Picture burning help

[onyxius (David Goodwin)]

Hello,
I am having issues with burning pictures on wood where it’s either all dark or too light and no I between.
I use da big gimping plug in for gimp then load the image up in lightburn try various power settings and speed and always get the same result, too dark or not enough power. I have seen other people using the plugin even on youtube and theirs turn out so beautiful, yet mine turn out like this. I have tried various material and have spent a week playing with settings and even manual changes to make the image lighter and it doesnt help.

Amanda_Liam_Feathered_Ready.lbrn (944.5 KB)

[JaredH (Jared Hooper)]

Because you’ve used that gimp plugin, which dithers your image, you’re supposed to select passthrough in LB rather than another dither. This could be what’s happening or it could be something else. More info would help. What kind of laser do you have? Is it set up correctly? What image format? DPI etc. etc.

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

If you are willing, drop your original image, unscripted source file, directly into LightBurn. Then read the following.

Pass Through mode

When pass-through is enabled, the DPI setting is automatically computed based on the size of the image. Let’s say you started with a 500DPI image when it was imported, and the size was 5" square. If you resized it to 10", you still have the same number of pixels, so the DPI is now 250. Any DPI or interval setting applied to a pass-through image is completely ignored, and Sean is mistaken. It would be really nice if he’d provide a version of the script that omits the dithering step - it would …

[onyxius (David Goodwin)]

I have an ortur laser master 2 (20w (5-5.5 out)) laser. When in gimp and I export using the da big gimpin plugin, I set the dpi to 600 which also gets set in lightburn automatically when I import the picture. So should I lower the DPI then since the image is going onto a disk that is roughly 4 inches round?

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@Rick

drop your original image, unscripted source file, directly into LightBurn

Not the image exported from gimp, the untouched original source file.

• Import an image, and select it
• In the Shape Properties window, set the “Gamma” value to 0.65
• You may also wish to adjust Brightness and Contrast, depending on the image, but leave that for now
• Set the DPI to 254, speed to 120mm/sec match your hardware, and choose Jarvis dither

Run that, and compare the output with what you get from Da Script.

Did you try this? What is the result you are seeing?

[onyxius (David Goodwin)]

That is much better. So what’s the difference between a script and doing what I just did?

[onyxius (David Goodwin)]

Agreed So from that image how would you make is smoother, up the dpi from 254 to say 280?

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

Here is another recent post to help with image production and settings to help get the best results.

Engraving help problems with light colours

Hi I’ve been practicing no end but I only have a 20w diode so it takes ages to get anywhere. Basically any light colours are washed out to the point there is no detail to them I’ll attach some pictures. I use imag-R change the size to what the job is. Use new wood. Import to lightburn select pass through , then this is where the finished product looks nothing like the preview. Here are some pictures. [received_672105017028132] [20201202_160226] [20201202_160304]

[onyxius (David Goodwin)]

Thank you all for the support and feedback and getting me back on track. I greatly appreciate it.