Google Nik Plugin Collection for Free!

If you've been doing photography post processing using Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop you're likely aware that you can use third party plugins (little software applications that run inside of another application), and if you've investigated them at all, you're probably aware of the Nik plugin collection. 

Google announced on 3/14/2016 that you could get the full Nik plugin collection for free (at: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/)! It had been offered at $149 for the package so that made a pretty good deal! Note that a company named Nik created the software. Google purchased Nik on approximately 9/17/2012.

Superstition Mountains, Apache Junction, Arizona
Processed with Adobe Photoshop and Nik Collection

I have been mostly offline for a good number of weeks due to illness. Nothing horrible but it kept me inactive (I've had a sinus problem since December and had to have surgery to clear it up). In my down time - time that I haven't really shot any photographs - I have downloaded the Nik collection and have been learning it.

Prior to installing the Nik collection, I was pointed to a couple of photography web sites and YouTube videos that I really enjoy. They were great to watch while laid up taking care of my sinus. First, I started watching videos from "The Slanted Lens"(https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSlantedLens).  I was searching for information on starting and running a photography business and found I enjoyed the sometimes quirky videos. They have a lot of information that seems to resonate with me and it's presented well in my opinion. I know that some people like different types of instructional videos but the ones I watched seemed like they were well thought out and presented by an adult. 

Yep, I am a grumpy curmudgeon but I don't think it's for no reason. I am not fond of the current trends of not providing help or information about a product, the poor grammar, or the overall lack of professionalism. The Slanted Lens videos I watched did NOT have those problems.

Further, Jay P. Morgan pointed me to another web site that I also highly recommend, "F Stoppers". I especially enjoyed the videos with Elia Locardi who's landscape photography resonates with me and is the kind of photography I'd like to achieve. I suggest watching the "Critique the Community" with Elia as well as the "Behind the Scenes" of the making of the Landscape and Cityscape tutorials that they offer. I haven't purchased them myself (they're $300 each) but I'm tempted to. 

I did find other videos offered by B&H Photography with Elia discussing post processing and that he, along with many others, like the Nik plugins for various editing functions over the standard Adobe functionality. I have heard about the plugins for some time and have been eyeing them but hadn't shelled out the money. When I heard they were free I couldn't wait to try them.

There are seven different plugins in the collection (you used to be able to purchase them separately): 

• Analog Efex Pro - various effects to simulate film
• Color Efex Pro - many various effects ranging from subtle to over the top
• Dfine - noise reduction that many photographers prefer over Adobe
• HDR Efex Pro - HDR processing of multiple or a single image
• Sharpener Pro - actually two different processors - a "RAW" sharpener and an output (e.g. Display/Monitor or Print) sharpener
• Silver Efex Pro - one of the most popular black and white conversion processors
• Viveza - targeted tone and exposure control 

The plugins all offer "control points" or "U Point" technology to allow you to control what part of an image is affected by a plugin. This is different than Adobe Photoshop where you control the affected area using masks which can be troublesome at times (like when selecting hair or trees). This same technology is in the Nikon Capture NX 2 software so I was already familiar with it and frankly, since I rarely use Capture NX 2 any longer, I've missed the "U Point" ease for controlling processing.

There are a lot of good videos on YouTube concerning using the collection, including videos put out by Nik itself (I'm not sure if they were done before Google bought them or after wards).

I find that they do offer a wider variety of processing than Lightroom. You might be able to do the same things in Photoshop but not as easily. I have used the plugins from both Adobe applications. I seem to prefer Photoshop because it seems more seamless, at least in operation. In Lightroom each time you open one of the plugins it generates a TIFF file to send to the plugin. When it does this you have options for the TIFF file, one of which is to set the resolution. I always set it to 300 DPI but it's not sticky so the next time I open a plugin I have to remember to set it back to 300 DPI. The Photoshop versions don't do this.

I too like the noise reduction on most of the images I've tried it on better than the Adobe version. It just seems better. And, you can target it if desired.

The HDR is great. I still wish you could do some things such as exclude an image from the stack without having to close the app and starting over. I use Photomatix too but I prefer the Nik tool. And you can use it to try to bring out detail in a single image (maybe Photomatix supports that but I've never tried it).

The Color Efex Pro is the biggie, though. You can modify your photograph in many different ways (there are 55 separate "filters") for simple correction and enhancement to very creative and distinctive processing.

I'm enjoying the presets and working with them to learn them. I'm not a huge Google fanboy but these plugins are great. The downside is that they're likely to not have any future updates or improvements but they do so much already that you can't easily do with the straight out of the box Adobe software that, for a while anyway, I'm very pleased and recommend getting them yourself!

The picture at the top of the page was processed using various Nik plugins.

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - 11 Noob Piloting Tips



DJI Phantom 3 Advanced
and DJI Backpack

I've had the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced drone for a few weeks now and haven't done much except watch YouTube videos and practice flying with it. In large part it's because I've been battling a sinus infection for about 2 months and it's kept me from getting out much. I've flown in my back yard (tight quarters), in the green area of my housing community (better), and at a couple of places in the desert (the best).

You'll see people say it on YouTube - if you fly a drone you're going to crash it. I have twice now. The first time actually roughed up the expensive gimbal ($409) and slightly bent it. The bend doesn't affect it much, it's maybe 1 degree out of perpendicular. The second time chipped a prop and loosened one of the rubber gimbal mounts.

I did fly through my three batteries today and had a pretty good time practicing some things so I thought I'd share what I've experienced so far with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. Some of these things won't apply if your copter doesn't have all of the same features such as the warnings, return to home, GPS/GLONASS tracking, etc.

1. I purchased a gimbal guard but frankly I haven't used it much. I bought the DJI Phantom 3 backpack and you can't put the copter in the backpack when the gimbal guard is installed. Where I've been practicing the ground is pretty level so the guard isn't really necessary. I think it was an impulse buy after my crash that scratched up the camera and even if I'd had it on during that crash I'm not sure how much good it would have done.
2. Practice flying in large, open areas without fences (like brick walls common in Phoenix, AZ or weeping willows like in my back yard). That way you've got plenty of room to recover from losses of orientation which is what caused both of my crashes.
3. Make sure you let your battery levels go down so that you can get used to keeping calm and collected while alarms are going off on your $1,000 device. My first crash was also due to experiencing the alarms for the first time and worrying about what was potentially going to happen instead of maintaining control.
4. You're not supposed to ever fly over busy streets or people and I think that is especially true while you're learning how to fly. Those things can hurt. I was landing on a T.V. tray in my back yard, standing just a couple of feet from the drone. It was down but the motors hadn't stopped and a light gust of wind blew it off the top of the tray. Instinctively I grabbed for it, sticking my hand in the spinning rotors. Ouch and bloody.
5. This is from a YouTube video - if you loose orientation and there is nothing above the drone, give it altitude to help keep it from running in to anything while you figure out which direction it is headed. This is a good reason NOT to fly under trees or other obstacles until you've had some pilot time.
6. This is from a YouTube video - when you fly the drone some distance away it can be easy to loose the orientation. As long as you've stopped flying while you still have some room, you can maneuver the drone to re-establish the orientation. Give it forward pitch (make it go forward). If it goes to the left, give it left yaw (make it turn left) so that it's coming towards you. If it goes to the right, give it right yaw (make it turn right) so that it's coming towards you. In other words, assuming a "normal" joystick configuration, if the copter goes left push the left joystick left, the same direction as the movement of the drone. If it goes right push the joystick to the right. If the drone starts going the opposite direction you've over-corrected and you just need to reverse the joystick direction to match the drift of the drone. This will bring the drone home to you (make minor adjustments as required to keep it headed towards you).
1. If you give the drone forward pitch and it doesn't go left or right then it's headed towards or away from you. Give it some left or right yaw. If it turns the same direction that you steer it's going away from you. If it turns opposite of the direction of the yaw then it's coming towards you.

   

   Intersection where I used "Return to Home"
   Interstate 10 and Loop 303 from 112 feet above ground

    
7. Even with the above tips I had a couple of times today where I hit the "Return to Home" (RTH) functionality because I couldn't tell how much room I had to play with to figure out the orientation. The RTH will cause the drone to point towards you and rise up to a set height before giving itself forward thrust to return to you (or more specifically, to the set home point). In one case I was near an intersection on Interstate 10. I knew I wasn't over it and that there was nothing above the drone. In the other case I realized I'd gotten close to some power lines. In both cases the drone ascended and started heading back. After it got to where I could tell what its orientation was I took over the controls again.
8. Regarding the power lines, it didn't dawn on me until I got close to them (I was still probably a decent distance away but they made me nervous) that there are two problems with high voltage power lines (yeah, the big ones): a) you could run in to them; b) the magnetic field could interfere with the control signal transmissions. I did actually have something minor go wrong with the signals and I had to land and reboot everything. The controller has a switch that makes the camera point down or straight out and it stopped working. The reboot restored the functionality. The controller also has a wheel to control the camera angle and it still worked - it was just the button that stopped working.
9. While learning to fly I shot some video and still images but I don't really care much about them yet. I'm just concentrating on keeping control of the craft for now and the video and images are just a minor distraction.
10. It is hard to see my tablet in the Arizona sky. I could at times use it to determine the orientation of the drone (I was trying to use it) but unless I really got the tablet in some shade it was hard to see it, including when trying to change controls (like go to "waypoint" mode).
11. The videos I shot had a lot of propeller in them. I think this is due to two things: a) there was a bit of wind and I think the craft is running at more of an angle to try to keep it's orientation correct; b) I think it would be good to always drop the camera angle a bit below horizontal to avoid the propellers.

Looking south down Cotton Lane
from 228 feet above ground

I'm partially enjoying this learning process but at the same time it seems like a distraction from photography and that there's a lot of skill required, which in turn requires investing time, and that time is being stolen from practicing photography. For now I'll keep up with it a bit longer but unless I get some pictures from this soon that provide some wow factor I am half of the mindset that I'd have been better served getting that Nikkor 200-500 f/5.6E lens. Maybe once I'm cured from this sinus issue and start actually taking some photographs again I'll find that this thing is cool. Otherwise I may have to take up my co-worker on his offer to purchase it.

Looking West along Interstate 10
and Phoenix Trotting Park from 228 feet above ground

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 4

I had been dealing with a sinus infection that won't go away but I had a work holiday on January 18, 2016 to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. I didn't feel great but forced myself to take the drone out to try to take some photographs and try out some of its more advanced functionality. I had charged the batteries up after flying in the back yard the day before, and I charged my phone up as well.

I travelled to the Gillespie Dam Bridge area where I knew there was some rarely visited space that was fairly free of obstacles. The Gillespie Dam Bridge is a bit west of Phoenix. Heading west on Interstate 10 out of Phoenix, you take the State Route 85, exit of of it on the Patterson Road exit just south of the state prison. Continue to you reach Old U.S. Highway 80 and turn right heading north. You'll come to the bridge and you can't miss the rusty old steel bridge - there aren't many like it in Arizona!

The spot I went to is on the west end of the bridge. There's rarely anyone there and its pretty open. I thought I might be able to fly along the side of the bridge and also fly around the open area.

Per somebodies suggestion I had taken a piece of particle board to use as a take off and landing pad. If nothing else it would give me a place without rocks to land.

I parked and got everything set up. I had the DJI Phantom 3 in its box and the second box for my other battery. You have to have the propellers off when the unit is in the box. I assembled the drone, hooked my phone to the controller, placed the Phantom on my landing pad, turned on the DJI Go application on the iPhone, turned on the controller, and turned on the Phantom. I was excited and ready for my first real flight!

Here's video of my first excursion. This is a reduced size video - not the full HD size.

 

 

As you can see, I didn't have the White Balance set properly. I had it set to Incandescent from the little clips I did in my house and didn't change it when I got outdoors. I had set the DJI Go app to only allow the drone to go out 200 meters which is where I got to alongside the bridge when I stop and turn it around.

I'll admit that I was a bit nervous seeing the Phantom out that far. That's a big part of the $1,000 toy way off in the distance and the YouTube videos of "fly aways" had gotten to me! My old eyeballs could still make out where the drone was but not its orientation. When you push the "pitch" stick (right control) forward to make the drone move forward, it moves forward in the direction of the front of the drone. You can change which direction the front of the drone is facing with the "yaw" stick (left control). The problem is that after a few yaw adjustments it is difficult to tell from a distance which is the front of the aircraft.

And that is a great reason for the "Return to Home" button. The drone figures out on its own which direction to turn and then drives itself right back to you! I tried that out a number of times and frankly it would be hard to get along without it I think. Once you see the drone heading back to you it allows you to take control again if you want and then you can continue to pilot it to where you want it to go next.

I spent time just getting used to the flight controls. I also tried out the "follow me" functionality by having the drone chase me while I walked around. I started trying out the "waypoint" feature but ran out of battery life before I got that done.

Gillespie Dam Bridge from abut 36 feet elevation
Taken with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

On a photographic note, I did take a couple of photographs of the bridge and the dam. I saved them in the DNG RAW format. The histogram looked pretty good. The sky was partly cloudy or partly sunny - not a cloudless sky but also not completely overcast. I thought the daylight was pretty good. I had the ISO set at 100.

Gillespie Dam
Taken with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

When I got home to process the images I was underwhelmed. There was quite a bit of noise in the hills on the right side of the image. I processed them in Adobe Lightroom and it did pretty good but the original just wasn't the same as my Nikon D610. The drone MIGHT be about the same as the Nikon D3200 - which I also don't like any more and rarely shoot with it because of the noise.

I am holding my final judgement on the picture quality of the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced because I've seen decent photographs online taken with it. I want to shoot some more with it and hopefully I'll figure out how to get better images with respect to digital noise. But if they don't clear up I'll be wishing I'd got that Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens instead! I'm already questioning my decision. I didn't want to get involved with video and I don't think I'll become a big quad copter fan, at least not of this big bulky type of  'copter. The FPV Racing Quads might be a different story!

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 3

After ordering the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, and while waiting for it to arrive, I downloaded and read the manual, watched the DJI tutorial videos, and watched a lot of YouTube videos about or taken by drones, especially the DJI Phantom 3.

I felt I had some insight as to how to approach learning how to fly and control the drone. A co-worker of mine, Nick, who has flown RC drones for years gave me some advice. When it arrived and I got the batteries charged and the firmware updated, I was ready.

I went out to my back yard, set up a crate as my heliport, followed the instructions to turn the equipment on, and hit the "Auto Takeoff" button. The drone armed its motors and then launched, hovering about 4 feet above the top of the TV tray! I was airborne!



Birdseye View

Per Nick's advice, I started slowly moving the roll and pitch controls to just go back and forth in one direction, then flying small squares, in both directions. Getting a feel for the response of the aircraft to the controls. Because the DJI Phantom 3 is such an advanced aircraft, I didn't need to control the elevation manually during these exercises. It will hold it's elevation for you. When you move horizontally, however, you do lose some lift so I did bump up the elevation a bit now and then just to keep it about eye level.

Eventually I had it in an open area with no trees above it and I decided to try making it go higher. I went straight up to about 60 feet. It was still easy to see the drone but at the same time a bit nerve-wracking having something that expensive up in the air that high! I made the camera point down and snapped a picture of my dog Elmer and I in our backyard with the dormant grass.

I was able to land before using up all of the battery, and repeated the trials with the second battery. The batteries were used up before you know it, and way before you want them to be used. It would be great to have half a dozen batteries or so, with the capacity to charge multiple batteries at the same time.

I found that using the DJI GO controller application on my iPhone 5 was satisfactory. I could make out what the camera was seeing. I could access most controls okay. Some of the controls use icons that are rendered very small on the iPhone 5 but I have somewhat grown accustomed to that from other iPhone apps and was able to get around it.

I tried my wife's iPhone 6 Plus which has the larger screen and it wasn't significantly better, not to the point where it made me want to upgrade my phone. I was actually thankful about that - it meant I didn't have to spend more money!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is my first encounter with the RC world. I don't know what it would have been like without the auto-hover or video streaming capabilities of the DJI Phantom 3. I do know that those features and others are what people praised in the many reviews I read and what led to their recommendations for this platform and to my purchasing it. I have to say I did not have any trouble flying the drone!

What about some video?

After the batteries had charged again I was able to go through both of them once more in my backyard. This time I captured a video of the adventure. It's not terribly amazing but I edited it a bit by putting some titles on it and one of my songs (the Phantom 3 does NOT capture sound). Enjoy!

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 2

This unit basically requires some sort of intelligent device that you put on the controller such as an iPhone, iPad, or some of the Android devices. They don't mention any way to use it on a Windows device. The device you use can mount on the controller itself and provides access to most of the drone functionality that is not directly related to controlling flight. For example, you can set up the camera, set the maximum distance you want the drone to fly (useful when learning how to fly), and you can see the image from the drone camera itself.

I really hoped I could use my Kindle Fire but there is no native application for it. Apparently you can "sideload" the application which means opening up the Kindle to a non-Amazon application but I didn't read of anyone having great success so at this point I haven't tried it. Instead I decided to just use my iPhone 5 and then I'd determine if I wanted more.

Before the drone arrived I installed the DJI Go Application through the Apple store. Installation was no big deal, similar to most Apple installations.

DJI Phantom 3 Intelligent Flight Battery

When the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced arrived from DJI the first thing that I had to do was charge the batteries. I'd purchased an extra battery so that meant charging the 2 batteries for the drone plus the battery in the remote controller. I can't say exactly how long it took but I'm guessing it was around 3 hours or more before the batteries were charged. It could have been 4 hours. The controller took the longest, perhaps as long as the two batteries combined.

While the batteries were charging I spent my time reading the brief documentation, registering with the FAA, and watching plenty of videos on YouTube. DJI has some introductory tutorial videos just for the Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional model.

The batteries that power the drone are called "Intelligent Flight Batteries". They have some circuitry in them to support and display the status of the battery's cells. For $150 each they better have something in there!

Note that I am talking about things that are new to me. I have some appreciation as to the technology in this drone compared to earlier versions or drones from other companies. The fact that this drone offers 720K video streaming from the drone to the controller, for example, was a $1,400 or so add on to the version 2! Now they're throwing it in for free! That's just one example of what I'm able to take for granted. Another is the way this drone detects and manages its position through GPS and Glonass, resulting in a hover that pretty much stays where you put it when you take your hands off of the controls. Thanks to everyone who came before, developing this technology!

Once I got the batteries charged and turned things on and linked up I was told I had to upgrade the firmware. This is a process that a number of people complain about. I upgraded the aircraft by downloading the update software and installing it on the SD card. I couldn't get the controller to upgrade that way but when your iPhone is attached you can upgrade online if you have internet access through your iPhone.

Still image from DJI Phantom 3 Advanced
Saved as DNG and processed in Lightroom

Finally, I was ready to fly but it was about 2:00 AM and dark outside. Instead I took some photographs and video with the device and familiarized myself with the controls. I couldn't hold back, and installed the propellers and actually lifted off inside the house. It was only a few seconds before my wife came out and, with a pleasant voice, reminded me of the current time and that she had to get up early to take a vehicle in for service. I shut the unit down to wait until the following day...

I transferred the few images to my PC and did a little playing around in Adobe Lightroom with the DNG images. Then I decided to go to bed so I could get up at some point when the sun came up and take the drone outdoors.

Why the "Advanced" model?

DJI makes three variations of the Phantom 3, the "Standard", the "Advanced", and the "Professional". The Standard lacks a number of features that I thought I should get and most of the reviews I read echoed my thoughts. You can review the differences on DJI's website. The Standard has an inferior video downlink, does NOT use the GLONASS satellite system, does NOT have the Vision Positioning System which helps with flight control when satellites are not available (e.g. when you're indoors), does NOT support filters for the camera lens, and has a less capable controller, to name a few items. I was especially interested in the ability to have lens filters. I decided the Standard was not enough for me.

The Advanced and Professional models are identical except for 3 items:

1. The Professional has a camera that will capture 4K video; the Advanced will only capture HD video.
2. The Professional comes with a higher powered 100W charger; the Advanced comes with only a 57W charger meaning that the battery charging time is longer.
3. The Professional has Gold stickers; the Advanced has Silver stickers. Note that the Standard model has Red stickers.

Since I'm not after the camera for video purposes and the still image specifications are the same between the Advanced and the Professional, and the Professional was selling for about $350 more, I decided to go with the Advanced model and use the savings for additional batteries (I will buy at least one or two more I'm betting...) and other accessories. This is the same conclusion I found a lot - unless you're trying to get the best video available, and as long as you have a computer where you can process and/or view that video, the HD format video is still really good.

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 1

I believe I've posted that I've been interested in the new(ish) Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E lens. At the beginning of the new year I almost got it but then another idea started competing - to get a drone that would take decent still photographs. I've had this idea for a while, at least since reading about it in Outdoor Photography magazine.

I did a bit of research and the name that kept coming up in the price range I was interested in was the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. It has a camera on a 3-axis gimbal that shoots amazing HD video and I found a number of decent stills taken with the unit too.



DJI HD Camera on Phantom 3 Advanced

The camera is made by (or at least branded) DJI using a Sony EXMOR 1/2.3" sensor that will shoot 4000 x 3000 pixel images in JPEG and, more importantly to me, DNG! If you don't know, DNG is an Adobe open, lossless RAW image format, supported of course by Adobe Photoshop (PS) and Lightroom (LR). So you get a 12 MP image in a RAW format that can be shot from a very stable platform at up to a (legal) height of 400 feet!

I thought this would open up some new perspectives for images! I also hope to be able to stitch together shots in PS or LR to get larger shots if desired.

I've also mentioned in the past how I have a hard time imparting the sense of height from the top of a ridge or cliff and I have wondered if having some additional height for the camera might make a difference. Alternatively, shooting from off of the cliff might do it too. A drone would allow those types of shots, and many more! Like shooting a saguaro from more than 6 feet off the ground! The rocks at Chiricahua National Monument!

On the other hand, the Nikkor lens has received nothing but wonderful reviews, even from Ken Rockwell, and that's not very often that he likes something! It's reported as having better image quality (IQ) than the competitive 150-600mm lenses from Tamron and Sigma, as well as better build quality than either of those lenses. However, the Nikkor has 50mm less reach on the short end and 100mm less on the long end. The smaller magnification factor allows for tighter tolerances and better performance from the Nikkor - it's just a matter of which is more important, focal range or IQ.

Not long after I got into photography I determined that IQ was my main motivation and trying to achieve sharpness and clarity and color saturation were what I was interested in and still am. Consequently, along with my attraction to genuine Nikon gear, I really wanted this lens.

Around the beginning of 2016, both of these items were hard to find at times, an indication of how popular they are. At the same time, DJI celebrated their 10th anniversary and offered a 20% savings on the Phantom 3. I decided to take the plunge and go for this instead of the lens. They are both in the same ball park as far as cost (the lens was about $1,400; the Phantom 3 Advanced was $799 but with an extra battery at $150 and a case at another $150 you're up at $1,100).

I ordered mine directly from DJI (Adorama and B&H Photo also carry them, with no tax to Arizona residents and free shipping, but they were out of stock). DJI had the same deal (no tax, free shipping). It took about 3 days to arrive and all of a sudden I was a drone owner!

I'll continue my thoughts on my drone and my decision in my next blog or two...

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced w/ Apple iPhone 5

A Bit of Satisfaction and Pride

I got a bit of a return on my photography, one that is pretty meaningful to me! And I'm going to brag about it. One of the biggest paybacks I get from taking photographs is sharing them with others and getting their feedback. I have mostly had good feedback and I really enjoy hearing someone say "that's gorgeous" or "I want one of those to hang in my house". I like seeing the smiles. I like being asked "where is that?" or "how did you do that" (I don't have a lot of these.) I like it when someone says "you could sell those" or "that would be a good postcard".

I have had a good number of those reactions I'm happy to admit, in person as well as from online postings such as Facebook. They always make me feel like I'm figuring out how to take a good photograph. Over the holidays I've had two different instances that bolster my ego regarding photography...

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

I attended a Christmas party for one of the units at work that I do software engineering for. The party included a "white elephant" gift exchange with a limit of $20. I immediately decided to give a framed photograph. I was able to use a discount at Walgreens to get an 11x14 print for about $5.00 and I found a decent, matted frame at Walmart for about $17.00. I cheated a bit but too bad.

I was torn between giving a photograph from Arizona, which would perhaps be more practical for more homes in the Phoenix area, perhaps more likely to fit in with an existing decor and therefore more likely to be hung up. On the other hand, I thought of one of my favorite lighthouse photographs from my Oregon trip in August 2015. I decided to go with the Yaquina Bay lighthouse with a flying seagull in it.

The photograph was a hit, and ended up being "stolen" by the final recipient. She had visited Oregon and just loved it. Almost everyone else said how beautiful it was too. That was very rewarding! My photograph was going to be hung on someone's wall who wasn't a relative!

I had also decided to get myself one of my prints for Christmas (okay, my wife gets to look at it too), in particular I wanted to try a metal print. I chose to print a large panorama from the north rim of the Grand Canyon that I titled "Angels Vista". It is a 4 exposure panorama processed in Adobe Lightroom, of the view near Angels Window.



Angels Vista

I uploaded the image to my account on Pixels.com (http://Randall-Morter.Pixels.com) and chose to print it at 48" x 20". Pixels is cool in that they actually print images at the source image ratios and don't force you to crop them to a standard print size.

I had been interested in a metal print for some time. I wanted to see if the vibrance is truly different. I wanted to see what it looked like hanging on the wall. I wanted a good size print.

The print arrived in about 2 weeks after ordering it. It was packaged well. Unfortunately there was an issue on the right side of the print - similar to a double exposure. It only affected about the right 1/4 of the print so I guessed that the metal slipped when going through the printer. I contacted Pixels.com ON A SUNDAY - their help desk is open 24x7. They created an issue ticket for me and I received a follow up email within 2 days.

I took some pictures of the issue and sent them to the help desk and was issued a replacement that arrived in about a week. It was perfect!

That left me with the somewhat flawed original print. I have to interject that my wife had not noticed the image "ghosts". I decided to see if I could donate it to my employer, the Arizona Department of Education. The director of Human Resources said it was beautiful and they'd look into hanging it somewhere. It was accepted and now hangs in the waiting room for the Teacher Certification unit on the main floor where thousands of teachers pass through each year.

What about the metal print?

I didn't notice or think that the print was truly more vibrant, but without a comparable paper print I can't really say that it was or wasn't better. I almost would like to try it again with the saturation / vibrance really boosted a lot more. On the other hand, it is of an overcast day so it may not be worthy of that sort of treatment.

Overall, however, even though the replacement version is fine, the metal prints look unfinished to me. I think I prefer a print with a matte and a frame. It might be possible to put some sort of frame around the metal print, similar to what I've had on a canvas print, like a 1" wide black wood frame that kind of "floats" around the metal print with a 1" gap or so. That might be better. Someone else suggested just adding other items around the metal print, for example, some metal cactus wall art. Other photographs might suffice too. Those suggestions might work but if it was a matted and framed print I think it would stand on its own.

On the other hand, my cost for the 4 foot wide print, finished and suitable for hanging, was about $180. A paper print in a matted frame would have been much more expensive if the frame was nice at all. The frame I got my son for a 30" x 20" photograph was about $250. So there is the trade off.

Because of the large image size, Pixels would even print the photograph larger, up to 5 feet wide. I didn't end up going to that extreme but in the end I wish I had. I would like to see it at that size! I may eventually do a paper print of it at that size.