Emboss Effect

Drop your photos here: the outlines turn into relief, as if the image were stamped into metal or thick paper. The slider on the picture shows the before and after.

How the relief appears

Light areas of the photo are treated as raised, dark areas as recessed. Slopes facing the light become brighter, opposite slopes darker, and flat areas turn gray. Because of this, the relief comes out strongest where the image has sharp contours: logos, lettering, silhouettes.

Settings

• Stamp gives gray, the photo's own colors, or a metal look: gold, silver, copper. "Paper" gives a light relief, like embossing on a greeting card.
• Relief can be raised or pressed in.
• Strength controls how pronounced the relief is.
• Depth ranges from a thin line along the edges to a wide slope, like a stamp.
• Light angle sets where the light comes from; the default is top left.
• Smooth details removes grain from noise and texture, leaving the large shapes.
• Mix with original lets the photo show through the relief and keeps its colors.

If the relief looks inside out, switch "raised" to "pressed in": the eye expects light from above, and the same relief lit from below reads the opposite way.