The Gold Method

[George M. Perzel]

Hi gang;
Awhile ago, Frank Corker took the time to put together a Photoshop Action script which closely mimics the Photograv process- without the cost.
Finally had a chance to do some comparisons on an apples-to-apples basis.
Baseline:
Used fairly high resolution pics and did a little prepwork on the master-set size and DPI, eliminated background, brightened image, put soft focus vignette around image.
1. Took master image and applied Frank's Gold method Action as instructed-lasered result on raw cherry board at P=100, S=70 on my 60 watt LaserPro Mercury.
2. Took master image, changed to Greyscale, input to Photograv with cherry parameter, autoprocess, and saved the engrave image. Lasered the image on raw cherry at same settings.

Results of two different pics are shown below. Not a lot of difference except Gold method result tends to be darker which can be corrected by brightening the master more or raising lasersped/lower power.
All in all, a pretty acceptable result for a push-one- button process.
Thanks Frank and Rodne
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Ray Uebner]

Hi
Both look great but the photograv does look a little nicer. I guess it is a matter of just playing with the results. Good Job.

[Ray Mighells]

Lookin' good George, what are the dimensions on those pieces? Have you tried a variety of sizes of the same master? As you know, I like to do the 12" X bigger sizes, but the larger ones are harder to control the gradients to maintain the overall clarity and sharp detail. I have had pretty good success with bleached cherry, but would like to get equal quality on natural cherry.

[Frank Corker]

Pictures turned out great. I too believe that the Photograv images turned out nicer, they are a lot lighter, George did you try the one that Doug Griffiths tuned? His option allows you to adjust brightness and sharpness on the fly in Photoshop. Still very nice pics and great subject matter.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

They all look good to me George. In the first picture (woman & man), especially the woman's shoulder area it seems to be a little more "life-like" or more "dimensional" to me. Overall, I think I prefer the Photograv method just a little bit better...but not by much.

When considering the cost of Photograv, the Gold Method is certainly an attractive option.

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Gang;
Ray- the cherry plaques are 5x7 and unfinished but lightly sanded. I will try to dig out a bigger piece of cherry and burn a larger image.
Frank- where is Doug's mod-didn't see it in the original thread??
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Frank Corker]

George, here is the link - his website is very clear with detailed photos

http://www.dogcollarlabor.com/smc/

[George M. Perzel]

Thanks, Frank;
Loaded the script file as instructed-opened a photo- hit File/Script/Gold Method... and got:

Error 8: Syntax Error
Line: 28
-> #target photoshop

I am running PS 8- which I think is part of CS, not CS1- should that matter?
Thanks
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Doug Griffith]

I'm sorry to say but the script only runs under CS2 or CS3 versions. The actions should still work though.

Cheers,
Doug

[Don Necaise]

George
What dpi are you using when engraving through photograv? I cant seem to get the pictures to come out right.

[George M. Perzel]

Don;
I always use 300dpi for photos, but taking a 72dpi image and resampling it at 300 will not give you the same result- the old GIGO rule.
best regards
george

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Doug;
OK- thought that might be the problem-forcing me to load CS3 which I've had sitting here but had no real reason to update.
Are the actions the same ones Frank developed? I was trying to get your added manipulation features.
George

[Doug Griffith]

Hi George,
Yep, I'm referring to Frank's actions. The script I wrote adds adjustment features and has a few different inner workings.

You'll be happy with CS3 but be prepared for a learning curve.

Cheers,
Doug

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Gang;
Doug-thanks for the impetus to load CS3-was putting it off as I didn't want to endure another learning curve right now. Script works fine- we can call it the Gold/Griffith method when you figure out how to make it interactive (the image changes as you move the brightness or sharpness controls).
Thanks
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Doug Griffith]

the image changes as you move the brightness or sharpness controls

That would be ideal but I don't think a script can have real-time back and forth interaction. About the only thing that can do is apply the change when a slider stops moving or a checkbox is clicked and then have a "commit changes" button. I'll put that on my list of updates.

Cheers

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Gang;
OK- here's a comparison, as before, of Photgrav and the Gold method with Griffith mods-all on cherry. Both look acceptable with PG a little lighter as before and a bit more detail.
The second pic is a larger (8x10) image done with Photograv-also on cherry. Hope this helps, Ray no bigger cherry blanks currently available here.
George
Laserarts

[Scott Shepherd]

Okay, I'm hiring George to come teach me how to use Photograv. I've got a stack of junk way too high from trying to figure it out from scratch and I've never once had a result look anything remotely close to that.

Great work George. I'm glad someone can do Photographs. I certainly can't.

[Ray Uebner]

Well they both look but the photograv still looks the best. I guess you just have to play with it to make them look the same. I think that both would be accepted by a client. I don't have photoshop nor photograv but thinking of buying photograv. Is there much of a learning curve in photograv?

[Roy Sanders]

Ok Well I have finally found the script for the gold method. I also found the executable. BUT I like so many do not have photoshop. Has anyone ever finished the conversion to photopaint or corel draw?

Thank you for any help

Roy

[John Bion]

Okay, I'm hiring George to come teach me how to use Photograv. I've got a stack of junk way too high from trying to figure it out from scratch and I've never once had a result look anything remotely close to that.

Great work George. I'm glad someone can do Photographs. I certainly can't.

Totally agree :)

[Trevor Howard]

Be aware this is an almost 7 year old thread

[Roy Nielsen]

Ok Well I have finally found the script for the gold method. I also found the executable. BUT I like so many do not have photoshop. Has anyone ever finished the conversion to photopaint or corel draw?

Thank you for any help

Roy

Roy,

I may give this a go. I did a little bit of CDR scripting a few months back, and it wasn't too difficult.

I found the original thread here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?50494-JPEG-Question&p=513434#post513434, and worked through the steps manually in CDR & CPP, easy enough. Think it can transition to code assuming everything used is in the VBA API.

If I make any headway, I'll likely start a new thread and will be looking for a tester or two with newer versions of CDR. I have 12 to play nicely with LaserCut 5.3's CDR plugin, with no plans to upgrade.

Additionally, I'd probably look for some to test lasering output using various options. I think my 5+-year old tube is on its last legs and likely won't replace it until next spring; I tried to do some stuff a couple weeks ago and my power is way down.

Roy

[Roy Sanders]

Hi Roy, thank you. I am happy to do the laser testing and so on. Must be the name Roy. Step up and give it go. I will be very thankful for the effort.

Roy S