Photo-to-Copper Relief Plaque

Format

Text Parameterized

Inputs

Reference_photo (image) · Required stamped_line (text) · Optional · Default:

Outputs

Finished_plaque_image (image)

Replace the ${…} placeholders with your values before using this prompt. See parameters and defaults below.

Turn the supplied photo into one picture hammered by hand into a sheet of copper, and photograph the finished plaque as a physical object. Use a vertical 4:5 frame. Create one image only: no grid and no before-and-after pair.

THE PLAQUE
A single rectangular sheet of copper, about the size of a book, leans back against a plain plaster wall on a bare wood shelf. Soft daylight rakes across it from one side. The picture covers the whole face of the sheet. The sheet is thin enough to have a slight warp, and one edge reads clearly as an edge, with a short contact shadow beneath it. Two small punched holes sit near the top corners. Nothing else is in the frame.

HOW THE PICTURE IS MADE
Every shape exists only as height. The metal has been pushed out from behind with round punches and then worked from the front, so forms stand proud of the sheet and the spaces beside them sink. Nothing is painted, printed, or engraved as a line.
The raised faces are rubbed back to bare copper and catch the light as warm pink-orange metal. Sunken parts hold a dark brown to near-black patina where the polish never reached. Midtones come from the angle of the surfaces, not from added color.
Overlapping punch facets cover the entire worked area. Each facet is a shallow dish a few millimeters across, with rims that catch the light. Where the metal bends from a raised form down into the sheet, a crease throws a short, hard shadow.
The ground the subject actually rests on, and anything it touches, may also be raised. Everything farther back stays flat sheet, worked with a fine stippling punch so it reads as a matted ground.

WHAT CARRIES OVER FROM THE PHOTO
Keep the subjects of the photo, their number, positions, and outlines. Nothing new appears and nothing is removed. An animal keeps its markings as raised and sunken areas rather than as color. Read the photo's light and dark areas, then raise the light areas and sink the dark ones.
Do not copy the sky, clouds, or distant buildings. Turn them into the flat, stippled ground.

THE STAMPED LINE
Strike one line of small, plain capital letters into the bare lower margin using individual steel letter punches. Let the baseline wander slightly, and let some letters sit deeper than others. The line must read exactly this and nothing else:

${stamped-line:}

The line may contain one to three words, using letters only. If the slot is empty, leave the margin bare.

FAILURE CONDITIONS
1. Any letter, number, logo, signature, date, or watermark anywhere in the frame other than the stamped line is a failure. Turn lettering, plates, and signs that exist in the photo into blank metal.
2. More than three words in the stamped line, any digit in it, or any letter that does not match the supplied stamped line is a failure.
3. A color outside the copper range—including blue, green, pink, bright red, purple, or white—covering more than one-twentieth of the plaque face is a failure.
4. Smooth, continuous photographic shading with no punch facets covering more than one-third of the plaque face is a failure. This must not look like a photograph printed onto metal.
5. Copying the sky, clouds, or a distant view behind the subject instead of using flat, stippled ground is a failure. Any photographic blur is also a failure.
6. A drawn, etched, or burned outline around the subject is a failure. An edge exists only where the metal bends.
7. The number of people, animals, or vehicles must match the photo exactly.
8. At least one plaque edge must be visible. The frame may contain only the plaque, shelf, and wall: no hands, hammers, punches, or second plaque.

IF YOU CANNOT DO ALL OF IT
Prioritize height-only rendering and a copper-only palette. If a face cannot be rendered as raised metal without photographic skin texture, reduce it to three or four flat planes instead of adding texture. If the stamped line cannot be struck cleanly, leave the lower margin bare.