Why do I have to edit pictures before using them for stone engraving?

1. You rarely get a perfect picture. The image you are typically provided with may be old, overexposed, have wrinkles or other imperfections (In the case of a paper photograph), be too dark, too bright, too small, etc.
2. Even if you are starting with an image that looks ideal on paper or on the computer screen, image preparation is still required because stone is not paper.
   1. The stone is usually a dark color, and paper is white
   2. The etched image is black and white, while the photograph usually has colors
   3. Stone is not capable of displaying as many halftones as can be displayed on the paper or your computer screen.

What are the typical steps in image preparation for engraving machine?

Most image editing jobs for stone etching involve the following steps.

• Remove imperfections (wrinkles, scratches)
• Crop the image (remove background) – if requested
• Improve the eyes, highlight the transitions – manually
• Color-balance the image (improve tonal range)
• Add halo if required

Sample editing steps:

Original	Sharpen, improve transitions improve eyes, clothing, hair	Color-balance, create oval selection (smooth transition)