (ignore the black backgrounds and text, I added that for the customer).
447632
Here's the finished result. This picture actually makes it look brighter than it does just holding it up and looking at it. It's in a bright room too. Finished black granite below...
447633
And here's another example... same 300 dpi and same settings recommended by Photograv which was 100% speed and 52% power.
Original picture
447634
Photograv estimate
447636
Finished tile. Again, the darn camera actually improves what they look like as compared to looking at them with the naked eye... they are a bit darker.
447635
I've seen some YouTube examples of a guy engraving on these $5 12" black granite tiles at 300 dpi using just what Photograv gives him and his final results look like a black and white picture and incredible?!?! Anyway, just wondering if any of you had some recommendations as to the best way to get these to come out a little "brighter"? Thank you and Merry Christmas!