Phot-o-lantern

Here is a relatively easy way to to take a photo of yourself, a friend, or a random celebrity and carve them into a jack-o-lantern.

The first half of this Instructable will show you how to create a carvable pattern while the second half will give tips on how to carve it into your pumpkin.

**Be sure to come back closer to Halloween to check out some more of my projects for this year.**

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Step 1: Phase 1: Create your pattern

To carve a photo, first you have to find your photo. A good place to start is with photos of yourself, a friend, a boss, or a celebrity. If there is a good amount of contrast or shadow on the face in the photo, the carving process will be much easier.

You will also need photo editing software with some basic layer and brightness/contrast controls. I will be using a trusty old version of Adobe Photoshop. Gimp and other software should work just as well.

susanchen2011 says: Jun 27, 2012. 2:13 AM

delicated

phenoptix says: Nov 10, 2011. 3:11 AM

These are my pumpkins using this technique from 2009 and 2011

SBWillman says: Nov 2, 2011. 1:13 PM

Here ya go!

friendship12396 says: Sep 26, 2011. 4:42 PM

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=harry+potter&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=xooWJM7UJrQ5zM:&imgrefurl=http://www.whitegadget.com/pc-wallpapers/140110-harry-potter-post243843.html&docid=IGHu4NV4-Szj1M&w=1508&h=2100&ei=2gyBTsTOM8TL0QHnyZHbDw&zoom=1&biw=1274&bih=848&iact=rc&dur=103&page=1&tbnh=185&tbnw=133&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0&tx=74&ty=90

would anyone be able to convert this correctly? im not great with photoshop, and id like a professional to help me. It would be great if someone could help me edit this the way he explains, since im only 14 and im new to editing. Thanks in advance!

king kolton9 says: Oct 7, 2010. 5:35 PM

could someone edit these the way he discribes (professionally mind you meaning not by someone who is new to photoshop) i cant download it (my mom wont let me)

http://www.boutiquecalandre.com/images/Vitesse/vit43-24015_DeLorean-BackFuture2.jpg
and
http://mrbarlow.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/back-to-the-future.jpg?w=640
plus could you make them bigger ,like to fit a pumpkin of these Dimensions
Height 17 IN
Width 14.5 IN
(aka this one http://store.funkins.com/funkin-natiello to scale please
thank you

rickharris in reply to king kolton9Aug 26, 2011. 6:19 AM

OK don't say us old people never do anything for you youngsters! :-)

Bear in mind you don't own these images (the originals) but for your own use it should be OK.

These are Jpegs - The back to the future is very complicated I don't see anyone carving that out. But good luck.

timnitro in reply to king kolton9Oct 29, 2010. 8:57 AM

well he gave you the instructable its not that hard just download gimp to your flashdrive

king kolton9 in reply to timnitroOct 29, 2010. 3:32 PM

ok 1 im 11. 2 my mom wont let me (learn to read) seriously you can read my mom wont let me good day

NatNoBrains in reply to king kolton9Jan 19, 2011. 11:47 AM

It's free.

joeman1210 says: Nov 1, 2010. 7:55 PM

Great 'ible!! Thanks to cainunable, it was sunny this Halloween.

cainunable (author) in reply to joeman1210Nov 2, 2010. 4:45 AM

Nicely done.

timnitro says: Oct 28, 2010. 8:33 PM

well hears my template

conrad141 in reply to timnitroOct 30, 2010. 8:55 AM

make sure you don't carve the shadow.

cainunable (author) in reply to timnitroOct 29, 2010. 4:43 AM

Looks great. Be sure to post the pumpkin once you get it carved.

CrLz says: Sep 28, 2010. 8:59 AM

Great Instructable. Thanks for the steps on making the templates, particularly the image editing.

rebeljedi says: Oct 19, 2009. 10:45 PM

This is one I was able to do last year, took me a bit longer having to scrape off so much. In the end when I removed the lightsaber portion as I had previously done with the eyes, the glow form the candle made it all worth it!

CrLz in reply to rebeljediSep 28, 2010. 8:58 AM

Awesome light saber!

kjbrasda in reply to rebeljediOct 30, 2009. 2:22 PM

freakin awesome! good job!

MadBricoleur in reply to rebeljediOct 26, 2009. 9:49 PM

Bloomin splendid!!! that's crazy :)

The force with you, may it be. :D

philthyanimal in reply to rebeljediOct 25, 2009. 2:59 AM

can you send the image that you used? i'd love to recreate it.

rebeljedi in reply to philthyanimalSep 26, 2010. 6:30 PM

The image I cropped from the Clone Wars poster can be downloaded here.

cainunable (author) in reply to rebeljediOct 20, 2009. 5:36 AM

That one looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.

mayday295 says: Jun 1, 2010. 2:10 PM

I had a friend take a professional picture of my pumpkin, so here it is again:

cainunable (author) in reply to mayday295Jun 1, 2010. 3:12 PM

That turned out awesome.

revelae says: Nov 1, 2009. 6:25 PM

"Michael!"

cainunable (author) says: Oct 26, 2009. 9:20 AM

Not sure how many of you are fans, but for those of you who watch the Food Network, I hope you can recognize the face on my pumpkin from this year.

ryugatana in reply to cainunableOct 31, 2009. 1:56 PM

AB IS MY IDOL... btw

mayday295 in reply to cainunableOct 29, 2009. 8:47 PM

Alton brown.... was that his name? IRON CHEF!

Mig Welder says: Oct 30, 2009. 3:39 PM

COOL! I wish I had seen this before lol

guymark says: Oct 30, 2009. 12:53 PM

Wow

You are one seriously skilled / talented person.
Mark

mayday295 says: Oct 29, 2009. 8:50 PM

Well its halloween again, so time for more carvings! Here are my results thanks again to your awesome guide, helped me a lot!!!

mayday295 in reply to mayday295Oct 29, 2009. 8:58 PM

Sorry that picture i just posted didn't turn out well (10mp camera) here is the link for image shack:

http://img3.imageshack.us/i/carvingfinalistmatt.jpg/

Tell me what you thinK!

REDandroid says: Oct 24, 2009. 12:46 PM

This was fun! Thanks for the instructable!

REDandroid in reply to REDandroidOct 27, 2009. 10:03 AM

Guynamedthomas281 says: Oct 26, 2009. 12:55 PM

freakin awesome job man, ill send you some pics of mine when im done

Sunny124613 says: Oct 21, 2009. 6:02 PM

Great Idea
also, i think dwight was
a good choice to be on a pumpkin...

i love the office

blazinmt says: Oct 19, 2009. 7:31 PM

Excellent write up!! I did one of my son and it turned out perfect!! I am no artist either, I just followed the steps and an hour later:

cainunable (author) in reply to blazinmtOct 20, 2009. 5:38 AM

Looks great. What did he think of his face on a pumpkin?

blazinmt in reply to cainunableOct 20, 2009. 8:19 AM

I turned off the lights in the hallway and set it up to show him. He's is only 2 and I was very happy for him to immediately know that it was him! He just said, "It's me daddy!"

blazinmt says: Oct 19, 2009. 7:32 PM

I am now gonna do the whole family since this one turned out so nice! Thank you again! This site is bangin'!