Can't engrave picture

[George Brown]

Trying to engrave onto glass the dithered rose picture that was posted on SMC. I get engraving with NO detail whatsoever. Tried power from 10 - 30, tried pulses per inch from 200 - 1000. Everything is evenly engraved, no difference between areas of different shading. If I lower the power, I get NO engraving in the lighter areas while almost full engraving even in the midtones. I have a 60w ULS. Ran out of things to try!!!

[Mike Mackenzie]

George,

In order to do the photo onto glass you must use photograv and the glass parameter. Glass does not show levels of Grey.

[George Brown]

Even if the photo is dithered?

[Dave Johnson29]

Even if the photo is dithered?

Not sure if this is to me or Mike, but yes, the dithering may be grayscale. The laser will mark the black and white and skip the rest.

[Dave Johnson29]

Trying to engrave onto glass the dithered rose picture that was posted on SMC.

Hi George,

I am guessing but you will probably need to convert the gray tones to Black and White.

See my recent thread where I got nothing...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost...51&postcount=1 Then converted to B&W and got...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost...71&postcount=7

Here's the finished test.

[George Brown]

I saw your post, had also tried it (but to keep my question simple, did not include it in my original post). No difference, would still not give me any detail. The photo that I tried was dithered using stucki. Then I downloaded the rose that was run through photograv (don't know what settings though). I'm really stuck on this one.

[George Brown]

Hi George,

I am guessing but you will probably need to convert the gray tones to Black and White.

See my recent thread where I got nothing...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost...51&postcount=1 Then converted to B&W and got...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost...71&postcount=7

Here's the finished test.

The photo was converted to B&W and dithered using stucki (in corel photopaint).

[Dave Johnson29]

The photo was converted to B&W and dithered using stucki (in corel photopaint).

Hi George,

Can you attach the .CDR in version 10?

[George Brown]

Hi George,

Can you attach the .CDR in version 10?

This is the tif from the conversion. Then I just dropped it into corel.

Thanks

[Dave Johnson29]

This is the tif from the conversion. Then I just dropped it into corel.

My laser has gone one step further. It will not print anything from that. I am just rebooting but it is so damn cold out there my hands are freezing. I will mess with in a couple of hours as the sun is shining but it is still under 40F out there. Bbbrrrrrrr.

[George Brown]

My laser has gone one step further. It will not print anything from that. I am just rebooting but it is so damn cold out there my hands are freezing. I will mess with in a couple of hours as the sun is shining but it is still under 40F out there. Bbbrrrrrrr.

Thank you, really appreciate it. I know the picture is not great, but it should engrave better than what I could get. Once I figure out what I'm doing wrong, I'll work on getting the pic a little better.

I could do anything else I needed on the laser, I just can't get a photo to engrave!

My shop gets cold too, but I put in a pellet stove to warm it up when I'm out there.

[Dave Johnson29]

My shop gets cold too, but I put in a pellet stove to warm it up when I'm out there.

Hi George,

Yup, thought about that but it is an uninsulated and detached workshop. I have so much machinery and stuff it is not really practical to insulate. I'd have to move 11 tons of machinery around by hand to get to the walls and ceiling etc. I moved it all inside by hand and am very reluctant to move it again. Also the ceiling is a huge storage rack.

I therefore decided not to waste the money on combustibles I do have a propane powered infrared heater that I sit/stand real near if I have to be out there.

[Dave Johnson29]

Thank you, really appreciate it. I know the picture is not great, but it should engrave better than what I could get.

Hi George,

Well the picture did not engrave very well for me either. Is the original TIFF in good shape? Did you have to re-sample it larger and lose a lot of information.

I got a really mushy mess that really didn't look like much at all. BUT my laser is old and not really good at pics unless the B&W conversion is spot on.

The way I work around it now is to Crop the pic to the size I need and then re-sample it about 50% smaller than I need it. This loses information and the re-size it back to where I wanted it. Then do the Mode to B&W with whichever Stucki, Jarvis etc that looks the most even spread of dots.

Sorry I could not be more help. Maybe Frank can help. I just hit my limits of skills an knowledge. Frank is certainly the man for glass though.

[Frank Corker]

I've just had a look at the picture. No way you'd ever be able to engrave that. It's awful for one thing (not the subject, she's fine) I would estimate that to be less than 72dpi at the very best. I'll pm my email address, send me the original picture.

Just in addition to this - just re-read and saw this by George
'The photo was converted to B&W and dithered using stucki (in corel photopaint)'

just about explains everything!

[George Brown]

I've just had a look at the picture. No way you'd ever be able to engrave that. It's awful for one thing (not the subject, she's fine) I would estimate that to be less than 72dpi at the very best. I'll pm my email address, send me the original picture.

Just in addition to this - just re-read and saw this by George
'The photo was converted to B&W and dithered using stucki (in corel photopaint)'

just about explains everything!

Thank you. I will send you a different, better picture. I picked that one as a starting point to see what I could engrave. Guess I picked wrong.

Not sure what you are referring to by your last line above. If you mean corel photopaint does not do a good enough job at converting a photo for engraving, I am not adverse to buying photograv if that is what I need.

Or do you mean that I used corel incorrectly with the conversion that I did, if so, what should I have done differently?

Thanks