How to Quickly Get a Photo Ready for Etching on the Laser Cutter

In this tutorial I will show you how to take a photo you found on google and get it ready to be etched onto a piece of wood using a laser cutter. It may seem like a lengthy task but it is surprisingly easy.   

Try and use some reclaimed wood like I did. Stay green my homies! 

I love Leonardo da Vinci. I found this sketch he made. This will be the photo that we are going to be etching onto the piece of wood.You want to look for a photo that has the figure or image drawn in black. You can also use photos that are color but its a little more toying around in photoshop that you will have to do. 

You will want to open the photo in Photoshop or other image editing program. 

Go to Image>Mode>Grayscale

This is the first step to getting it ready for the laser

Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast 

Play with the settings until you get a photo that is all black and white. A little gray is okay. It just wont etch as deep as the black. 

You will open the file in Adobe Illustrator. 

For this I am going to be just making a small necklace. 

I made the cut lines and now all we have to do is send this to the laser cutter now and we will have this one of a kind necklace! 

I made this necklace at TechShop 
Check them out if you haven't already! 

http://techshop.ws/
Also please visit my Etsy shop and view some other pieces that my beautiful girlfriend and I have made
http://etsy.com/shop/sabotagestudios
Enjoy! 

I have included the file if you have access to a laser cutter.