Custom Guidlines
Basic explanation of custom woodworking process
Here at BlueDawg we will try nearly any project. There are however some guidelines you can follow to help us provide you with the best finished result possible.
BlueDawg can custom engrave your photo on a sign of your choosing. We can add your photo to an existing project, like a leashboard as an example, or create a custom project all your own. We have two ways to reproduce your photo. One manual process ( while more laborious, this is our preferred process) that will be explained below and an automatic process. The two differ slightly in the final product produced but many of the requirements in regard to picture quality and style are same.
The manual process.
The manual process REQUIRES GOOD QUALITY originals.
The manual process involves us manually altering/editing your photo in its bitmap form (.jpeg - .Gif-.png-.tif among others are all what is called "bitmap" formats) to prepare the photo to be "traced" and changed into a vector graphic necessary for carving/etching. Once traced the photo will be further edited/cleaned to remove "noise" and "junk vectors" from the vector image for the best possible result. (Large projects may incur a programing/design surcharge. We will notify you of this before beginning your project)
-Low quality photos (cell phone, blurry photos etc) will produce low quality results.
-High quality photos will produce better quality results.
-Photos will need to have even lighting (no deep shadows or obscurity) across the subject to be carved. (example below)
-Single subject photos are best. Photos with multiple pets and highly complex background will look "messy" when carved. 
As you can see the above original picture is a single subject, and evenly lit (no deep shadows) across the subject to be carved.
Below is an example of a picture that would NOT ABLE TO BE CARVED due to the deep shadow on the lower part of the photo.
The automated process.
The automated process will more accurately reproduce photos of marginal quality. When using this process we are more able to MANUALLY EDIT marginal photos and still obtain a quality/passable result. However, this process is still limited by the quality of the original photo. As with the manual process, we cannot make your original be more than it is.
BlueDawg will work with you to try and make whatever improvements we can to your original to make your photo and project workable. Some originals will not be editable to make a passable project. In these instances we will notify you. We can submit output samples (like the lower photo in the 2 examples above) for your approval.
Thank you for working with us to try and provide you with the best possible result for your custom project.