Laser etched glass photographs

Steviemoyne

Hi,

This might be the wrong place to be asking however here goes.

I'm thinking of getting a photo laser etched into glass however the prices seem fairly expensive.

Does anyone know of any cheap places to get this done or could you possibly tell me why it's so expensive just for my own curiosity.

Not afraid of buying abroad, can use parcel motel or similar to save on postage if necessary.

Only thinking of getting 1 photo done and would preferably want it done on rectangular thin glass as opposed to a block of glass.

Thanks in advance.

Wabbit Ears

Probably because the machines are expensive and the demand isnt high.

powerj

Hi Stevie,

What kind of quality are you talking about, size and price have you been quoted?

Laser engraver can engrave onto plastic, Wood, Mirror, Leather and glass. Stronger lasers can etch onto material such as metal.

Some schools and colleges have these and may be able to sort you out. If you are close to Limerick I might be able to help you out depending on the size. however quality is only 600dpi.

John

Steviemoyne

First just a note: I didn't intent this thread as a "Photographic Services Offered/Wanted" thread.
It was more a "Does anyone know of any website" type of thread. That's from the assumption, and in my experience, that everything can be gotten cheaper online.

Anyway back to my reply...

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Probably because the machines are expensive and the demand isnt high.

Can understand the equipment being expensive. The actual service seems pretty expensive too, €47 for an A6 seems to be the cheapest I've found, except they only appear to do a small section of the middle of the A6 which doesn't suit. There are numerous alternatives I could spend €47 on.

powerj wrote: »

What kind of quality are you talking about, size and price have you been quoted?

Quality is only 600dpi.

Hi Powerj,

Quality, just enough to pick out a person from the shoulders up or a family portrait. Size wise probably A6.

600 dpi seems to be photo quality. Would quality suffer depending on the type and quality of picture? Eg: A single person as opposed to a family of 5 taken on an 8mp camera? I know nothing about photography.

I intend it as a gift for someone. Would you feel that 600dpi, based on the above, would be adequate quality?

Sorry for all the questions, just asking since you seem to be familiar with the process.

powerj

Hi Stevie,

600 dpi would be good enough depending on the picture. With engraving a black and white picture turns out a lot better then a picture with with lots of similar colours/tones. What usually happens is the image is rastered more intensely where the darker tones are. In some cases if the contrast is not clearly visible then it can turn out as one big square with the background, middleground and foreground not distinguishable.

€47 is pricey unless the quality of service you are getting is top class. To raster an image size A6 should take somewhere between 5-15mins depending on image content.

Hope this is of help.

John

powerj

I dont think I can post a link as I have not posted 50 times yet but if you go to epiloglaser . com
there is some really good examples and explanations on glass applications.

Steviemoyne

Hi John,

Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it.

Aye, thought it was a tad on the high side, though the main issue was that they actually only filled a small portion of that A6 space. I was more after a full / almost full rendering in an A6 space.

I may keep searching!