Photo on mirror is beyond me! can any one help

[Dan Hintz]

SCOTT -
Okay - here's one example. (I'll share with you - just hoping your business isn't near mine.) I engrave photos into bark-trimmed plaques which cost me 'bout $3.50 ea. I sell the completed plaque for $49.95 - believe that to be a 92% gross profit margin? (generally takes me 'bout 30 minutes, or so, to work on the photo.) Also, I do photos on Alder plaques, granite, etc. at the same general margin. Don't know what you mean by "in less than an hour"? - my customers are expecting "weeks"; surprised when they get my call a day, or two, later. Also: don't understand the trouble you have "scanning/enlarging" customers' photos? - sounds like you just hate doing photos at all. ? And the "1970's" issue? well, guess that's just 'matter of your skills with your photo-program. ? If I can help you in some way, I sure will. (I'll try to post 'picture of one of my plaques.)

Bill

Some people can make this work for them, particularly if photo editing is a large part of their business (muscle memory being what it is). But I always question how long people think they spend working on an item versus the time they actually spend working on it.

From the moment you pick up the phone, receive an email, or smile as they walk through the door, the clock has started. You dink around with the person for 10-15 minutes getting a feel for how they want things done. You kill 5 minutes on small talk when they come to pick it up, or package up their item for shipping. And you see where this list is going. What people imagine is 45 minutes actually turns into 1.5 hours after everything is truly clocked, similar to the people who swear they only ate 800 calories at that last meal, but adding up all of the little things (like dressing on the salad, gravy on the steak, etc.) shows they actually had closer to 1,200 calories. You don't recognize it until someone points it out or you're forced to pay specific attention to it.

[Bill Stearns]

SCOTT - DAN
I mostly stick with my (stocked) bark-trimmed planks - 'though people do periodically bring in their own wood. I have to turn down jobs 'cause of size, or grain etc. Still, when you need sales much as I do, I first look for solutions! i.e. A local craftsman was hired to produce dozens of cutting boards made from Tamarac - wanted his customer's logo engraved. Tamarac too grained for regular text - I used the 3-D engraving idea. (boxing the logo; the logo standing out.) - on the display side, of course. (bless those people who think of what I do as "wood burning".)

As for the "actual amount of time" we invest in meeting customer's needs? - for sure, time management is key! Things like "packing/shipping" can be incorporated into our pricing. "Dinking 'round understanding a customer's needs", well, not so much. What business isn't faced with this? (Ok - maybe, a mortician?) Just once, would like to see someone try to impose a "chit-chat fee". Me? I consider chit-chat as an opportunity to "bond" with my customer. Heck, I'm not a McDonald's drive-thru. (Still, Dan - you're right! - we definitely have to watch ourselves - time spent.)

One thing I've learned: those wood craftsmen who bring in items for engraving - wanting a "sample" engraved - saying they're gonna be producing, and selling, hundreds! - I don't fall for this anymore! I charge what I need up front; offering to deduct their "sample" cost from their follow up orders of hundreds. (rarely to I see 'em again; okay with me.)

Have 'great day, guys! (and gals.)

Bill

[Bill Cunningham]

I charge on average $1.20 per sq. Inch, and in the case of 3mm Baltic birch, glass or mirror, that price includes the substrate. Some products require an additional $25.00 minimum photo conversion charge depending on the quality of photo I receive from the customer. Photos are my favorite thing to engrave/etch and I rarely have a customer balk at the price. If they do, they really can't afford my work anyway. I would rather turn a job down cold, than work from a poor quality customer supplied photo that I know is going to look bad to me, even if the customer likes it. I'm my own worst critic, and my name is on the back so they, and anyone else that see's it knows who did it.

[Chuck Stone]

I love doing the mirrors. I don't use anything but Photoshop for image prep, and Corel
for output. (invert, convert to 1 bit bitmap using Jarvis, adjust the levels as needed)
But I've been in Photoshop for years, so something like this is pretty straightforward
for me. I get a 2 pack of mirrors for $10 and get $45 for engraving one. I rarely spend
more than about 10 minutes editing, and that's usually putting a border around someone
to set them apart from a background or maybe adding some texture to something that
would just look too plain if I left it alone.
The biggest drawback for me is the inconsistency of the mirror backing. You might have
to run a second pass to clean up 'stuff' left on the glass.. even though the other mirror
in the same package came out perfectly fine..

[Isaac Clarke]

I love doing mirrors, they cheap and great to work with:

bob.jpg

They cost me £1 each.

[Michele Welch]

Dang y'all, I'm just so jealous. I've tried numerous different photos on mirrors and wood and just don't get anything but crappy output. I've read so much my eyes are batty and nothing seems to work. I am assuming some of it is the way I'm processing the image and the fact that I don't have a high quality laser and it just isn't giving me the results I expect. But I so enjoy reading all of your advice and pictures of finished products. I'm not Corel based, which seems to be part of my problem, but I just don't see the cost advantage to moving to Corel just for photos when Illustrator works well for everything else and I already own it and know it.

Keep the advice coming and forgive my stupidity if I ask the same questions over again.

[Isaac Clarke]

Dang y'all, I'm just so jealous. I've tried numerous different photos on mirrors and wood and just don't get anything but crappy output. I've read so much my eyes are batty and nothing seems to work. I am assuming some of it is the way I'm processing the image and the fact that I don't have a high quality laser and it just isn't giving me the results I expect. But I so enjoy reading all of your advice and pictures of finished products. I'm not Corel based, which seems to be part of my problem, but I just don't see the cost advantage to moving to Corel just for photos when Illustrator works well for everything else and I already own it and know it.

Keep the advice coming and forgive my stupidity if I ask the same questions over again.

I use photoshop, nothing else

[Chuck Stone]

You can do it with Photoshop only, I just prefer the dithering options in
Corel to the sucky ones in Photoshop.

[AL Ursich]

Another thinking outside the box is to convert the photo in a program that makes the photo into line art and engrave that...

Great Lakes NTC 1985

[Chuck Stone]

AL.. I'll sometimes use Akvis Sketch for those photos that just aren't going
to look right as a photo. While the brain might not be forgiving of errors in
a photo, it may 'relax the rules' when looking at a charcoal sketch or a
pencil drawing. Some of the 'cutline' filters work well for that too.. making
the image look like a woodcut.
Especially helpful with out of focus pics, or when someone wants a large
engraving from a thumbnail sized digital image that just isn't going to hold
up.