Crop the area of the scanned photo you wish to use.
Reduce or enlarge to 700 - 750 pixels wide.

Reduce the brightness by approximately 20% and increase the contrast by approximately 80%.

Reduce the number of colors to 16.

Windows colors
Nearest colors

Increase contrast by approximately 100%.

Decrease the number of colors to 2

Red components
Weighted
Nearest color

Connect any "floating" or unconnect areas shown in black.
Your pattern is basically completed, or you can continue to produce the type of patterns featured here at Jack-O-Lantern.com.

Create a negative of the image.

Increase the number of colors to 16 Million. This allows you to access your graphics program's advanced features.

Select:  Image / Edge Filters / Trace Contour

Reduce the number of colors to 16 (to save file size).

Windows'
Nearest color

Fill in the enclosed areas with grey.

Please note the graphics have been reduced from their original size, and the steps are presented as an example of one particular pattern. Each photograph will require slightly different color, brightness and contrast settings. Please also note that not all photographs are suitable for this process.