If you want to create a 3D image shrine to your loved ones 
while creeping out everyone else in the process, there's a perfect online service out there for it.
Shapeways' Photoshaperprints physical 3D plates made of resin material out of digital pictures submitted by customers. The goal is to be able to own a lively multi-dimensional image, but the end result is ghostly and bizarre.
In order to make the 3D plate, the Photoshaper machine converts a photo into a black and white contrast image. Its software then defines dark tones in a picture as 'thicker' and lighter ones as thinner, so that when the super-thin layers of resin are piled on top of each other, the detail between contrasts is distinguishable. In order for the 3D effect to work, it needs to be held up to a background light to highlight the layers of resin (this is also why the material is white) .
But just like framing a negative of a loved one would be weird, the Photoshaper's final image practically forces you to have a constant light or candle behind it. Without it, it looks like a snowy positive-contrast cemetery tablet. But as seen in the picture to the right, the candles add a religious, worshipful tone to the pictures.
I think this is fine if you want to create interesting 3D artwork for your local church, but it's creepy if you use it for your own children, who are hopefully alive and bouncy, and don't need to be represented in a ghostly, grave presentation.
Source: shapeways, gizmodo
