3d photo printing with lithopane stereolithography

How to print 3d photos from plastic

The main idea:

3d printers let you create anything out of plastic, once you have a 3d model for it.
Any photos have bright & dark edges in it. So the idea is to scan that photo & create thicker vs thinner regions of plastic, such that whern printed & light is passed through them, the photo stands out. Once you get the settings right, the results can be pretty cool.

Stuff like this is available on sites like trademe, for example look over here for some practical stuff you can buy.

What you need:

- 3d printer (I use an AM based up! plus 3d printer you can buy from 3d printing systems here)
- White plastic (preferably bright white, colours arent really suited for this stuff)
- Photo2PMesh software

And how the bloody hell do you make it look as good as it should:

Well, not to worry, thats what this post is about.

We cover 2 main areas here., photo 2 mesh software settings, & UP 3d printer quality settings

Please be aware that within reason, each photo will be better with certain specific settings for best effect & what I recommend is not the best for every single photo. but more so a good basic 'default' setting that will do a very good job of most photos you throw at it.

Photo to mesh software settings:

The most important settings are Z height & Mesh height.
My recomendations:
Z Height:                    1.5
Mesh Height:              2.5

Up printer quality settings:

The most important thing is to ensure your orientation is set such that the photo is printed vertically on its thin side edge NOT flat straight, else it will fail.

My recommendations:
Resolution: 0.25 (250 micron)
Fill:            Least density
Speed:       Normal