Need Help editing a photo for a headstone

[KristinA]

My little sister and her family were hit by a drunk driver at the beginning of Nov. and her husband and son didn't make it. She is wanting to put a pic of both of them on the headstone with angel wings & together. I have CS4 and can't quite get it right. I am trying to turn this picture of my nephew into a clipart image so that my sister can put it on his headstone, along with one of her husband, it has to be low detail in order for it to work. I would appreciate any and all help.

Kristin

 

[Boomn4x4]

With all due respect and condolences, isn't that the responsiblty of the company doing the head stone?

Having just burried my father-in-law less than a month ago, I have been very pleased with the amount of support and "bending over backwards" I have gotten from the various people handling the arangements. I would expect nothing less than, "Give me the picture, we will make it perfect" from the monument company. Just as I have gotten from everyone else.

 

[KristinA]

Unfortunatly that is not the case, they want her to pick a clipart image from a book or find one herself. It is a very small town. She has been searching but can't find anything that she likes, so I told her I would try to photoshop something for her but can't quite seem to get it right. I have tried the photocopy filter and numerous others. Just thought some of you may have some ideas on how to do it.

 

[Boomn4x4]

Did they give you any specifics? What exactly constituties a "low detail" photograph? Does it have to be gray scale, can it be color, how far apart should the lines be?

I have delt with similar things from a small mom&pop printing company. All I wanted was a vinyl window sticker and every time I would edit the image and bring it back, they would just say "that isn't right, I need less detail" and then when they finally accepted it, it looked aweful anyway. Unfortunatly, I foresee you running into a similar scenario.

I've got an idea, I'll give it a try.

 

[Boomn4x4]

How's something like this?

 

[o hey tyler]

My Girlfriend actually handles images for an Urn Engraving company. As it turns out, they want all of the images as the "original" and they'll doctor it up to your needs or desires (clouds, wings, etc). To be honest, I'm surprised that they headstone engravers WILL NOT do this for you. It's not exactly the most logical thing to prepare an original photo to be engraved into stone, and if I were running an engraving company, I'd have one or two people handle the images rather than have the customer doctor them.

Boom is on the right track with the grayscale edit. I just can't remember what way the colors have to be inverted or if it's a white or a black background that doesn't get engraved... I suppose I really should ask her... :meh:

 

[kelbow]

Hi Kristin! I'm terribly sorry for you and your family's loss I am Tyler's girlfriend, the graphic designer at a Maine engraving company and we specialize in laser/rotary engraving on items like trophies, signs, water glasses, and most especially urns. My job at the company is strictly to handle and process the images that will be put on the urns. In order to do this, we work in photoshop with a 300dpi image, get it exactly how we want it to look, then convert it into a dotted version of the photograph in GravoStyle (dots closer together appear "blacker" and further apart look lighter) which is then read by the laser engraver. Here is an example of an engraved photo on cultured marble.

If you look closely, you'll notice the photograph isn't a solid photo at all! It's a bunch of little dots that have been filled in with a white paint.

I'm going to assume this company that will be doing the engraving is missing a necessary program that will convert the photo into this dotted state which is why they are requesting you give them a low-res file. My suggestion is to take your finished image, converted to black and white (maybe like my edit below) and see if they can work with that. (I kept it at 72dpi just because it also keeps the file size down, like requested.)

I hope this helps!