Photos too large for photo engrave

[Andy Joe]

I want to engrave a set of tiles that total to a size of 4'x4'. Photo engrave will not load the pictures, im not sure the exact error message but basically the file size is too large. I wanted to just break up the picture into individual 6"x6" squares and process each one but after i ran two like this i noticed that there was a shade difference. I think that photo engrave brightens or darkens based on the overall color of the photo its working on and each 6"x6" tile was a bit diferent. Either way, my employer thinks we can do something to the computer to make photoengrave handle these larger format photos. Such as more ram, or a new video card. Is this possible, or is it a issue with the time out period of the program? Does anyone out there have a solution for this?

[Stephen Kane]

From photograv support re phograv 3

"The current maximum file size limit is around 60 to 100 Mbytes uncompressed. This corresponds to an image size of around 10 to 12 megapixels.

The only options that we can suggest currently for images larger than this is to see if PhotoGrav version 2.11 can process the large image or reduce the dpi (if possible) or divide the image at appropriate places (if possible"

[Dan Hintz]

Try to split the photo down the middle, either horizontally or vertically, so that each half has a similar histogram (if this is even possible with the photo). That will help mitigate the difference in brightness.

For example, if it's an outdoor scene with ground on the bottom and sky at the top, split it down the middle from top to bottom... if you have roughly equal parts sky and ground in both pieces, it should help.

[Martin Boekers]

I see you have a Kern Laser, you might check with them.

They sell large format lasers and may be able to help you
with it.

Just a thought

Marty

[Andy Joe]

Thanks Dan, that worked great. Histogram huh, didnt know what to call that. I did talk to kern and they told me windows couldnt processes an image that large. This didnt seem right to me, thats why i was asking here. Well project is done now, and i learned something for the future, i also have a new word of the day. My co-workers have been useing it as an insult for past 15 min or so.

[Jack Harper]

I have spoken to Photgrav several times regarding this problem. They say they will look at the problem sometime in the future...possibly. Version 2.11 will handle a little larger file than 3.0 but overall, very limiting when it comes to large images. The Gold method is the work around of choice. Separately, if you want do it in chunks, you can turn off all the enhance/adjustment features in Photgrav by clicking on the green dot in each window. If you do this you will need to make the necessary image adjustments in your file editing program such as Photoshop.

[Bill Cunningham]

I'm not sure what the dpi of the original file was, but you could probably re-sample down to 150, then etch that at 300 to take advantage of the more beam overlap. I doubt very much you would see the difference at the distance you would normally view a 4' x 4' image at..