Photograph a Hammered Copper Relief

Format

Text Parameterized

Inputs

reference_photo (image) · Required engraving_text (text) · Required

Outputs

finished_plate_photograph (image)

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

Transform the supplied reference photo into a hammered copper relief on a single plate, then photograph the finished plate as an object. Create one image in a vertical 4:5 aspect ratio. Do not make a grid or a before-and-after pair.

## The plate
Show one book-sized rectangular copper plate leaning against a plain plaster wall on a bare wooden shelf. Soft daylight strikes it obliquely from one side. The relief covers the entire front of the plate. The plate is thin and slightly warped; make at least one edge clearly visible, with a short contact shadow beneath it. Include two small holes near the upper corners. Nothing else is in the scene.

## How the image is made
Represent every form using height alone. The forms are pushed up from behind with a rounded punch and refined from the front, rising above the plate while the neighboring areas are recessed. Do not paint, print, or engrave any lines.

Burnish the raised surfaces to reveal bare copper, catching the light as warm, pinkish-orange metal. The recessed areas receive no direct light and retain dark-brown to nearly black patina. Create midtones through the angle of the surfaces, not through added colors.

Cover the worked surface with overlapping hammer marks. Each mark is a shallow dish a few millimeters across, with a rim that catches the light. Where a raised form slopes down into the plate, show a crease that casts a short, crisp shadow.

The ground beneath the subject and anything touching the subject may also be raised. Everything farther behind it remains flat plate, rendered as a fine stippled, matte ground.

## Preserve the reference photo
Keep the subjects’ identities, count, positions, and contours as they appear in the reference photo. Do not add or remove anything. Preserve an animal’s markings as raised and recessed areas, not as color. Read the photo as light and dark: raise the lighter areas and recess the darker ones.

Do not transfer skies, clouds, or distant buildings. Render them as a flat, stippled ground.

## Optional inscription
In the empty lower margin, punch a single line using individual letter steel stamps. Keep it small and in plain, unadorned uppercase letters, with a slightly uneven baseline and some letters stamped deeper than others.

If an inscription is provided, it must read exactly: ${engraving-text}

Use only English words written in the alphabet, with one to three words total. If no inscription is provided, leave the margin blank.

## Failure conditions
1. No text, numbers, logos, signatures, dates, or watermarks may appear anywhere except in the inscription. Any lettering, plaques, or signs in the reference photo must become blank metal.
2. The inscription must not exceed three words, contain numbers, or differ from the text provided above.
3. Colors outside the copper range—such as blue, green, pink, vivid red, purple, or white—must not cover more than one twentieth of the plate’s front.
4. Smooth, continuous, photographic shading without hammer marks must not cover more than one third of the plate’s front. This is a relief, not a photograph printed on metal.
5. Do not transfer a sky, clouds, or distant landscape behind the subject instead of using a flat, stippled ground. Do not include photographic blur.
6. Do not draw, engrave, or add jittering outlines around the subject. Boundaries appear only where the metal changes plane.
7. The number of people, animals, and vehicles must match the reference photo.
8. The plate’s edge must be visible somewhere in the image. Show nothing besides the plate, shelf, and wall: no hands, hammers, punches, or second plate.

## If every detail cannot be achieved
Prioritize the height-only relief and copper-only color. If a face cannot be rendered as raised metal without photographic skin texture, simplify it into three or four flat planes rather than adding texture. If the inscription cannot be stamped cleanly, leave the lower margin blank.