Photo edit aid and assistance needed

(Since its just us folks around here now-Imma gonna use this section as thus)

So, I’ve been poking at this picture for my buddy Paul. It’s going to go on(hopefully) what appears to be a purchased slice of pine. …Great…now Dropbox doesn’t wanna let me upload stuff…. Anyway…. The GPU on my Mac seems to have taken a crap and I’m not very proficient with Procreate on my iPad yet so I’m looking for opinions on the various versions of the photo I’ve done so far. And maybe some help. (It’s my ancient 09 iMac that I’ve replaced the GPU before, but it generally works just fine otherwise so I’m hunting down another GPU i can install-working in safe mode is terrrrrrrible!!).

That’s my files so far. Has the original I’m working with and a variety of different edits I’ve come up with while trying to follow a number of the guides here. Also a pick of the wood piece he wants to use.

So any help from the very important people here is appreciated. (I have a stack of cheap BB sitting around to test settings on. Draft dots, SD dots, HD vary and such.)

I use Gimp but I am told it is not great in apple os. For that sort of image you want to use dots instead of variable but standard dots are way big. To make smaller dots you have to up the number of dots by making them smaller. The higher the LPI the smaller it makes the dots. It can take a longer time to do the the job but not near as long as you will look at it and wish you had used smaller dots. All the doats are the same depth so you will want to test a small piece with a range as all dots and no dots on the extremes make it messy so there is an adjustment in the widget.

Variable is really for relief carving making dark areas deep and white areas high and that means a special sort of 3D image, but many ignore that and try to cut shallow enough but the difference between scorched and burned black wood is very slight so much of the detail does not show.

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Gimp works just fine on Mac. Been using it exclusive since before I switched to Mac in the mid-2000’s. Never had an issue.

Agree on dots vs. variable for photos.

But my edits of the pics seem to be in an alright range for moving forward with testing settings?

This is only the second time I’ve tried to do a photo conversion so looking for opinions on the b&w and curves edits.

The actual photo will have many needs as will the artist, so while wrong can be mostly obvious, correct or best can perhaps be a wider range. If you can get the photo so it looks really good to you and the dots don’t touch each other in the black and the white has a few dots you pretty much have it.

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Now theres a possibly helpful tip I wouldn’t have thought of. Going to keep that in mind.

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