Amazing stone work

[martin g. boekers]

For those of you that haven't seen this in A&E, check out this web page.
Truly some amazing work!

http://digital.a-e-mag.com/aemag/200808/?pg=64


Marty

[Albert Nix]

Very very nice but how do you come across images that are high quality enough to turn out that kind of work?

Al

[Darren Null]

Make the images. Of course.

[Joe Pelonio]

Either be really good at Photoshop, or take the pictures in black and white mode with a really good digital camera. Nice stuff!

[Albert Nix]

Hi Joe. I sort of doubt he took the photos live. So you are saying that you can take a photo and run it though photo shop and enlarge it that much and mantain good resolution. Can you do it with photo grav?

Al

[martin g. boekers]

Speaking from a photographic background, the trade show and point of purchase grapics are probably a little larger then the pieces this shop did. Yes, part of the problem is starting with a high quality image. I've seen it so many times when someone brings me a web page shot and doesn't understand print resolution as opposed to moniter resolution. There are a few photoshop tips that can help maximize printability of a bad image, but a bad image is still a bad image.

On these memorials I'm sure he managed to get some of the higher quality shots from the plane manufactures, or government publicity shots, sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to track it down.

One point about starting with quality images is it doesn't meen that you are going to get a great engraving. It takes talent from the engraver to make it come to life, Thats what we do!

I know how hard it is to get a quality etching consistantly on granite. I know I still sweat a bit when I put a $50 piece under the laser. lol:)

Someday I hope that I can get a better grasp of halftones and not have to blindly rely on Photograv, press auto then run and gun. Nothing against Photograv right now it gets me in the "range" of where I want to be quickly, but I still experience some problems with certain images and I think a better understanding would be beneficial. Photograv has made me $$$. So I can argue with that!

I would love to see these etchings in person.

[Joe Pelonio]

Albert,

No, you cannot enlarge a photo in Photoshop or anything else with that kind of quality without starting out with quality. What I meant is that they used photoshop or something similar to enhance a really good photo such as from a stock art provider, or took it themselves.

When we do a photographic image large enough for a big banner or a vehicle, the file size can be 50MB or more. It has to be 150-300 dpi at actual size to be printed, same with this laser work. The only way to get that kind of resolution is with a really good (commercial grade) camera.

[Frank Corker]

I agree with Joe. The work is without doubt fantastic, but I bet the guys photographs are of a similar quality, I'd love to have a machine that big..... okay I'd also love to have single jobs which haul in those figures too!

[Belinda Barfield]

Beautiful work, as others have said.

BTW Frank, I miss your smiling face. How bout a smiling chimp? You look so somber and intimidating in your current avatar. Not criticism, just saying I miss your smile!

[Frank Corker]

How's that?

[Darren Null]

So you are saying that you can take a photo and run it though photo shop and enlarge it that much
There is a photoshop plugin/standalone program called Genuine Fractals that is truly good at expanding images (they claim 1000%). You need good quality images to start, of course, but the memorial is made of a pastiche of images, none of which are THAT big individually. Assuming decent images, Genuine Fractals would be quite capable of the expansion required for the memorial images.

It's 159.95. I'm guessing dollars.