photo to pattern question

[agi]

I would like to ask those of you who have already made a chart from a photo. What is the trick? Are there some important aspects of the photo you must have so it works?

I have been trying to do this with PCStitch Pro but Somehow I can't. Usually the chart is blurred, often you can't even see what it is supposed to be.

I know I read somewhere some Photoshop tricks about the number of colours and pixels and whatnot but I didn't know Photoshop then so I didn't save them. Not that I know it now, but I can use it for simple things.

So, what is the required pixel number of the photo? Do you change the photo before sharting? Does it matter if the chart is big or small?

Any advice would be welcome.

[Mabel Figworthy]

The first thing I usually do is make sure the photo has good contrast, and is a little brighter in colour than you want the final pattern to be, as I've found the patterns generally to be a bit muddy if you don't.

If you are interested only in part of the photograph, isolate it from its background before importing it into the program -- the more the program has to convert, the more colours it is likely to want to use; and if you set a limit on the number of colours (which is a good idea, as the program will quite happily go for 150 colours, most of which are indistinguishable shades of grey or brown) you want those colours to be used for the bit you want, not for some background that you are going to remove anyway.

If you want the chart to be smallish (say no more than 150 stitches wide), don't import a 5MB, 2500-pixel photograph -- you'll usually end up with a blurry chart. I've found that it often works best if you save the photograph to the size you want the chart t be, so if you want a chart that is 200x350 stitches, crop and resize the photograph beforehand until it is 200x350 pixels.

And then you'll probably have to work on the chart, delete and add some stitches, "merge" colours which are really too similar to tell the difference, etc.

Hope this helps!

[Rose]

Very good info Mabel.

Agi with PC Pro I have found that you really have to limit it to a reasonable amount of colors or it really gets carried away. Even a very simple pattern will come up with 50+ colors so limit your color #'s. Also the size will make a huge difference in the sharpness of the pattern and you may have to increase the overall size of the pattern to get just the right look. A bit large then you originally envisioned maybe in order.

Good luck Agi.

[agi]

Oh, thank you, this was the type of info I had in mind - thanks a lot.
I will have to do some more serious playing next weekend.