Photo Images
For a highly personalized memorial, add a photograph. There are several different ways to do this. Choose the method best suited to the photographs for your headstone or memorial that you have available and also that will be within the guidelines of your cemetery’s regulations. Once you have selected your photos it is time to contact American Headstones at (949) 228-7055 and customize your headstone or memorial photographs for your loved one.
Color Porcelain Photo
American Headstone Company manufactures our own porcelain photographs. We control the process from photo scanning to firing the porcelain tiles. We offer photo enhancement, background removal, Oval, square, rectangle, Heart shapes and circular choices in both color and Black and white. For flat granite grave markers we engrave an area in order to recess the porcelain photo. The photo lies flush with the granite. Photos may also be attached to flat bronze memorials or vertical monuments with a glue down frame or photo ring. We offer porcelain photo rings in varied sizes.
Photographs for Memorial Headstones
For a highly personalized memorial headstone, families can have a porcelain photo installed on to the face of their memorial marker. There are several different ways to do this. Throughout the years we have found what we consider the best option for families. We consider the best option for clarity and vividness of colors can only be achieved through porcelain printing. There are numerous processes used to do this with countless companies all claiming to do it the best but here at American Headstone company we have found that the manufacturer that stands above the rest is Paradise Pictures. We are a proud certified retailer for Paradise Pictures porcelain cameos. The proprietary process they use to manufacture these photos has time and time again produced the best original picture quality that represents the photo supplied in terms of color and clarity.
In order to follow the regulations of all cemeteries here in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego County we here at American Headstones Company make sure that each granite headstone has a cavity engraved into the face of the stone to insure that after installation the cameo is flush with the surface of the granite. For bronze memorial headstones, we incorporate a ring in the design that is the same height as all the text. When installed the top of the photo is flush with the top of the lettering. These are done to help reduce the risk of the photo being hit by a lawnmower blade from cemetery maintenance crews after the headstone has been installed into the ground.
Sizes and Shapes Available for Memorial Headstones
Here at American Headstones Company we offer the following sizes and shapes for finished porcelain photos to be installed into our headstones.
Ovals:
- 1.75 x 2.25”
- 2.25 x 2.75”
- 2.65 x 3.375”
- 3.25 x 4.25”
- 3.75 x 5”
- 4.25 x 6”
- 5 x 7”
- 8 x 10”
Rectangles and Squares
- 4×4”
- 4×5”
- 4×6”
- 5×7”
- 6×6”
- 8×10”
- 10×22”
Hearts
- 4×4”
- 6×6”
- 8×8”
Warranty
American Headstones Company is able to offer Paradise Pictures manufacturer’s lifetime warranty on all the Paradise Pictures photo we install in your memorial headstone. Although it is impossible for us to offer the service of going out there and replacing the photo, if the photo you have purchased through us is damaged please send us a picture of it and we will mail you out a remake of the original photo. The warranty does not cover a remake if the original order is altered in any way for the remake (no swapping photos to be printed or changing size or changing edits to the photo. It needs to be a remake of the existing file from the original order).
Picking a photo to use
After you have decided to have a photo on the memorial headstone of your loved one the next step is choosing a photo to use. It is extremely important to take the time looking for a good quality photo. You will want one that is clear, has good color, and one that does not have anything blocking portions of your loved ones face, hair or body. You will also want to stay away from photos where the photo graph is already cropped through a portion of the person. If you need to scan a printed photo we recommend scanning the image at 300 DPI (Dots per Inch) or PPI (Pixels per Inch) and saving the image as a PDF and emailing that over.
Photo Cleanup
Although we do offer some basic photo clean up do realize that photo restoration is not our primary business so there is only so much we are capable of doing. You always have the option to take you photo to a professional who knows all the tricks on how to make a photo look as good as possible. We have found that AI also does a wonderful job in doing a lot of photo clean up. We often times use it when the scope of touch ups is outside of our knowledge.