This lantern was quite an experiment. Between trying to shine light through an engraving and rastering images over kerf bends, it was never going to be perfect. The light really doesn’t come through the wood at all, only through the bending, so I left the bottom off for more light and better access. One of the issues i had was, while the images came out in great detail, after a point it was the same color no matter how deep it was cut. A lot more tweaking would have had to be done to get it right. I think the pictures still came out well on the bends without having to do any extra stretching or compressing in the image. It fit together relatively well, some filing had to be done but that was likely due to cutting it out of severely warped plywood.
I am struck by how even though you were having trouble making the image visible, I can still easily distinguish what the picture is. Did you try engraving the other pictures that were in the design? If so, how did those come out?
Even though the light is not shining through the lantern all the way, it still looks really good with the light shining out of the kerf bends. The resolution of the pictures still looks great too!