Photocarve People of color

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bgriggs
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Photocarve People of color

Post by bgriggs »

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with using photocarve with pictures of people of color? I have tried several different settings with out real success. I was wondering where to begin to make changes, perhaps photo shop?

Basically what happens is because of the darker pigmentation of the subject, you get very deep cuts in the wood for the face. staining is not producing the desired results......

Help.

Bill :?

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Post by Turtle49 »

Bill,
Can you post an image for us to try?

We may be able to come up with a process.

Tim
:D

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Post by bgriggs »

Here is a picture I am playing with.
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DCP00335.JPG

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Turtle49
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Post by Turtle49 »

Is this what your seeing in your preview window?

Tim
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bgriggs
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Post by bgriggs »

Yes, but usually with less definition.

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Post by Turtle49 »

ok, my son is having a wrestling match today, so I will try to carve this tomorrow or Monday. Then we can see how it looks.
Tim

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Post by bgriggs »

Wow! That would be fantastic. I am still experimenting and haven't gotten to the cutting point yet with PVC. I appreciate all the time and effort you are taking.

Bill

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Post by Turtle49 »

Ok, I ran the initial test with the image you sent. Below I attached the preview and finished piece. Note that I only stained the area around the face.

I don't think the results were too bad considering the size of the face.

I have had better luck cropping the face close and blowing it up. I'll run another test to show you what I mean.
Tim
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test
test
preview
preview

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Post by Turtle49 »

Here is the head shot.

I did some things here that negatively affected the test. I used oak. Typically I do not like to use an open grained wood like this and then put on stain. If I were to do this right I would seal the oak with a lacquer or urethane after carving and then use a gel stain to color the grooves. This would help keep the stain from traveling through the open grain and coming back out. In addition to that it would even out the coloring.

But for this test I think you can see how the detail is coming out. If this was done in a tight grain wood like Maple I think the detail would probably be close to what you want.

So to answer your original question, one way to improve the look of Photo Vcarve is to crop out just the feature you really want see.

I also like to sand down to the point where there are pronounced highlights of smooth wood. I'm not afraid to get down in there with a sander.

Also play with bit types (different angles) and settings. I think you will be able to get to a nice result.

Be sure to post your results here so the community can benefit from your experience!

Tim
:wink:
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Original image cropped to head
Original image cropped to head
Result
Result
Head preview
Head preview

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bgriggs
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Post by bgriggs »

Thank you so much for experimenting with this subject. I have tried three different pictures but never had good results.

I can see what you mean about the grain of the wood affecting the final project. I will try some different woods to come up with a good match.

Taking photos of people of color can be difficult without proper lighting and composition. Exposures commonly used for Caucasian skin tones generally don't work well. So trying to Photovcarve them .... is also difficult.

Thanks again for helping me figure out where to start.

Bill

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Re: Photocarve People of color

Post by daneilers »

What color and kind of gel stain do you prefer; also: I just ordered two 3/64 bits. It seems like some folks really like these for Photo VCarving.

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