TTG Pages is a complimentary product to TTG Highslide Gallery Pro. However instead of creating galleries, TTG Pages lets you create elegant websites, easily, right from Lightroom. Now understand, these are not Dreamweaver masterpieces; but solid, simple, elegant websites. TTG Pages is a great front end for the varying TTG Galleries. TTG Pages makes it easy to create specialty websites, such as weddings, online exhibitions and even your online portfolio. TTG Pages is the go to software for quick design, creation and deployment of small, custom sites directly from Lightroom.

Installation of TTG Pages is a simple affair, although if you are not familiar it can seem intimidating. Web engines are not a simple menu click affair like importing presets, you have to manually move the files directly into your Lightroom settings folder. Instructions for installing Web Engines can be found on The Turning Gate site. Along with the Web Engine, the TTG Pages download includes a number of preconfigured Web Templates, allowing a quick redesign of the elements that make the web page with a simple click. Installation instructions for the template again can be found at The Turning Gate.

Once the installation is complete, just fire up Lightroom. Select a few photos you want to use to decorate you webpage and click on the Web Module. From here, simply click on TTG Pages in the Web Engine palette on the right tool panel of the Web Module.

Give Lightroom some time now, as it is prepping your selected images and rendering a web page viewable in the preview panel. From here you can select from a selection of pre-made web templates for TTG Pages, or mosey on over to the right tool panel and start scrolling through your options.

TTG Pages provides a myriad of settings to help create the perfect website for your needs. Everything can be adjusted from the right tool panel, leaving you no HTML that you have to deal with. Not saying you can’t tweak the resulting web page, it is just that you don’t have to. It will be fully functional on export.

What is tricky is text. In most tools, not designed for Lightroom, you would simply type text onto the web preview. Formatting already would be applied. However, due to limitations of Lightroom’s design (I mean, Lightroom is not really a webpage editor) you cannot format paragraphs on you pages. However, Matthew found a nice way around that and has separate text boxes on the tool palette for up to five paragraphs on a page. Most times this will be all you would need.

TTG Pages automatically generates a number of pages automatically. The bare basics are a front page, an about page, a gallery page and a contact page. From here you can also add hotlinks for linking to other pages and TTG Pages even has an easy to use contact form for the contact page that can forward comments and questions directly to an e-mail account.

The gallery page automatically takes one of your selected images and creates a link to a gallery. TTG Pages does not create galleries; you would need to use another TTG gallery engine such as TTG Highslide Gallery Pro. However, TTG Pages is designed to automatically link to galleries you produce when you follow the simple instructions on the TTG pages site.

I am really just touching the tip of the iceberg here, TTG Pages is a powerful tool and used in conjunction with TTG Highslide Gallery Pro it was to be the quickest way to create stunning websites to show off your images. Once you finish you website you can either save it locally to fine tune and upload, or you can directly upload your new site directly from Lightroom.

This review is rather brief, as I do not want to go too in depth, as I am working on a complete tutorial walking you through the use of TTG Pages and TTG Highslide Gallery Pro, from start to finish, to make a “boutique” website, such as that for a wedding or portfolio. It is shaping up to be quite in-depth in both applications, but quite easy to follow. So if this does not generate interest in TTG Pages, I am sure the walkthrough will. In fact I am working on my own special project currently utilizing both of these tools.

Here is a sample site, created with TTG Pages. I did not fill out the page at all, used the standard design and did not upload galleries. Since there are no galleries in the gallery folder, there is no previews shown in the Gallery Index. This is just a sample to play around with, and is only temporary, as I will link my project I am working on here to show exactly what TTG Pages can do.

Overall, I found TTG Pages to be a well-rounded piece of software. It is fast, simple and create fine website. Using TTG Pages on its own has limited appeal, but in conjunction with another TTG product or two you have a complete design solution for quick and elegant websites. If you already have a TTG gallery product installed, TTG Pages is a must have. TTG Pages makes it easy to create an great frontend to present your galleries.

TTG Pages is available at The Turning Gate for $25 USD.

Later,

Michael

P.S.

US Legal BS: I was provided with a review copy of the software and received no other form of compensation for this review.

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Alright, I am going to open the new Scanning category on LifeInDigitalFilm with a quick review of the ScanCafe service. An excellent way to get your scanning caught up quick. A while back I was scanning in all of my family’s negative, accumulated over 30 years of casual photography. I all I scanned in about 500 images myself and then decided to try out ScanCafe.

So, I bundled up the remaining 2000 plus negatives I had laying around and got them prepared to send off for scanning. I was prepared to set off on this endeavor.

ScanCafe’s scanning service is quite complete for any negatives or slides you may need to get scans performed upon. Currently ScanCafe offers their 35mm services for 29 cents per frame of negative or slide film scanned as 3000 DPI Jpeg images. They also offer 600 DPI scans of prints if you desire to have prints scanned. These are ScanCafe’s basic services for these medias, you can choose to upgrade resolution of file format for additional cast. I’ll cover that later.

[All images in article are actual scans from 20 year old negatives, done by ScanCafe]

ScanCafe doesn’t stop at offering 35mm scans. APS negatives can be scanned for 49 cents per image as 3000 DPI Jpegs. Medium format images, of all common image formats, are available for 99 cents per image, again as 3000 DPI Jpegs. Even older, smaller formats are available for scanning. 110, 126 and 127 negatives can also be scanned to 3000 DPI Jpegs for 99 cents an image. A bit high for the quality of the formats, but special techniques have to be utilized for this format film. In the past year ScaCafe has also added Black and White 35mm scanning. For 69 cents per frame, they will wet mount your B&W images to reduce scratches, and create 3000 DPI scans as well.

Additional document and printed image scanning is done for varying prices as 600 DPI scans. Just in case you want to scan in your newspaper collection.

The ordering process is easy, you simply log into ScanCafe and fill out an order form for you scan order. They do not require you to physically count every negative or slide you are sending in, just reasonable estimates. Once you have your count frames you are sending in, you simply fill out the scanning estimate in the order form. Your total is automatically updated.

At the time of order you also have the option to add on upgrades to your scanning service. By default, ScanCafe delivers your images on CD or DVD sets, depending on size of order. At this time you can order additional sets of disk or forgo optical media entirely and upgrade to a 320 GB USB hard disk for an additional $99.95. You can also upgrade your image’s resolution and format. For 9 cents per scan you can get images in their Pro resolution, which is a 4000 DPI scan. Another option is Tiff format images, in their uncompressed glory for an addional 19 cents per scan. Scan Cafe even offers a Pro Library service for and additional 29 cents per image, providing you with a Tiff of the raw scan as well as a processed Jpeg. Utilizing their upgrades, you can tailor your scans to exactly what you need.

I ordered my 2000 negative scans as standard 3000 DPI Jpegs delivered on a USB hard disk. I didn’t need to upgrade to the hard disk, as my set would have came on 2 DVDs, but I wanted to see the quality of the hard drive delivered. Once I had upgraded everything I was asked to pay for one half of the estimated final scan cost at time of order. Many other services require full payment, but ScanCafe’s reasoning for charging half will be apparent later on. I got my total, and paid my 50% deposit and my charges for UPS shipping. I packed up my negatives in bundles of 20 strips and stuck them in the bundles into those chaep plastic negative sleeves you get with 1 hour processing. I wasn’t too concerned about damaging the negatives, as they were improperly stored and were dirty and dusty, laden with scratches. If I were to scan them I would have to clean each strip before scanning, to test ScanCafe’s quality I sent them in as is. I packaged them into a box and took the box to the local UPS store to send my negatives off on their international voyage.

Here is a point of concern for many a photographer. ScanCafe, although based in America, maintains their scanning facility in India. Some may find that a risk they are unwilling to take with their irreplaceable media. It didn’t bother me, as I read how they manage their shipments to India. Your box does not leave from your home and go directly to India. UPS delivers your package to ScanCafe in California. From there they bundle your package, along with many other into a single air shipping container. All their orders are sent in a direct shipment by air to India and are delivered directly to their scan facility.

After you package is received in India, their technicians make a precise count of image in your order, update your final cost and then queue them up for scanning. Once your order gets its turn at the scanning workstation, your entire order is process by one technician, by hand. Most other services utilize automatic feeders for their scanners, quickening their scans and requireing little human intervention. ScanCafe has their technicians scan each negative individually on Nikon CoolScan 5000 ED and 9000 ED scanners and retouch utilizing both Digital ICE and hand retouching. A single technician handles your entire order, which maintains consistency especially with color. After your order is complete another technician does a quality review of your images. After the Quality check the scanned images are place online so you can check them out.

Here is where it gets cool. After your scans are online for review you get to select any images you want to discard. You can discard up to half your order, which in turn lowers your final cost. As you scan through the online gallery, some images will have technician notes, such as “bad media” or “good candidate for restoration”. When a scan comes out not so great, but could be saved with substantial effort, they recommend it for their restoration services, which I have not tried out. When an image is not salvageable, it is marked bad media. An obvious first step in your rejection process is to weed out all the bad media images.

Once you have deleted any images you want gone, simply pay you outstanding balance and shipping costs, ScanCafe sends your negatives back stateside and then ships your originals and media with scans to your door via UPS.

When I ordered, I sent off 2000+ 35mm negatives and ordered the external hard disk. At the time of order they estimated a 4-6 week scan time with a week shipping on either side. I was also warned that more than 1000 images can add an additional 2 weeks of scan time. So I sat back and accepted it would take almost three months for me to receive my final scans. After a week their online order tracking showed my package had arrived in India. I sat in the queue for almost a week and was getting my order scanned shortly thereafter. A little over three weeks after I dropped off the order at my local UPS Store, my scans were online and ready for review.

I sped through the review process, devoting a weekend to the process. As these were family snapshots full of memories, I only deleted the bad media images, knocking 70 images off my order and knocking about $20 off my order total. Even though the preview images are smallish, limited to about 500 pixels on the long side, they were plenty large enough to gauge the overall quality of the scans and I was quite impressed. I made my selections and payed my balance. Three days later ScanCsfe’s online tracking showed my package was en route back to the US. Delivered to my door four days after that.

In all my negatives were gone from me for a little over a month, almost a month and a half. Still that outperformed even ScanCafe’s estimates. Once the package arrive I plugged it in and view family photos I hadn’t seen in years. With bright vibrant, colors and sharp high quality scans. The final product was much better than what I was expecting.

Overall, I was very impressed with their cost vs. quality. For very little per scan you can have someone else handle the tedium of large volume scanning. You can easily do as well yourself, contrary to much of what their “Guide” to DIY scanning says, but when you need to get caught up quick, this service cannot be matched.

Scary to many is the shipping overseas of you negative. This is a personal dilemma, as you can save a lot of time and effort by taking this minute risk. ScanCafe is a great service if you need it. If you are caught up on your scanning however, stick to doing it yourself.

More about ScanCafe at their website.

Michael

Oh and I am giving away 3 copies of my Cold Storage Collection Vol 1 to 3 lucky individuals who sign up for the X-Equals+Digest between now and October 1st. If you haven’t done so already, click the X-Equals ad on the right sidebar!

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There is no one reason to purchase TTG Highslide Gallery Pro, there are quite a few. First, the engine produces a simple, straightforward gallery page. It is the perfect canvas to present your work in an uncluttered and simple manner. Second, the Highslide features built in to the software transform your simple gallery into a beautiful slideshow, right in the web browser. Finally, TTG Highslide Gallery Pro integrates a few e-commerce options for you. Fotomoto integration allows you to have an order, print ship solution ready to go. And for those of you who prefer to print yourself, TTG Highslide Gallery Pro allows you to feature purchasing on your gallery via PayPal or Foxycart. From display to sale, TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is a complete solution for any photographer.

Once you follow the simple installation instructions, you are ready to get going. Once you are in Lightroom, you will want to start a collection to drop your photos into to generate the gallery. Select as many photos as you want to display on your gallery page. TTG Highslide Gallery Pro can generate a page with as many photos as you desire, but be selective, you want to keep as many photos as possible visible on your gallery without the need to scroll. I picked 15 photos for the sample gallery I generated for this review, and it took no time for TTG Highslide Gallery Pro to render the web page. Performance will depend on your system.

Once your selected photos are assembled, all you need to do is select the Web Module in Lightroom, and select TTG Highslide Gallery Pro from the Web Engine toolbox. Once you do so, step back for a moment and let TTG Highslide Gallery Pro go to work. All the images present in your selected collection or folder visible in the filmstrip at the bottom of your screen will be rendered into a TTG Highslide Web Gallery, visible right in the Lightroom preview window. Now to customize, you can choose from the premade templates provided with the software, or start customizing the default TTG template right inside Lightroom.

Basic web editing is allowed in TTG’s web engine, right from your right sidebar in Lightroom. Simply scroll through all the options presented to you and start filling in the applicable information. You preview is updated after every change so you can see your work as you go along. All of the basic editing of the gallery is easy and straightforward. As you work your way down the sidebar you will start to encounter the features that make this gallery software worthy of the name PRO.

The first big feature you encounter is the Highslide options. Here you configure the Highslide javascript settings which enable the beautiful slideshows that are at the heart of this gallery software. Of primary interest as you design your gallery is “Highslide Mode” option, which allows you to select which of the Highslide effects that best suits your needs.

• Proofing mode allows quick selection and enlargement of each image, with smooth animations from thumbnail to full preview allowing you to even compare two or more images at once enlarged on your screen. You can even move enlarged images on your screen by click+hold and moving your mouse. Click the image below to see a sample Proofing Gallery:

• Slideshow mode provides a slick darkbox style slideshow, over your gallery page which fades gently to black behind your enlarged images. Slideshow also features manual image browsing and automatic slideshow directly from the darkbox effect. Click the image below to see a sample Slideshow Gallery:

• Finally three different Inline Slideshow options are available, presenting your images with a single, large preview and a film strip effect with your thumbnails at the top, bottom or right side of the screen. TTG Highslide Gallery Pro offers you all three options, not forcing you into one style for all your projects, one piece of software with three different implementations built in. Click here to see an Inline Slideshow Gallery

All of the above sample galleries were thrown together in a matter of minutes. TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is capable of producing much nicer galleries, but I wanted to show what can be done fast. PayPal ordering is turned on, but left inactive, to show the capability without actually enabling the selling abilities.

The Highslide effect is the very soul of this web gallery plug-in and further options allow you to completely customize the experience, all with a few clicks. This allows you to alter the borders present around you images, loop the slideshow, set the image change interval and control the amount of dimming of the gallery that occurs in slideshow mode. The options are simple, but you can create entirely different looks with just a few changes.

Another nice feature is built in Cooliris integration. This option prepares your gallery to be viewed in the Firefox plug-in Cooliris right out of the box. By no means is this a necessity, but it is a nice option to include.

The big feature of the TTG Highslide Gallery Pro, the feature that differentiates it from the more basic TTG Highslide Gallery, is the integration of Paypay, Foxycart and Fotomoto for built in e-commerce. The Paypal and Foxycart options are virtually identical, allowing you to set prices for differing products based off of your images. Clients can then order prints directly from the website and submit payment to you via PayPal or Foxycart. These options are great for photographers who choose to self fulfill orders, either printing images themselves or outsourcing to their printer of choice.

I cannot emphasize this enough, as a wedding photographer, I have to say that this is a must have gallery plug-in. Any photographer who shoots weddings, events or any other situation where there could be dozens or hundreds of potential customers need to get TTG Highslide Gallery Pro. To be able to quickly get a gallery posted with e-commerce abilities built right in will ensure the way to quick sales after the event. As it has been said, the quicker you make the images available after a wedding, to mare sales you can convert.

TTG Highslide Gallery Pro enables you to get your images up to your clients quickly and start the ordering process almost immediately. Any wedding or event photographer who uses Lightroom and does not have TTG Highslide Gallery is simplymissing out on one of the best tools to improve their business.

TTG Highslide Gallery Pro implements the Paypal and Foxycart ordering through a basic dropbox under each image, listing available products. These can be dropped into the on-site cart and pay for the cart through the normal Paypal or Foxycart channels. This in effect allows you to get paid and sends you notification of the order with product information needed for order fulfillment.

Fotomoto integration is offered for those who do not want to deal with the hassle of self-fulfillment. You can upload high quality, print ready versions of your images to Fotomoto and then allow customers to order prints and cards of your images. Items ordered are printed and shipped for you by Fotomoto, per their user agreements, with no further intervention needed from you. As long as you upload print ready images to your Fotomoto account before you take your gallery live, order can be fulfilled as soon as your first visitor chooses to make an order.

Now before I give you my final thoughts, I do need to point out one caveat of using TTG Highslide Gallery PRO. If you are using the software for commercial purposes, including selling you images through the integrated features, you need to purchase a Highslide License. Non-commercial use of the Highslide software is free, but if you are buying TTG Highslide Gallery, you are probably looking to use the slick e-commerce features. You are going to need to buy a license. When you start using TTG Highslide Gallery Pro, you receive a warning about this, but I wanted to make this clear in my review.  Luckily Torstein Hønsi’s registration costs are not back breaking. $29 covers a single website license good for one domain. $179 buys you a commercial unlimited license allowing you to utilize these features on any of your domains or client’s domains. If you consider the earning potential you can unlock from TTG Highslide Gallery Pro, these registration costs are minimal. Find out more about Highslide JS by clicking on the image below.

All in all, TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is a great gallery solution for any photographer looking to preset their work and make a sale or two. The software generates slick, uncomplicated galleries with advance presentation modes that allow the viewer to engulf their monitor with your images. With e-commerce integration, you open your works to impulse purchases that you may have never gotten before, due to the ready to buy layout presented in TTG Highslide galleries. If you do not utilize a service like Zenfolio or SmugMug and like to control the printing of your images but still want to offer easy online ordering TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is your solution. For about half the price of one of the photo hosting services, you can purchase both TTG Highslide Gallery and a Highslide Single Website license and provide yourself with many of the options provided by these pay sites on your existing web server.

The Turning Gate has created a great tool for photographers here and offers their creation at a reasonable price. Galleries created will draw viewers in with a straight forward presentation, catch their interest with the slick Highslide Slideshow presentations and open their wallets with conveniently placed ordering options. All of this can be done without TTG’s software, however they have made it easy to use, configure and create. Best of all, TTG Highslide Gallery Pro endows Lightroom with the capability to produce these beautiful galleries. Being able to edit images, create galleries and upload them to the internet from Lightroom alone increases your productivity, getting more done in less time.

TTG Highslide Gallery is quite simply a rock solid product for Lightroom. The e-commerce integration of this product is second to none. It also appears that the plug-in was coded well enough that new features and vendors can be easliy added as the plug-in evolves. If you are in the market for a good gallery TTG Highslide Gallery Pro is an excellent option. If you are looking for a gallery that lets you sell you work, with little configuration required on your part, TTG Highslide Gallery is simply your best bet. Don’t underestimate the value of quick turnaround in your business, TTG Highslide Gallery helps you turn around your images to your customers quickly.

And that puts more money in your pocket, faster.

The Turning Gate Highslide Gallery Pro can be  purchased at the TTG website.

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Film is dead…or so many people though until Kodak released their new Ektar 100 film to the public last year. Coming to market with the daring claim of “Finest Grain Ever” it would be an uphill battle to sell a new color print film to the general photographic public in the age of 10+ megapixel consumer-level DSLR cameras. It would take a really special film introduction to stand a chance up against the modern resolution of DSLR’s with a 35mm format film. Did Kodak do that? Yes they did.

First thing to note about Ektar, is that it was designed from the ground up to be scanned into a computer. As most labs now do digital prints, requiring the negative to be scanned before printing, Kodak had to design a film that could easily be scanned, have great color and high resolution. I have been scanning my rolls of Ektar with an Epson V500 at 3200 and 6400 DPI and my Plustek OpticFilm 7200 at 3600 and 7200 DPI.

On either scanner Ektar 100 brought forth good contrast, bold colors and almost no grain. In fact I notice digital noise from my scanners more than I do traditional grain. Ektar has required little correction in Photoshop or Lightroom after scanning is completed.

As far as image quality goes, I have been successfully printing excellent 8×10’s from 3200 DPI scans on my V500 and 11×14’s at 7200 with my Plustek OpticFilm at 7200 DPI. No other negative film will allow me to make quality prints with these scanners and resolutions. Even most slide films will not scan this high quality for me with consumer grade scanners.

Ektar delivers a clarity nearing slide film, color characteristics not found in any other film with the wide exposure latitude of negative film.  Ektar shows to produce good images in my testing from -1 EV to +2 EV (or shot at ISO 50 up to ISO 400) without needing to push the development. Albeit the further you get away from box speed the more image degradation occurs, but in a pinch you can pull a good image out of Ektar shot at ISO 800 with some good scanning techniques.

Ektar’s next big advantage is price. You can find Ektar in 135 format for little more than a roll of Kodak Gold and quite a bit less than Portra. At my local photo shop, Gold 200 goes for $4 USD, Ektar 100 for $5.25 and Portra 160 NC for $7. So for little more than the price of regular consumer film, you can get a high resolution professional-quality film. A film that can be scanned with an inexpensive flatbed scanner and produce images equal or greater than current low-end DSLR’s. With better scanners you can even outperform the quality of many high-end DSLR’s and still retain the unique look of film. I have a 20” x 30” print on my wall made from a drum scan of one of my Ektar shots and the print is beautiful with a barely perceptible grain, my Canon 400D XTi or 5D could never even come close to producing that print. At this point a $10 dollar yard-sale SLR and a few rolls of Ektar can do you as good as a $500 XTi, if not better.

Cost, ease of scanning, resolution, grain and exposure latitude alone are good reasons to grab this film, but the unique look is worth the price of admission and then some. What really gives Ektar a unique advantage is its appearance. I find it to have a strange modern nostalgic look when shot at ISO 50 or 64, like a quality film shot from the 70’s. It shifts a bit blue and retains bold colors. If Ektar is shot at box speed, I have found that it reproduces colors reasonable accurately, although more punchy than normal. I find myself overexposing street photography for the vintage look and shooting landscapes and nature at box speed. It is nice to have the option of two distinct looks from one film and get good results at either setting. Again, you can take Ektar on upwards toward ISO 800, but plan on spending some time in post getting you image looking good. Still, it can be done though.

Some have complained of Ektar being inappropriate for human subjects, being a bit too saturated for skin tones. I have not found this to be the case, as some simple adjusting of saturation in Photoshop can alleviate this issue without dulling the overall picture.

Oversaturated skin tones with Ektar tend to be most common at box speed, and taking it to 50 or 64 can help as well. However I have no issue shooting portraits at box speed with Ektar. In fact Ektar has almost replaced Portra 160 VC in my wedding gear for outside, nature portraits. I have been happy and so have been my clients.

In general, Kodak’s Ektar 100 is a great general purpose film. It is well suited for travel, with its punchy colors and great contrast. It can capture human subjects and look fairly natural, while at the same time give you saturated backgrounds. Ektar is the new film of choice to take for family photos at the Grand Canyon (Now that Kodachrome is gone).

It’s great to keep in your camera for indoor flash photography. Ektar is a great choice for a primary film, and I have shot the same roll at ISO 50-200 varying between frames and got great results with standard processing. Give Ektar a try and don’t be afraid to experiment with it, the results may surprise you.

If you are interested in grabbing a few rolls of Ektar to try out, please go down to your local pro shop and get yourself a few rolls. If you don’t have a good pro lab, then consider ordering from Amazon or Adorama from the links below, it’ll give me a little kickback then, but please support you local photo lab before ordering online. You may pay a bit more, but to have personal service and knowledge people nearby it is well worth it.

Try it…You’ll like it!

Michael

Links to purchase Ektar below.

Buy at Amazon or…

Search for Ektar at Adorama.

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In my experience, I have found that while inexpensive is great, there is usually a discernible lowering of quality. With this in mind, I still wanted to give ZaZa Gallery a go, as I have been wanted a canvas wrap for my wall, and I have always been too cheap to get one.

So I chose a picture of my wife and son, chosen so this could double as a Valentine’s present. The shot was taken with my Canon XTi and I uprezzed the converted RAW with Genuine Fractals 5 (a step behind, as always). When I was processing the image in Lightroom I hit it with my Kodak Portra 160NC preset from my Cold Storage Collection. I wanted to see how the more subtle colors would come across on canvas, as most prints I have seen tend to be rather saturated. So after I got the image done, I uploaded to ZaZa Gallery.

Within a week I recieved my canvas via FedEx Ground, and upon opening the box was promptly blown away with the quality, especially when I factor in the price.

Immediately I saw that my Kodak-inspired colors were dead-on. I did not ask for any special handling of the image, so it was great to see that Hugh (the real name of @photocanvas) knew what I was wanting from the original image and did nothing to alter the colors of my image. Next, I noticed the wrap itself, where he had perfectly mirrored the border of my image, and stretched the canvas right on that mirrored border. Finished it off with nice, tight corners. I was truly impressed. ZaZA Gallery’s production quality is great, and the Epson inks brought out true color on the nice, white canvas.

Speaking of the Epson inks, the printer used produces great, sharp, detailed images. I was expecting to see a lesser DPI utilized for my 11×14 canvas, as I have seen done with other enlargements. It was not so. The level of detail retained was amazing, especially whe I peered deeper into the reflection on my wife’s sunglasses…I realized that I was in the portrait myself.

I was surprised to find myself printed in fairly good detail, with indidual twigs on the trees around me still visible. To an extend that is a testimony to modern digital cameras, but again, this is a lot of detail for a heavily textured surface. It was great.

Needless to say I am impressed with the quality of ZaZa Gallery’s work, and look forward to utilizing them again when I get ready to order my next canvas wrap. They utilize archival inks and coatings, to ensure a long image life…I can’t quite test that, but I’ll let you know in 90 years or so.

The only thing I found lacking about their service is a minor pittance. A backing and hanging wire would have been a great addtition, but for what they charge it is no big deal to drive down to my local framing shop to do it myself.

So next time you are looking to get some gallery wraps made, drop by their site and check them out. If you have any questions all their contact info is on the site, or you can simply follow Hugh on Twitter @photocanvas. If you do order, let him know you found him through LifeInDigitalFilm.

While on this topic, I mentioned earlier that I had uprezzed this image utilizing onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals 5. Yesterday, Dennis Hayes (of Photo News Today) had a guest spot on X-Equals blog, in which he went in-depth with Genuine Fractals 6. Drop by and give it a read if you like to go big with your images….remember, at 300 dpi 11×14 is as big as it gets at 10 megapixels. Genuine Fractals lets you go big and make new pixels that look real, as if you shot your image with a 20 megapixel camera with no noticeable loss of quality. Check it out over at Brandon Oelling’s X-Equals blog.

Well that is all for today, back tomorrow with something else.

Until then,

Michael

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