Routing a photograph

[tom anderson]

this is something i have seen out there but never tried. i have my cad program,wintopo and illustrator 10 if that helps in this process and a scanner of course. just wondering how they get the differnt shading when routing for dark vs. lite areas of the photograph since the wood is the same color all the way thru. are you going back and darkening in with a marker of some sort or is the wood stained first? a novices primer would be great for this technique. thanks in advance.

[jamesgilliam]

Tom, I have tried this on a limited basis, so I don't feel qualified to give advice. If you contact Chris at ShopBot, he has a better knowledge of the process involved. He has router pictures into white translucent plastic, which look rough to just look at, but when held up toa light source, resemble a black and white picture. Another couple of people to contact would be Ron Virrla or Kenny Kennedy, have seen some of Kenny's work, and Ron is well versed in doing this type of operation.

[kerrazy]

i think you convert your photo to black and white and then save it as a .tiff file.
From there ShopBot has a Tiff converter.

I would stain it after it is done carving.

I am not toally sure but i think I am close in the process?
Dale