Copying photo to metal?

I heard there was a process that engraved a negative image onto a piece of metal. This was process was done using some kind of chemicles. If any of you phototechnicians, if that is the correct terminology, could help me find the way to do this, that would be awesome. Thanks.

reply to post by ShadowLife





Hi mate

As far as I know the process called ”etching”, I am not expert on the practical technology but I use it time to time as “digital processing in Photoshop”.

en.wikipedia.org...

I do scrollsaw art and I would love to know how this is done also! I would love to be able to take some of my wildlife photos and scroll them on to tin and such! I found on yahoo search the process is called photogravure. I would put a link but I need to learn to work this site still! lol

Hmm theres a few ways apparently.

Have a look at the threads linked in this engraving forum link

I have done it a few times. Look up "acid etching" on Instructables.com. Also Google "printed circuit board etching" to get the proper chemicals to do it.
there are also home brewed ways to make the chemicals

The process is called photo etching, I did it a time or two in college and on a few sculptures.

You can buy the chemicals needed at any good photography store. Not like Ritz' but any store that sells development.

The process is like this:

1. Take a photo, save the negative (or have a negative made) then make a Slide out of it.
2. you will need a photo box, you can make one or buy a sort of tent to go over the metal piece.
3. You will need photo-reactive acid, can't remember the kind. Look for photo engraving acid.
4. In complete darkness, flash a strong light through the slide at the top of the box, and it will project onto the metal and the photo-reactive acid and it will begin to etch into the metal.
5. Wash the metal thoroughly with detergent and water, rinse completely
6. Repeat until metal is etched deep enough.

tips: some metal works better than others. Copper and Aluminum etch really well, steel and iron take forever and get blurry but it is possible. If done with confidence and very precise you can get as much depth as the original photo with each pass. But one thing I've found, if the photo has alot going on, you won't get the results you hope for as anything of similar chroma (basically light and darkness) will be on the same level in the metal, so you might want to go into photoshop with the picture and dull down anything that you dont want etched in the foreground. Keep in mind anything that is light or white will be etched in, and anything that is black will be left alone. The greys in between will determine how deep (or how fast) the acid etches, and yes you can use a color negative, but you need to use a negative if you want the image to look like a photo. If you use a positive, it will look like a negative.

That's it, not much to it. But I would go for good equipment. It can cost a bit but worth it.

Cool thanks to all of you. I'm for sure going to try it at some point in time. I just happened to have seen it on TV and thought, that would be cool to do. Thanks again.