Dog tag necklace

[Don Necaise]

Hello all

I lasered engraved some black anodized dog tag necklaces with a picture of my nephew that was killed a few weeks ago for my family and they came out pretty good. My question is I tried to do some on blue anodized aluminum and i could not get them to come out the way I wanted them to.
Can anyone give me any advice on this? Thanks a lot

[Leigh Costello]

I don't know why it happens, but the same thing happened to me a while back. I only offer black tags for photos now.

[David Lavaneri]

My question is I tried to do some on blue anodized aluminum and i could not get them to come out the way I wanted them to.
Can anyone give me any advice on this?

Don,

Could you describe what you didn't like about the results with anodized blue aluminum?

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri

[Frank Corker]

If it's a picture that you engraved on it, if it came out fine in one colour but looked odd on another, most likely cause is that you have a mix up on your positive/negative.

[Stephen Beckham]

Don,

Same results here, tried the same exact file on a black tag without changing the settings and it looked great. Personally, I believe it's the color contrast. We look for a black and white or a sepia colored picture - not a snowy white and blue.

An interesting look might be to etch on the blue then use some dry erase marker or other rub-eaze (rub-n-buff) type of color fill. It won't stick to the un-lasered part, but will make some interesting colorization on the etched parts. You may have to do like frank suggested and invert the photo depending on the color scheme you're working for.

Steve