Nikon Lens Instant Rebates plus 4% rewards and free 2 day shipping

B&H has a sale on Nikon lenses where you can get up to $200 back instantly plus up to 4% rewards on many lenses like the cool 200-500mm zoom shown below.

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Sales Tax Reimbursement with Payboo

Don’t forget, with the B&H Payboo card most buyers can get the sales tax reimbursed. Click here to learn more.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

REVIEW: Imagenomic Portraiture 3 (DISCOUNT OFFER) - Video Tutorial

Imagenomic Portraiture has always been my favorite skin softening product because it does a wonderful job of softening the skin without obliterating the texture like most other products (and techniques shown on YouTube). It's the secret sauce use by a lot of high end fashion and beauty photographers, so it's been a key part of my digital workflow for nearly a decade.

Buy and SAVE now using coupon code RONMART20

One of the big new features of version 3.0 is how the user-interface scales on a 4K UHD or larger display, like the NEC PA322UHD that I use.Here's the old UI which looks tiny both in thumbnail and when you click to view the 4K screenshot:

And here's the new UI which scales beautifully to any size:

The heart of the new user-interface can be found in the left panel which is functionally similar, but now just bigger and easier to read:

The new user-interface is significantly more responsive thanks to hardware acceleration, so zooming is now instant with no painful minute waiting for the softening effect to be applied.

The user-interface does lose my beloved tabs feature which allows you to experiment and see the results of different settings spread over multiple tabs, but that was a geek feature most people didn't know exist so I don't think most users will miss it.

Skin Softening Results

Original Image - BEFORE Skin Softening (Zoomed to 111%) - Click for larger version

Portraiture 3 Normal Preset AFTER Skin Softening (Zoomed to 111%) - Click for larger version

Video Tutorial

My previous tutorial on Portraiture 2 had nearly 150,000 views and the advanced techniques tutorial was featured on the Imagenomic support website. In this all new for version 3 review, I focus on both a face and full body with basic and advanced techniques with improvements that hopefully address user suggestions for my past videos:

Conclusion

If you have a high resolution display, the upgrade is a no brainer because it's so much easier (and faster) to use. However, if your budget is tight I can honestly say that I don't see any improvements to the skin softening algorithms that make me prefer the new version over the old version.

This is still a great product that I highly recommend, especially for those who are disappointed by the wealth of terrible skin softening products and techniques currently available today. It's fast and easy to use and a must have for anyone who edits a lot of photos with people.

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today, and be sure to use my coupon code RONMART20 to save 15% on one or more Imagenomic products as shown below:

Enter the code and click update to apply the discount

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Imagenomic Noiseware Discount & Tutorial (iOS Version)
• Imagenomic Portraiture 2 Tutorial
• Plotagraph Pro (Discount)
• Perfectly Clear 3 by Athentech (Discount)
• Scott Kelby's Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop - My favorite portrait editing book
• Topaz Labs Impression 2 (new review 11/23/16)
• Topaz Labs Texture Effects 2.0
• Ron's Recommendations
• Home Studio on a Budget

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Red River Paper Summer Sale 2018

My friends at Red River Paper are having a sale on some of their more popular papers:

• 68lb. UltraProSatin^® 4.0 - The Top Selling Red River Paper
• 68lb. UltraPro Gloss 2.0^®
• 60lb. Polar Matte^®
• 60lb. Pecos River Gloss™
• 26lb. ColorJet™

Click here to learn more.

See more Red River Paper reviews here:

• Red River Paper vs Epson Papers - Fantastic papers for Canon and Epson printers
• Red River Paper San Gabriel Baryta Semi Gloss 2.0 - Just as good as expensive Baryta's
• Red River Paper Palo Duro Etching Fine Art Paper

Interested in printing? Check out my printing series page for more articles and reviews!

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

REVIEW: Flixel Cinemagraph Pro Discount Offer–Motion Photos (Updated Jan 17, 2018)

Flixel Cinemagraph Pro makes making cinemagraphs easy!
Copyright Ron Martinsen © All Rights Reserved

If you are like me, you’ve probably been very intrigued by the cool cinemagraphs found on the web (especially on the bing.com home page), but many people like me also haven’t had the time to figure out how to do them! Most things in photography are time consuming enough, and video makes it even worse. As a result, I had little desire to find another way to consume my time.

Well I’m happy to report that after a little research I found out that it is not only easy it’s fun too! Here’s the main window of Flixel’s Cinemagraph Pro 1.5 back when I originally did this article in 2015 (page down for version 2.0):

Flixel Cinemagraph Pro Main Window

Basically you import a video, highlight what you want to move and pick start and end points. That’s in – in no time you can have one of these running and they’ll even host the cinemegraph on their web site – for free (size limitations and content restrictions apply).

It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but within a few minutes I had my first cinemgraph of my daughter below:

Yes, we think it is creepy too!

Not only did we think this was creepy, I quickly learned how you must keep things very still or else you get the shifty eyes problem featured here.

What was about this one is that I could export the still image portion and do a quick edit on it in Photoshop then send it back to Cinemagraph Pro. This allowed me to get rid of some unwanted skin blemishes caused by the fact that neither my daughter or I had planned to do this so no real life skin preparations were made!

Without any prep, I tried again:

Ok, cool but crooked as hell so let’s try again

As a second attempt the concept was good but the execution was bad, so I tried again:

Almost awesome

The ottoman was a little more stable this time as a tripod, but still not perfect. I also started noticing that my background was a bit dirty so I figured I needed another try where I actually prepared for a video (imagine that)!

My final attempt (the lead cinemagraph with cognac at the top of this article) included some preparations, but was done in one take. From start to finish I spent about 20 minutes, 16 minutes of which was preparation time getting “the set” ready.

Video Demos

Here's the best Flixels of 2017:

and here's a tutorial that shows how to use the latest 2.0 version for the Mac:

Conclusion

This is a fun and simple process that can be done on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad quickly and easily. While I’m disappointed that no Windows version exists, there is a product called Microsoft Blink (see below) that does cinemagraphs for free!

To learn more, visit https://flixel.com/products/mac/cinemagraph-pro.

Where to order

Click here to order and use the code FLIXELTEN to save 10%!

Click here to save 10% off your order. If you do this properly, then you should see the discount automatically applied as shown below:

This is a limited time offer and prices are subject to change. When this deal expires, please use THIS LINK instead so that I may get credit for the referral – thanks!

App Store

This product is also available on the AppStore:

iPhone

iPad

Cinemagraph Pro+ for OS X
WARNING: No discount, use this link to get a discount

Cinemagraph+ for OS X

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Turn your still images to life with Plotagraph Pro (discount) 
  
• Discount Coupon Code Page 
  
• Ron’s Recommendations 
  
• More Reviews 
  
• Printing Series 
  
• Future of Photography: Synthetic Object Rendering Cinemagraph

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

REVIEW: LumeJet L.Type® 400 PPI Continuous Tone Prints (15% Discount)

My l.Type® prints actually showed up in this impressive presentation box
This image was taken from their home page, but my prints did arrive this way!

In June 2017, I got an email from LumeJet telling me about their unique L.Type^® prints. As you might notice from my printing series and my linkedIn profile, I'm no stranger to printing so I was skeptical. However, they assured me of a statement they make on their website:

Our print is completely different to any other print because it is the world's only 400 PPI true continuous tone print.

Created with our unique, patented photonic technology, the L.Type print is ultra-high-resolution 400 PPI true continuous tone, considered to be better than 4,000 dpi quality from an ink-based printer. This allows us to achieve images that truly show no digital patterning at all.

As a continued to read that page, I saw other bold claims:

• ... amazing colour fidelity, with delta-e values of less than 1.0 across the gamut
• L.Type prints are exceptionally smooth, with over 4 billion colours in our range, and the ability to ‘paint’ each pixel unit cell individually [read - no banding - Ron]
• ... a pixel-for-pixel print from a 30MP camera will naturally print at A3 size (297mm x 420mm
• Our exceptional resolution was designed to allow us to show more detail than the human eye can resolve at arm's length. The result is a level of fine detail that will stun you - and we can reproduce that detail without Moire effects or other aberrations.
• ...produce text and graphics with no dot gain, no trapping, no jaggies. We can print pin-sharp text down to 2-point size, including reversed-out text. In fact, we can print accurately smaller than the human eye can read,

I thought - wow - I've got to check this out!!!

You can also visit this page to see more examples of images they feel exhibit these benefits when printed.

Packaging

As I mention in the intro photo, my first order of prints arrived in an impressive presentation box and the prints themselves had a backing that made them feel like they belong in an ultra high end gallery - not in my hands - ha, ha!

To help me better understand their product, I was sent a box of about 50 prints plus prints of a few of my own images that I'll feature in this article.

When I opened the box and showed my wife the prints her first response was WOW! Mine was too because you can tell these prints are special and quite extraordinary.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to just watch the animation on the home page of http://www.l-type.com to see for yourself the attention to detail they put in the package that I got as it was identical to what was shown in the article.

For my second smaller order they came in a nice firm black L.Type labeled envelope, and in both orders my prints were very well protected in a external cardboard box so they edges of my prints and the packaging arrived without even the slight scuff or dent - despite being mailed from the UK to Seattle!

If you order a couple prints you'll have to pay extra for the presentation box, but it does come free with larger orders. Refer to the price guides on the web site for details. The good news is that my experience with LumeJet is that everything they do is first class with an extreme attention to detail, so even small orders get first class treatment and very nice packaging!

ICC Color Gamut Comparison

What you see below are two ICC files being compared using the same photo via Photoshop CC 19.0 soft proofing feature with the color gamut warnings (in red) turned on. The only difference between the two images is the ICC profile used. In both cases, Relative Colormetric rendering intent was used with Black Point Compensation turned on. Simulate Black Ink was also used.

For the Canon image, it is using the best ICC profile I've been able to get my hands on for the Canon PRO-2000 Pro Luster paper and for the L.Type it is the L.Type S200 DPII Lustre (1706) M1.icc downloaded from here.

The soft proofing accurately reflects that the colors and blacks are a bit more muted with the L.Type prints vs the Canon.  You can also do your own non-scientific comparison using the scans below using a Epson V850 via its Epson Scan software: (click for full size 34MB+ originals TIFF files), but PLEASE keep in mind that fidelity is lost when going down to a digital file from a high resolution print so you'll get better much better results in the actual print from both:

L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

While it might be subjective, I felt like the Canon definitely had the edge in DMax and color accuracy in the yellows, but the smooth transitions of the 400 dpi prints was definitely noticeable - especially on the grays in the center of the image.

NOTE: All prints in this article that have been scanned have been UNEDITED, so if there was any dust on the print bed or print itself, then those will show up in the scan. This is not a defect in the image itself, but something that can be used to validate the authenticity of the scanned print.

Color Portrait

Here's an image taken using a Canon 5Ds that really highlighted this advantage:

L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

Notice how the reds and the skin tone transitions are so much smoother on the L.Type prints, despite them being a little less vibrant and deep dark. In the hand they just felt more high end like something you'd expect to see in a Gucci catalog versus the darker Canon prints which clearly had a feeling of being sharper:

Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

This is where I think you see the pros and cons of both prints. Which is better depends on what you are looking for, but in the hand and the overall impression I had was that the L.Type prints felt more high end special.

Want to see the color gamut on your own images? Click here to get the ICC profiles to do your own soft proofing.

It should also be noted that I probably could have done more sharpening for the images I prepared, but I'm still new to preparing images for this type of print so I relied totally on the 400 dpi continuous tone output sharpening of PixelGenius PhotoKit Sharpener 2.0.

More Sample Prints Compared

This section features scans done using a Epson V850 via its Epson Scan software. Click the images to review full size 34MB+ originals TIFF files. The images may be used while viewing in this article in your browser, but must be deleted immediately after you navigate away from the web page.

All images are copyright © Ron Martinsen - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED! You may not print, link, save, edit, publish, display in a video or otherwise use any images featured in this article.

The final images have not be color corrected so all images were scanned using identical scanner settings to try to illustrate differences. Prints always look significantly better in real life so these images are only provided for relative comparisons and should not be used to judge the color accuracy of the prints. The actual gamut of the colors produced in all cases exceeds what I get from the scans, and the final print will be impacted by the ambient light (or lack thereof) in the location where viewed.

Simply put, these look way worse in scans than they do in real life.

I should also note that all of the images in this article received special resizing (to letter size via Perfect Resize) and post-resize sharpening treatment before printing. The Canon prints were optimized for 300 dpi and high-pass sharpened and the L.Type prints were optimized for 400 dpi and high-pass sharpened. Special letter size prints were made for this article for scanning purposes, but all other prints reviewed (and not featured) where printed at 12 x 18 inches.

Beezerker

This is a great image to see the silky smooth tones in the edges especially at the bottom of the image.

Beezerker on L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

The Canon prints always feel more vibrant and darker, but much smoother gradient transitions are easy to appreciate.

Beezerker - Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

Color Grayscale

For this image, I chose to do a grayscale image with a hint of color versus a full on black and white. The scan results in a image that appears to be more green but in real life it's more sepia toned and similar in color to the Canon print.

Color Grayscale on L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

Again there's much smoother transitions in the edges and greater tonal range in the areas that appear as more hot spots on the Canon below. There's also a lot more tonal range in the vest and less harsh transition in the shadows of the skin and white shirt wrinkles.

Color Grayscale - Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

Fall in Asia

Fall in Asia on L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

This was an image where the L.Type prints were just too muted to do it justice. My Whitewall HD Metal print of this image is breath taking so even the Canon print can't do it justice. As a result, if your goal is to have vibrant saturated images that just scream for attention, I'd say the L.Type prints probably aren't the best choice.

Fall in Asia - Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

Treehouse

This is the lowest resolution image of this group and it features some digital noise. It also has some real hot spots in the sunny and light areas so I thought it'd be good to see the difference between the prints.

What I immediately noticed was the smooth and natural feel of the tones on the hot spots of the roof, trees, and incandescent lighted areas. I also preferred the smooth tonal range of the red tones and the improved detail in the shadow areas underneath the deck.

Treehouse on L.Type on Fuji DPII Crystal Archive Lustre

The Canon print looks fantastic in real life, so I enjoy gorgeous William Turner and Art Peel prints of it outside of my office at work - both of which receive lots of love from passers by. However, if I was going to display this print in an exhibition I'd probably go for the L.Type version for its tonal range advantage. If I was showing it to ordinary folks, I'd favor the Canon prints for the vibrant colors and deep blacks.

Treehouse - Canon PRO-2000 on Canon Pro Luster

Ron's Thoughts on the Different Paper Types

I haven't tried all of the paper types or the book yet, but I have tried several different papers so I thought I'd share some high level subjective opinions on what I think of each.

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Type DPII Gloss

These were nice for glossy prints, but I'm not a huge fan of glossy prints in general. Like the Premium Glossy, these show no texture at typical viewing angles yet they have less texture than the Premium Gloss when held at extreme angles. My DPII Gloss prints didn't have the L.Type backing on all of the other prints I had so I didn't like that. It also shows finger prints like crazy so definitely use your parade gloves when handling these prints.

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Type DPII Matte

Don't let the name fool you - this isn't like an ink jet matte or velvet that offers visible cotton fiber texture. Instead it still feels like a resin coated luster like paper that I'd classify as a semi-gloss. This places it right in between Gloss and Lustre with the benefits of both yet without the drawbacks of either. As a result, this was my favorite paper with one big exception - it seemed to be the biggest fingerprint magnet, so definitely use gloves when handling this paper!

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional Type DPII Lustre

This is your traditional lustre (or luster as we say in the US) and it offers the advantage of not showing finger prints or potential surface scratches, and a texture that some customers prefer or associate with finer prints. Those looking for a semi-gloss will prefer the Matte, but those looking for the most durable prints in the hand without gloves should go with Lustre.

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Premium HDX Paper X-tra Coat Gloss

I'm not a huge fan of high glossy prints, but this paper does has the advantage of no visible texture unless held at an extreme non-viewing angle. This makes it easier to appreciate the continuous tones - when shown in good indirect light. With direct light the reflectivity is very high so it feels more dull and muddy.

L.Type Board Mounted Backing

The Board Mounted L.Type prints feature a special thicker (300 gsm) backing that makes the papers feel more substantial and less susceptible to flexing. This results in them feeling like a 15mil paper in hand, even though the paper itself is pretty thin and lightweight. This backing along with the L.Type logo gives it that special feel that I liked a lot more than the obnoxious Fuji logo you get without this backing. I highly recommend going with the backing.

What about versus Epson Sure Color Printers?

I own multiple Epson SureColor printers including the P600 and P800 and I love them - they are great products. However, at the time of this article I did not have a P5000 or better on hand. Based on my experience with the Epson 4900, I can say that my blind Canon vs Epson print comparisons tripped up even the most famous print masters because they were so close, so I consider them to be on par with each other. Sure if you examine select ICC profiles in ColorThink Pro you can see where gamut variances occur due to differences in the ink sets, but if color managed properly they are extremely close to each other.

Which is my favorite? I prefer the Canon prints to the Epson ones for the same reason I prefer Canon images to Nikon - there seems to be a bias towards warmer vibrant colors right out of the box. This can be corrected to get near identical accuracy, so I wouldn't consider either better than the other - just different. I also prefer the Canon driver software - especially on Windows - to the more dated Epson drivers.

As a result, if you were doing this same article with a Epson printer you could expect the same variances as compared to the L.Type prints.

Conclusion

My God's honest opinion is that you sacrifice a bit in perceived sharpness due to the less harsh transitions caused by the smooth continuous tones, but you gain a lot in tonal range. As a result, the L.Type images feel more natural and extraordinary in real life. Because of this my first impression was that the reds were weak, but it isn't that they are weak - in fact the tonal range of reds is fantastic - it's just it's less vibrant.

I was the most unhappy with the yellows as you can see best in the color gamut section, but it only surfaced as a problem in the trees for the Fall in Asia shot and wasn't problematic in the Treehouse shot. As a result, I'd suggest using this article as a guide as to what works best.

For my next order I'm considering sharpening a little more aggressively than I do for ink jet to see if I can more closely mimic the sharper appearance of the ink jet prints.

Overall, I don't consider these to be prints for the person who is looking for the cheapest way to print or who thinks warehouse club prints are acceptable. Instead, this is a product designed for those who appreciate the finer things in life and the ultimate in quality. They make a great print for a high end exhibition, a wealthy client who enjoys a bespoken wardrobe , and your portfolio that you show in person to high end clients. They also make a special gift when you want to give a print that causes a "wow" response like I got from my wife, because they really are something very special.

They aren't for the bargain shopper who is more about value than quality or person who likes the cheesy oversaturated HDR images. Instead, large megapixel camera owners, medium format shooters, and those coming from a film background will appreciate the incredibly smooth continuous tone images.

Are they worth the price? Heck yeah, and in fact I'd argue that price threw me as they seem worth a lot more than they charge. As a result, I can easily HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product, but with the disclaimer that it's not for everyone. Cheapskates need not apply.

Get a FREE L.Type Print

For a limited time, LumeJet is offering readers of ronmartblog an exclusive opportunity to sample their print quality for just the $15 cost of postage and packaging. Choose your 3 favorite or most challenging images and send them via wetransfer or Dropbox or other link to orders@l-type.com with 'RONMART' in the subject line.

Images should ideally be as high-res as possible, in pdf, jpeg or TIFF form, and there is no limit on file size. A 6000x4000 pixel image will fit perfectly on A3 with a 1" border. Images should have embedded colour profiles. LumeJet will send you a payment link and contact sheet for approval and send you back 3 A3 L.Type mounted prints (normal price $40+P&P). Once your account has been created, all future web orders will also receive the RONMART 15% discount on print prices.

Where to Buy?

Ordering is a little complicated compared to traditional sites, so please read the entire section below before clicking anything or ordering to make sure you get your discount.

Special 15% Discount Offer

Get a 15% discount off published prices on all future print orders when you mention RONMART as your partner code on your first order.

Lumejet Print Technologies offers L.Type prints on 2 sites: 

• L-type.com: this is the bespoke site, with no upload capability. It’s really aimed at people wanting to order 10 or more prints or even a whole portfolio. You just need to mention my code once, the first time you send in your prints. They will create an account for you and the discount code be associated with your account. and applied on future orders while the discount is offered. Be sure to mention RONMART as your partner code when signing up!
• Lumejet.com: this is the more of a traditional retail website with the normal ROES-type upload. Here, you need to enter the code when when you first register in the Partner Code box.

CLICK HERE to sign up at LumeJet.com and enter your partner code RONMART as shown below:

When you are done, I'd recommend that you contact orders@l-type.com confirm that they have successfully applied your RONMART partner code with your account to ensure that you get your discount.

After you've registered

CLICK HERE to learn more about L.Type print ordering via lumejet.com and

CLICK HERE to learn more,  including file preparation guidelines and pricing, for L-Type.com.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Printing Series
• Sony a7R Mark III Review
• Meural Digital Canvas 2.0 Review - 2017 Product of the Year
• Breathing Color Art Peel - Inkjet Printable Wall Fabric with Repositionable Adhesive

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Meural Digital Frame 2.0 - 2017 Product Of the Year (Discount Offer)

Meural Canvas 2.0 Box - Bottom

I rarely do unboxing videos, but for this product I created the article entitled First Look - Meural Digital Canvas Photo Frame 2.0 where I did just that. The reason for this is that I wanted to have a little more bake time with this newest version of the wildly successful Meural Digital Canvas that I first reviewed in August 2016 before I rendered my final verdict on this newest version.

In the first look article you can get an idea of what you get in the box and the frame itself (the Lenora Black in this case), so in this review I'll focus on other relevant points.

Overview - What is a Digital Canvas?

Simply put, this is a dedicated 1080p video display with a low cost computer built in that allows it to talk to my.meural.com. This means that there's a Meural cloud service that is used to keep the files you upload and the settings you set for all of the frames you own. This allows for easy sharing of data between your computer, apps and the frame itself. 

My TV can computer can show photos, why is this better?

While it is true that many smart devices such as modern TV's can show photos, the problem is that this is not their primary purpose so displaying photos typically involves a lot of hassle and it's easy to close the app that is playing the slideshow. As a result, this makes these devices - just like your computer - good for a one off slideshow, but not something that is literally living art in your home.

I've bought small digital frames before and they suck, how is this different?

There's an old saying "you get what you pay for" and sadly most small form factor digital displays are just that. They are a horrifically low quality video display and a terrible software experience making them worse than using your TV or computer for displaying photos and the software is so poorly done that most people are usually turning them off within months of purchasing them.

Great for portraits in offices or homes

What makes Meural different is that this is a high quality display, as the price would suggest, with high quality software with the dedicated purpose of making it easy to display your photos and add more from any location that has internet access.

I'm proud to have licensed some of my images for use on Meural

What's more, you aren't limited to your own photos, so add the subscription service and you can enjoy others high quality art for those times when you want to enjoy art that exceeds your own abilities. To see examples of art you can enjoy on your frame, check out the galleries from artists and partners who have licensed work to Meural for use on your frame.

Setup

Device menu displayed via gesture feature

Setup for this device is much like any other IoT device these days - this frame has its own wifi access point that you connect to from your phone, then use the app to setup the device and get it on your local network. Generally speaking, it works just as easy as any other device of this type (like Nest products), which is to say an average user won't have any trouble setting it up. Some beginners may struggle a bit though.

With that said, one of the setup experiences involves using the gesture support on this frame and that's one of the few areas where I don't have good things to say about this product. Simply put, the gesture feature is terrible.

Frequently I found myself flapping like a bird trying to get the gestures to work with roughly a 5% success rate, but fortunately you can completely ignore this feature after you've set up the frame (and even with setup, it's optional).

Hanging the frame

Hanging the frame requires a drill and a hammer and a little patience with the measurements. It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish to hang the frame. While they include a small level with the frame, I still think it's better a real level for better accuracy. I failed to do so when hanging the frame at my parents house and it ended up being slightly off so it drives me crazy.

If you are mindful when hanging, you can set your frame up where it can change orientation from landscape to portrait, which is handy when you get tired of photos of one orientation and you want to mix them up with those of another. I love this feature, so I always make sure I hang my frames in a way that supports both orientations.

Settings

While Meural is constantly improving the settings experience, as of December 2017 here's what they looked like in the web browser:

App Experience

Here's a demo of what you can do using the app using an iPhone (in this case, the iPhone X) with the phone upright for the first part, and the phone in landscape orientation for the second part:

It should be noted that my mom had a iPhone 4s which wasn't supported since the app requires iOS 10 or later, and her phone only supports up to iOS 9. While it is cool to have apps that take advantage of the latest features, I wasn't too happy about a 4 year old phone being unsupported.

Click here to learn more about the requirements of the app on iOS and click here for Android. While the app has features like being able to switch the images in real time, you can also use the web interface from your computer or phone as another option.

I really wish Meural would be more thoughtful about backwards compatibility for phones or make all of the app features redundant in the web interface so owners with older phones would have more options.

Another frustration point is that the app can only control the frame when you are on the same network, so I can't control the frame on behalf of my parents remotely. Since they are both over 80, this is a real bummer as that could be quite useful.

TIP: The weakest link of any connected device is getting it on a networking and keeping it on the network. The Meural frame is no different, but I do find that it loses its network connection more than other devices. When this happens, the best bet is to just unplug and reconnect the frame to its power source and the connection will restore itself. I suspect this is due to the device failing to send the router a keep alive message, so hopefully this is something they will fix in the future.

Controlling the frame from the app demo

Customization

To me the key differentiator of Meural over the competition is the customization that it supports. In addition to the settings shown earlier, the scheduler allows you to pick which play list you display at each hour of the day plus when your frame sleeps. This is a HUGE benefit over all other solutions I've ever tried, and it's the reason why I proudly own three Meural frames.

Here's an example of how you configure this feature from the web browser (only):

There's a drag and drop interface for choosing which playlist you'd like to display on the frame at any given hour. Once you drop it on the frame you can drag it have it span multiple hours as I've done with the 78 image "portraits" playlist. You can also have it randomly choose play lists for part of the day and fixed playlists for other parts. Finally, you can specify which hours the frame sleeps which is my favorite feature as I don't want my frame running at night.

For simplicity sake, I've only shown two playlists here but it supports as many playlists as you've downloaded to your frame. You can also avoid this altogether and turn on "Playlist Rotation" and "Canvas goes completely dark" (shown earlier) if you want the frame to be more hands off and make those decisions for you.

This is the game changer feature that I can't live without!

Frame & Display Quality Thoughts

The display used in this frame is a good quality 1920 x 1080 (1080p) full HD display that resolves to 100 pixels per inch, and it features a matte finish to avoid reflections. Since it is calibrated nicely from the factory, this results in a very pleasant viewing experience that often times can fool novices into thinking they are looking at a framed print.

For those who do frame prints, the size feels about the same as a 13x19" print, so it's big enough to enjoy but not obnoxiously large. When viewing images in landscape orientation it feels just right for most things, but busy scenes viewed at distances greater than 16 feet can feel a bit on the small side (duh). However, in portrait mode I found that most images felt quite large and enjoyable, but that could also be since I get up close on my portraits so the images are larger than life size.

The frame itself features a nice wooden frame white a white matting that feels very professionally done. As a result, it doesn't feel like a cheap digital frame but instead like a print that you had framed. This is why I think I often get the reaction from guests who so say "I didn't realize that was digital" after they see the image change for the first time.

As previously mentioned, the gesture support is terrible so I consider it a non-feature. In fact, for my parents I had to effectively disable it as they would sometimes accidentally activate it which stressed them out.

I've owned my first version for over a year and heat has never been a problem. It's always cool to the touch, unlike my TV, so that's a good sign that it's using a lot less electricity too. This is one of the big benefits of this solution over a computer or TV used to display your images because I haven't noticed any impact on my electricity bill while running this frame for 16 hours a day for the last 16 months! My room doesn't feel like a sauna either like it does when I'm done watching a long movie.

New for 2.0 - the sleep button

Meural 2.0 Sleep Button

One great new feature for the 2.0 version is the sleep button. This allows you to push a physical button on the side of the frame to put it to sleep. Push it again and you get instant wake up - much like open and closing a Macbook Pro.

But why isn't it 4k?

4k is great, but it also comes at a premium price both in terms of the display cost as well as the the bandwidth and storage needed to transmit photos back and forth. While I'm sure there will be a day in the future when I'm bragging about the 4k Meural, I've found that at this size I don't have any concerns about resolution at normal viewing distances (and I'm a master printer and display expert) . A typical billboard is 15 dots per inch and a magazine which has a closer viewing distance is often 150 dots per inch, so this is a good trade off for price versus performance.

What about Momento?

Yes, I've heard of Momento Smart Frame (B&H & Amazon), but the software is optimized around the mobile photo experience with a lack end to end thought. It's also very cheaply built, so it doesn't have the same quality as a Meural. It's promising given its price point, but at this time I have to say it's poor hardware and software experience by comparison. I've also had a terrible experience trying to reach anyone at this company, so I've been reluctant to invest in one for fear that it would be the same experience as I've had with all of the cheap frames that have disappointed me in the past.

What about the optional subscription service?

I hate subscription services, and that's putting it very politely. This is why I'm happy to report that Meural doesn't require you use their service. What the service provides you is access to their gallery of curated art to display on your frame which for some may be preferable to their own images - especially businesses. However, that's a value added feature and not a required service.

While the galleries from artists and partners offer a lot of great images, some of which I enjoy on my frame despite my photography background, you aren't forced to use it so don't worry. I do recommend you try it out though as I've found some of the images are quite spectacular like the ones from 1x. You could never legally license these photos yourself at this price, so it's a good deal to get this many images at this price.

Conclusion

The Meural frame is the first and only digital frame that I can say that I've truly enjoyed. It has all of the features that I've wished for and its continuous improvement shows a commitment to make it even better for existing owners. My 1.0 frame has all of the software benefits of the 2.0, yet it didn't cost a penny to get those upgrades.

I also have found it to be a profound life changing experience for myself and my family members to enjoy hundreds of digital photos changing on the wall of my home (and my parents). There's no way I could display that many prints, so a lot of touching family photos can be enjoyed at no additional cost. What's more, I have no hesitation to include "bad" photos that I'd never print, but put a smile on our faces nevertheless.

While the first version was good, it felt like a product in progress from a start up. The bones were good and mine still works fine, but this newest version feels a lot more polished. I also had a unit shipped from the East coast to my house and then I shipped it to my parents place in Texas. Despite this the original packaging (shown here) kept the frame safe for thousands of miles of travel.

Simply put, there's no better way to enjoy your investment in photography than to display your photos on a Meural Digital Canvas.  As a result, I can easily give it my highest recommendation for anyone who enjoys viewing meaningful photos. It's also a no brainer for my 2017 ronmartblog.com Product of the Year.

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today.

Discount Offer

For a limited time, Meural is offering $100 off and if you order by December 20th they promise delivery by Christmas (exclusions apply and subject to weather and transportation conditions).

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Meural 2.0 First Look & What's Inside
• REVIEW: Meural Large Digital Frames–The Perfect Way To Display Your Family Photos
• Ron Martinsen Featured on Meural Digital Canvas
• Ron's Windows Computer Setup

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this. While I have purchased a 2.0 frame, I was also provided with one for review purposes. I also am a featured artist for images found in the subscription based service as part of a research experiment for a future idea that I have for this blog.

Perfectly Clear v3.5 Tutorial and $40 Discount

If you read my blog over the last year or two, you'd know that I was a fan of Perfectly Clear by Athentech because it really was a one-click photo editing tool. With 3.0 the user interface got much better and with version 3.5 it hits a home run!

Raw Editor

Built-in RAW Editor means you don't need any other software to edit your photos

The stand-alone features a raw editor that gets the job done, but I'll admit that it's not as good as other products out there. However, if you want a one product photo editing workflow, it gets the job done.

Crop tool works well and offers several different overlays

In the stand-alone version you can easily crop with some great overlay choices including the rule of thirds and the golden ratio.

New Live Presets and Looks Panels

One of the nicest improvements is that you can see what your presets and looks will do before you click them as shown here:

Even better, you can apply a look on top of your preset to get two layers of editing in just two quick clicks. What's more, you can dial down the look directly from the window using the opacity slider.

Version 3.5 Phot Editing Tutorial

Here's a quick video where I show how quickly I can edit 8 photos that come straight out of the camera with no prior edits ...

NOTE: YouTube degrades the quality of the original 4k recording so there are compression artifacts that look bad in dark areas - this does not happen in the real product:

Before & After Images

Here's some before and after edits I did using version 3.0 and in the video above you can watch the video of changes made using the v3.5 update (free to v3.0 owners):

Discount Offer

Existing v3.0 owners get a free upgrade using AppsManager!

LIMITED TIME special offer to save $40 is available when you CLICK HERE or use the coupon code RONMART40

Get my regular 10% discount on version 3.5 when you CLICK HERE.

Please note that coupon codes can change so visit my discount coupon code page or contact me if you have any problems with my code.

Conclusion

This product has come such a long way and gets better and better with each version. I was expecting a small update with v3.5, but instead I was extremely impressed with all of the enhancements. For users of Photoshop and Lightroom, you can still integrate it in as the first and/or last step of your photo editing workflow. For those who want a single solution, it is fantastic as a stand-alone solution that allows for blazing fast one click edits of your images.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Perfectly Clear 3.0 Tutorial & Special Offer
• Perfectly Clear 2.0 Review (Tutorial)
• First Look: on1 Photo RAW 2018 - The Best HDR & Pano Editor Yet?
• Luminar 2018 & Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows & Mac Special Offer
• REVIEW: Topaz Impression for the FREE Topaz Studio photo editor
• Imagenomic Portraiture Discount & Tutorial
• Ron’s Recommendations 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

First Look: on1 Photo RAW 2018 - The Best HDR & Pano Editor Yet?

Try on1 Photo RAW 2018

I'm pretty busy these days so I don't have time for betas. As a result, I've been rocking along with on1 Photo RAW 2017 not paying much attention to what's coming next. Tonight in advance of the launch I finally kicked the tires and got both surprised and shocked by some of the changes so I thought I'd fill you in on some  of the ones that I think are worth your time to check out...

HDR Editor

I was super impressed with how fast and well this feature worked. Honestly, I didn't expect much as I've really been loving Aurora 2018 HDR as I prepare for my upcoming review.  However, I really have loved the fine grain control it offers with RAW images and how it it saves the merged file in a special format so that I can make non-destructive re-edits at anytime. This means that the HDR merge is never really final, and I can always go dial back in the dark and bright areas that might get messed up while editing. Check it out...

Sadly, this video doesn't do it justice because it kinda ends up with an image that doesn't look so hot. However, the image shown at the top of the article features one that I processed using HDR only (no presets) for very fast and realistic results.

Pano Feature

Some people love their panos, but I hate them. However, I thought this demo which shows how it not only does a good job creating panos, but it also adds metadata to make Facebook treat it as a spinnable pano too:

Maybe this is old news to you pano experts out there, but if you are like me and wondered how you could do this - this is it! Pretty sweet!

Mask Blur Chisel

I never quite got the hang of the chisel tool in the past, but this video here gave me one of those chimpanzee moments (you know, ooh, ooh) and I immediately wanted to go try it out.

More Cool Videos

Want to see what else is new? Start with the video above, then check out these videos...

• New Color Range Masks: https://youtu.be/OVAZo59TIRE
• Mew Luminosity Mask Tools: https://youtu.be/v7ry-zRGqAk
• Paint With Color Brush: https://youtu.be/2DiuYS2UBbM
• New Noise Adjustment Brush: https://youtu.be/KrM-e75OwSU
• Remove Haze from a Photo: https://youtu.be/vzz1ueLqTis

Conclusion

I was unhappy with on1 products for a few years, so I stopped covering them on my blog. I was frustrated with them crashing, features I loved being removed, and something that remained being uninteresting to me.

With the 2017 version I got interested again, but I found myself mostly using it for Resize and not much else. However, I've spent some time this evening playing with the new features and rediscovering this product again, and I like what I see.

At a minimum I'd encourage existing on1 fans to check it out as I think it's a worthy upgrade.

For those who have been burned in the past, I'd suggest giving it another go as the setup seems to do a good job of installing things in cleanly without any headaches. When trying out the product, I hit one snag when I selected  corrupt iPhone 7 file on my NAS, but other than that it was rock solid. It feels like some of the quality issues that plagued on1 in the past have been sorted, and more compelling features have been brought back to make it something worth considering again.

Contact me to let me know your thoughts!

Try it Today & Get  Discount

CLICK HERE to learn more and take it for a spin. If you like it, then try out the MART17 coupon code to get a 20% discount off your order. Contact me if you have any troubles with the special offer.

Other articles you may enjoy

Check out the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

REVIEW: Topaz Impression for Topaz Studio

If you haven't Topaz Studio, it's a new product by Topaz Labs that is free and is built from the ground up to give you access to some great editing tools, but it also gets enhanced frequently to include new features. Recently they added Clarity and now they've added Impression!

Impression is our their most popular effect software, it’s capable of a near endless variety of realistic painting effects in a very short amount of time, so this is a great opportunity to get your followers and online communities excited about it’s release. Topaz Impression generates natural painterly effects by painting brushstrokes one at a time. (It just does this very fast!) Impression can paint over 10,000 brushstrokes in less than a second, all while completely following your artistic direction, making truly personal art that you can call your own.

Check out my Topaz Studio article if you want to learn more about Studio and check out my Impression review if you want to see what Impression can do for your images in the full stand alone version. The good news is here is that much of that functionality of the full version comes to studio along with many of its popular presets. Here's but of few of the 116 presets featured in the beta I used for this review:

The final version is AVAILABLE NOW, so check it out!

Where To Learn More or Buy

Click here to download the Topaz Studio application and USE THIS LINK to buy Topaz Impression or CLICK HERE to learn more.

Clarity Now Available Too

I was shooting in Vancouver, Canada when the announcement that Clarity has been added to Topaz Studio:

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Clarity plug-in pack for Topaz Studio.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Topaz Studio Review & FREE Offer
• Topaz Adjust 5.0
• Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 (B&W Products Comparison)
• Topaz Labs DeNoise 3.0
• Topaz Labs Glow 2
• Topaz Labs Impression 2 (new review 11/23/16)
• Topaz Labs ReMask 5.0
• Topaz Labs Restyle 1.0
• Topaz Labs Simplify 4
• Topaz Labs Texture Effects 2.0
• Printing Series 
• Discount Coupon Codes

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.