First attempt at photo engraving

I took my first step into photo engraving last night! These are just wooden box things from Walmart, and I’ve put photos of my two eldest kids on them as Christmas gifts for their mom. I’m really pleased with how they turned out, especially as a first effort! I’m contemplating cleaning them with fast orange, but I don’t want to lose the high contrast, so I don’t know if I’ll go through with it.


53 Likes

That is a really good result!

7 Likes

I’d also worry about losing contrast if you cleaned them, even with a dry soft brush. I personally think they look good as they are.

8 Likes

Yeah those are great results. You did a good job prepping the photos.

As for cleaning them, get a scrap of wood, crop the image down a bit to speed things up, run the same settings, and then clean it and see what you end up with. You might be surprised at the result.

Also, remember that any kind of sealant like oil or polyurethane will bring out the contrast a bit. I’d go all the way through the process before making my decision.

Then, if you like it, you can clean the “real” pieces. :slight_smile:

13 Likes

Great work!

6 Likes

These look remarkable! Great job!

5 Likes

Beautifully done. I initially thought they were the original pictures that you used for the engraving.

4 Likes

those turned out great. and it’s very obvious to me that you started with good photos. in the end, that’s really the biggest secret to getting a good photo engrave. GIGO. you can make a bad image less bad with processing, but you can’t make it good.

did you use a plugin or action for processing or just go for it with the originals?

4 Likes

Thank you!

I uploaded the originals to pixlr.org, converted to black and white, and then basically played around the the contrast, exposure, and sharpness until I thought it looked like it could work :grin:

6 Likes

Thank you; I hadn’t considered that a sealant would affect things!

1 Like

Wow! Those look fantastic!

3 Likes

Impressive. Well done.

2 Likes

They look great!

3 Likes

What a beautiful turn out!!!

2 Likes

That looks awesome! Could you mention what settings you used on the GF?

1 Like

We aren’t supposed the talk about settings in this part of the forum.

But, if you DM (direct message) the OP (original poster) they can discuss it with you!

1 Like

*custom settings

This may have been Proofgrade default (although that would surprise me)… :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

2 Likes

Thank you for the info. I didn’t know about that.

1 Like

They actually were Proofgrade defaults! I’m not comfortable enough with engraving to mess with the settings yet.

1 Like

image

1 Like