Retirement and Wedding Gifts

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Lin

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25 Jul 2005
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Location
Michigan---USA
Just a couple pics of what I have been up to. The portrait was done for a wonderful lady that I have been working with for the 18 years that I have been at my present JOB....She retired after 44 years there......I know I did good cause when she opened the gift she cried. Her daughter supplied the picture for me to make a pattern....she had no idea what I was up to.
The wedding plaque went to a couple that the groom has called me his second mom for several years. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding....held this past Saturday. The portrait is cut from 1/8" redoak ply and the plaque from 3/8" cherry with 1/4" maple lettering. Dannish oil and lacquer finish.
Lin
barbandlarrylg.jpg

doveweddingplaquelg.jpg
 
Very Nice Lin =D>

How do you go from the photo to the scrolling patern? I'm sure this is a basic question to scrollers,but I'm a novice in that areana ('though I did manage a presentable spitfire once :wink: ) I have an idea for a project where I alrady have the photo and would like to convert it into a patern a bit like what you did

Cheers
Les
 
Both are very touching and excellently produced, Lin. Well done :). I particularly like the portrait and I'm not surprised it provoked such an emotive response.

Les - Lin and I use similar techniques when it comes to converting photographs and pictures into scrollsaw patterns. Firstly, you need a scanner if you're going to work with photographs. Otherwise, you'll be limited to working from whatever pictures are available online or on software. Secondly, you need a decent art program on the computer. I use Paint Shop Pro but other scrollers use similar programs from Corel or Adobe.

A quick synopsis of the process I use is that the picture is converted into monochrome, then the Gaussian blur is adjusted to help consolidate tone areas. After this, the contrast/brightness controls are adjusted to convert the picture into blocks of black and white. Experience counts for a lot at this stage! Next, you redraw the bits that don't look right, mostly removing superfluous bits (again, experience counts for a lot) and make sure there are no floaters. 'Floaters' are areas of the pattern which don't connect to the main body of the pattern. If cut, they would produce areas of wood which would be unsupported by adjoining areas of wood and therefore fall out of the picture. Finally, I detect the edges of the coloured blocks and trace the outline contours.

There's no right way to convert an image into a scrollsaw pattern and I'd be surprised if Lin uses exactly the same technique as me. If you're interested in learning more, Andy Deane has written an excellent tutorialfor Paint Shop Pro and there are a couple of MSN forums that will help you to produce your own patterns hereand here.

Gill
 
Lin

Beautiful artwork, I could only dream of doing something like that.

Gill

I'm not a scroller but the explanation of photo's to patterns is very informative.
 
Les, Gill and I use a similar process to go from photo to pattern but I generally start mine in Adobe Photoshop......then transfer it to Paint Shop Pro for clean up.....(the tools in PSP are easier to use I think)...I have started in Paint Shop Pro an done the whole process there......depends on the photo......What type of graphics software do you have on your system?
The tutorial that Gill mentioned is great for Paint Shop Pro users but if you have Adobe Photo Shop.....let me know and I might be able to help you out with in that program. Photo to pattern is not a quick process...at least not for me but the rewards in being able to take a photo of a loved one and cutting them in wood is well worth the time spent.
Lin
 
Gill / Lin

Thanks for the comprehensive replies - I have access to both Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop, but I'm pretty rusty on both. I'll give it a shot and see how I get on!

Thanks
Les
 
Les, Here are some steps that you should be able to use in Adobe Photoshop......this was written for Photoshop Elements but should work with any Adobe Photo Shop program.
Adobe Photoshop Elements and the basic steps there are:
1. Open file of the pic you want to convert.
2. Click on File, Save As and give it another name so you don't overwrite the original pic and then work on the new copy.
3. You should have a tool bar visible on the left hand side of the screen. Look at the bottom of the tool bar and you will see two squares...one black and one white, these are your foreground and background colors. Make sure the black square is on top.
4. Then click on Filter in the main menu bar, then click Sketch, then click on Photocopy. This will bring up a dialog box that has two sliders: one for Detail and one for darkness. Start out with setting the detail to 10 and the darkness to 8. The preview window will show you how the picture changes as you make adjustments to the sliders. You have to just play with these settings until you get it where you want it.
5. If not enough details are coming through, cancel out of Photocopy and go back to the orig pic. On the toolbar is a button called Burn tool, or just type in J and it will pick the burn tool. Use this tool to darken lines and areas of the pic that you want to pick up: like ears, around the mouth, eyes, teeth, etc. Make the size of the burn tool small enough to just trace over the lines in the pic. Do the same with the Dodge tool (activate by pressing the letter O), using it on areas that you want to lighten.
6. Then go back to Filter, Sketch, Photocopy and see if you got all the detail you want. You just have to keep playing with it till it looks like you want it. Once you're satisfied with it, then you have to start cleanup on the pattern. Use the brush tool with the white and erase all the background that you don't want in the pic and erase all the spots and noise that you don't want. This is the longest part of the process and one you just have to keep working with to get it like you want.
7. Using the brush tool, make sure all white areas are connected as this will be the wood, and you will be cutting out all the black. To make sure you don't have any floaters, flood the pattern with a different color like red....if any white is still showing then these areas are not connected and you willl need to undo and adjust so they are connected.
These are just brief steps....play around with a pic and make adjustments and try different things. No two pictures will convert the same so you have to experiment
.
I generally take the pic to "grayscale" before I begin this process but I guess you don't really have to....
When you scan a pic in.....using at least 150 DPI is best.....most times I scan in at 300 DPI to get the best detail on the transfer to pattern.
Lin
 
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