Photographic images on wood

[edbayani]

This is an experiment that goes way back when I was still active in advertising.
I noticed when going over the negatives for platemaking that the photos' screen used specially the straight line screen, I noticed that the individual lines when magnified, had varying widths depending on the darkness and lightness of the image, like, white would be the full width of the line, grey would be thinner and black would be thinnest. This gave me an idea to make this into a less number of lines, about 4 lines per inch to make it wider and experimented in a 30"X40" size of image and printed this on photographic paper full size.
I then numbered the lines and cut the lines individually to make this into a carving guide.
I prepared about a hundred strips of wood, 3/8" X 1-1/2" X 30" and glued the photographic strips to the 3/8" side of the wood. After gluing, I started carving out the black areas and scraped off the remaining photographic strips. After carving them all, assembled the strips consecutively and glued the wood strips on a 30"X40". The result is shown in the attachment. the 1-1/2" deep and the space between strips create a shadow giving a semblance of a photographic image.
The attachment shows the original photo and the wood image.
Each image takes about 3 weeks to finish and to date, I have done about 50 of these as commissioned work, mostly portraits.

[DannyRaphael]

Thanks for sharing this. Facinating concept and imaginative process to yield final results. Not having experience with woodcraft-type projects or tools I would have never thought of this myself.

Well done.

[edbayani]

Thank you, Danny for commenting on my work. I enjoy doing this since one of my hobbies is also wood working and glad that I can combine photography and woodworking to make an image. This is also a product of retirement and old age. I'm 75 :-) but this, photoshop and photography, and this forum, keeps me busy.

[DannyRaphael]

When I departed the workforce a few years ago I too combined two interests: photography (film to that point) and computers (I'd done a lot of mainframe computer programming in the days before Macs and PCs), so these came together more or less during the early years of the digital photography revolution. Add Photoshop, digital art and the pent up hopes of a wanna-be artist and it was the perfect storm for me.

Glad you're able to keep your mind and hands active, keys to enjoying the golden years even more. Keep having fun!

[Tony W]

Very nice work indeed and as I have not seen anything quite like it before I would think quite unique. Very well done and I for one would like to see more of this and perhaps even how it looks when photographed close up from an angle - if you have the time that is

[edbayani]

Thank you Tony W. Yes I think I am the only one doing this, I'll post some as you suggested.
This was featured in the Master Photographer magazine in UK, showing how I do the images.

[jesterjeni]

AMAZING ..ITS DONE WITH LIKE A GAZILLION LITTLE STRIPS?
I wold love toknow more about this

[edbayani]

Yes jesterjeni, it is made up of "gazillion" strips. Actually each Image is made of of 160 strips.

[chet webley]

That, is awesome.

[edbayani]

Thank you Chet!!

[edbayani]

here is how it looks like taken showing the sides.

[tebphotos]

Fascinating concept. Thanks for posting the side view. Helps in understanding the overall impact.

Also, congratulations on combining two different hobbies into one.

Regards, Tom B.

[Tony W]

Edbayani, thanks for posting the side view looks really good. Please post any new work you do I would love to see it

[mnewco]

This is awesome. Beautiful work. I never would imagine all that goes into creating a masterpiece like that. Very nice hobby to have and sounds like you really enjoy it.

I would love to see more of your work.