my first litho

[large519]

My first Litho, very pleased with the outcome, finish path took nearly 3 1/2hrs though.





Any thoughts greatly appreciated

Also some further advice would be greatly appreciated too, I had removed the back ground via photoshop, but it has left these unsightly ball nose cuts all round the edge, obv I dont want these to show, once I have mounted the pic, but whats the best way of avoiding these marks (when removing the background) or is it best to cut the whole picture with background included, or change the background to one solid colour??

[Xxray]

Looks very nice, surprised no one has chimed in yet.

I personally would not have done this pic, due to the chopped off head. Unless that was literally all you had to chose from, far better to use pics where the subjects are not cut off like that. I guess thats stating the obvious. 3.5 hrs is not too bad, detail = time.
As far as background removal, that is an artform in itself and I'm no expert but offhand, looks to me like you used a "soft edge" on the removal tool and didn't get in quite close enough to the subjects, which left a choppy halo all around and translated into sloppy cutting at the periphery.

[HerbE]

large.....
You can import your .pvc file into VCP, do a bitmap trace on it and then create a profile toolpath using a small BN bit. Make the path ON and play with the depth of cut to get a desirable look. I use the same bit for both operations, cutting the outline first.
May not be the best procedure, but works pretty nice if there is not a lot of dark and light areas around the perimeter of the picture.
Good luck.....

Herb

[large519]

Thankyou guys for your advice

Xxray,
This was just a tester, it was really just the first pic that I came too in my collection, but yeah, I agree with the cut off head.
I use photoshop CS6 to cut the background out and the hardness is set to 100%, maybe just need to bring the outline inbound of the subject to get a better edge. I also didn't account for the depth of cut when setting the retract distance, you can see the extra cut between the 2 heads.

HerbE,
I also thought about creating a profile path in Aspire, and the next time I run a another Litho, I'll try it, possible with either the roughing or finishing tool.

[bill565]

Large, Litho looks great for a first time. Once hooked it is hard to not do them.

From the photo standpoint, just wanted to share that saving as a jpg file format can lead to a soft and fuzzy edge from my experience. I usually save as bmp, png or tiff to make sure I have a good crisp edge.

Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of lithos.

Bill

[large519]

Litho's are addictive, I think that it is the before and after (with and without back lighting) that give them a total unique edge, they are going to be a great new addition to our product range once I have sorted out frame's and back lighting etc.

I have always saved editied pictures as J peg's, I'll try saving as a BMP etc in future. Whats the difference between a J peg and Bmp?

[bill565]

Awhile back I saw that the jpeg smoothes out the pixels on the edge and in so doing causes the fuzzy effect. When Savin as bump this does not occur.

It was referenced by Tony of vectric and was way back in one of the posts about using photos. I will see if I can dig it up. I just always remembered and kept to the habit.

[bill565]

Awhile back I saw that the jpeg smoothes out the pixels on the edge and in so doing causes the fuzzy effect. When Savin as bump this does not occur.

It was referenced by Tony of vectric and was way back in one of the posts about using photos. I will see if I can dig it up. I just always remembered and kept to the habit.

Found this in the original tutorial for PhotoVcarve written documentation in the training section. It pretty much follows my understanding. Could not find the post I know is out there - lol

" If the design is being edited using a paint package to remove the background the finished design
should be saved as a BMP or TIF file as this retains the exact colours. The JPG format will feather the
colours removing any sharp edge boundaries. "

[large519]

Thank you bill565, I have started to save all my modified pics as bmp, and have noticed a difference in the edges especially on the finished piece.

Here is my finished litho, mounted in a Solid Oak frame, back lit with a LED strip all round the inside of the frame, I chose to use a warm white, the cool white I thought looked a bit too un natural.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

I have been asked to sell these but am unsure of a price, any advice as to what other people have been selling their Lithos for, the total cost for me to make this was just over £32.