How I make Photo Cutouts

	It all begins here when I receive your photo attached to an e-mail or when I scan a photo you mailed to me. Using Photoshop... and 5 other image editing programs...I retouch your photo (if needed, and almost all do, to be sure the file will produce a high quality print. If the file has been compressed by your e-mail program so it sends fast, it won't print as well as we want. In that case, I'll be contacting you and asking you to resend using this upload page . If we still don't have a good image, I'll ask for a different photo. I won't make a poor quality cutout.
~ FREE photo touchup ~ Once we have a good photo to work with, I adjust brightness, contrast, color balance, sharpness, etc. I use color management throughout the process so the colors that come out of the printer are exactly the colors I see on the color calibrated monitor. This photo editing is FREE. I do it for me as much as for you because I want my product to be as good as I can make it. I simply refuse to make a cutout I'm not pleased with. And this all gives me an excuse to do what I love and that is photo editing.
Click the picture to see more about this printer. I love it!	~ Highest quality printing ~ After I'm satisfied with the image quality I print it on a special professional photo printer using pigmented inks, "Rated for 200 years". I'm testing that claim, check back in 200 years. I use the best quality photo paper available and then I heat apply a plastic laminate film to protect the image. Your cutouts can be washed with soap and water on a cloth.
I use a secret proprietary process to attach the print to the acrylic or oak material.
This is the scroll saw I have used for years. Click the picture to learn more.	And now comes the hard part - cutting around the exact edge of the subject we want to make into a photo cutout. Using a full-spectrum light 4" from the print surface, I guide the photo into the blade which is about as thick as a line drawn with a fine ballpoint pen. The most difficult part is determining where someone's black hair ends and their shadow begins!
After the scroll saw work is completed, and double checked, the sculpture is mounted to a base . If it's an ornament, a gold-like ribbon is attached. If it's a refrigerator magnet, a strong magnet is attached so it will actually hold Junior's artwork. A photo POPout is made the same way as a photo cutout, except the image is printed twice. One copy is attached to the material and becomes the background. The other copy is also attached to the material and is cut just like you see above, and then glued onto the background so the subject POPs out.