Image not engraving properly

I have an image that I prepped in Gimp with DaBigGimpping script and I imported it into Lightburn and it looks like this

but when I output jt I do not get what I’m expecting. I get this any advise is greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Gary

Can you elaborate, please? What exactly are you expecting and what is not happening as you’d expect? Details are helpful so we can offer the most appropriate responses.

@Gary_Wiant Are you looking for a more feathered transition in the edges rather then a more solid outline?

Or is the final output not sharp enough and it’s too soft?

That’s what I can see as a major difference in the comparison.

Cheers

Sasquatch

Yes it is the feathered effect around the edge. Ive done several of these the exact same way & haven’t had any issues until this time. I have 2 images on this project & both are acting the same and not outputting the gradient / feathered edge

Please show the settings for that layer. Double-click the layer in the ‘Cuts’ window to expose.

Ill post it tomorrow

You likely haven’t enabled ‘Pass Through’ mode in the image settings. You would likely get better results if you remove the final dither stage from Sean’s script and let LightBurn do the output dithering - you’ll get a little more flexibility that way, because you’ll be able to easily play with DPI and size without having to constantly go back to Gimp and re-process.

I’m sure that I did use passthrough. Your saying not to use the script at all or just not to include the script for the feathered effect? I haven’t had much luck letting Lightburn do the photo editing. I’ve tried about all the halftone effects. I’ve had several times that the image would look great on the preview screen but output would be a solid burn with no or very little detail.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Well, if you have a 100w laser, that’s your first challenge - your beam spot will be pretty large, likely around 0.2mm, and your ionization point will be higher too. The large beam spot is going to make it hard to get detailed engraving - if you set your DPI too high, normal dithering will overlap and you’ll get mush for output.

Try this as a starting point:

  • Import an unprocessed image
  • Select it, then right-click and choose ‘Show Properties’
  • Set the Gamma value to 0.8
  • Set the Enhance Radius to 4
  • Set the Enhance Amount to 200
  • Adjust Brightness and Contrast if necessary to get full brightness range from the image
  • In the cut settings, use Jarvis or Stucki dither, and set 130 DPI
  • Set Min & Max power the same, and the lowest value that you can reliably fire the laser at
  • Set speed to about 150 mm/sec

Give that a go and post your results.

As an alternative, if you want to run higher DPI, set it 400, but use Newsprint as the dither mode.

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Oz thank you, I’ll try those settings. I typed up a complete post about the settings with a photo of my screen but it’s not here now

i dont think the 100 watt is going to hurt me too bad i engraved this a couple weeks ago & it turned out great.

I probably won’t get to try the settings until tomorrow or Sunday

Why is it too bad if it turned out great? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

It looks great is that basswood ?

I think you missed the previous bit of that sentence.

Yup I sure did now it makes more sense. I like the wood round engraving it’s beautiful. Thanks @LightBurn

Sas

Yes Basswood round engraved using my 100 Watt Thunder Laser Nova 35.

Thank you
Gary

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Is that one of the Walnut Hallow Basswood rounds?

image
https://amzn.to/2RQ4viy

Sasquatch - Yes you need to stay away from pieces with knots. They leave burn marks even small dark areas in the wood are magnified when you laser over them.

if you look close you’ll see small dark flecks especially along the bottom of the image. Plus you can see the small knot to the left of the bucks head.

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Thank you for the tip @Gary_Wiant.
Do you have a good wholesale source for wood rounds?
I had first discovered the live edge basswood rounds at Ross at a great deal but they dont have them in stock all the time. Michaels and Amazon have them but at twice the cost I was able to find at Ross.

Cheers and thank you for sharing your beautiful photo engraving.

Sasquatch

I don’t have any Wholesale yet, i will start looking again once the COVID19 lock down ends. I hit Joann Fabrics & Michael’s and buy all the “clean” rounds i can get my hands on. Typically they sell for around $10-15/each but they often have very good coupons. Often up to 60% off. I’ve even had 50% off your entire order.

Enjoy

That’s … what I’ve overlooked. That’s right both those stores have super coupons. Thank you for that very important piece of the puzzle I overlooked.

Here’s looking at our release from house arrest soon. :beers:

Sasquatch

Glad to help. Our sign business has switched over to making & selling face shields so we have been pretty busy, but Yes , I’m ready to get back to normal for sure.