Are these bare prints?

Not surprising for metal but surprising in the context of a high quality artwork print can take quite a bit of abuse.

Chromaluxe has semi gloss and matte finishes. It’s probably just that your particular lab doesn’t carry them but others do.

Direct to dibond is probably a UV printer.

In terms of quality of your three options, id rank them (1) paper print mounted on dibond, (2) chromaluxe and (3) direct UV dibond.

Paper is definitely the best quality but chromaluxe can still look very good too. UV printing is not as high quality but may be good enough for you. If your lab is local go in and look at samples.

Stay away from brushed metal prints unless you’ve seen it before in person. It’s a very niche look and doesn’t work for many images imo.

The reason I ask is because I am thinking of making some large prints, like 40x60 or larger, but am not sure what to do once I get them.

I think this explains the popularity of ready to hang art like metal prints which don’t need a frame. Metal is surprisingly robust and although pricy, aren’t as pricy as having a paper print framed. If it was smaller, I’d frame it myself but a 40x60 isn’t something I’d attempt.

Yeah every couple years I buy new hard drives.

I have about a dozen that are about 10-20 years old. It’s getting hard to find a use for them, but so far I just use them as a 5th level backup, write once. I also destroyed a bunch that were too small.

Spend the extra money for good outdoor clothes. If you are cold you will be miserable and won’t be able to concentrate on photography.

Regarding the cold, photographers are in a bit of a quandry. While you are hiking, snowshoeing, sking to your spot you are generating heat so you don’t need as much warm clothing. But once you stop moving you get cold very fast.

So you’ll need layers and will want layers on everything. Tops, bottoms, head, feet, hands. E.g. mittens over a lighter weight glove. Hat plus hood on a parka and maybe scarf. Control your heat and try not to break into a sweat when exerting yourself. You may need eye protection if the wind picks up.

The normal clothes you might wear in winter is nowhere near enough once you stop moving. It will feel much much colder after you’ve been standing around doing nothing. If it’s 0C outside I might dress like it’s -20C for photography

yeah it’s hit or miss. Sometimes I’ve gone back after a year or so and tried again when they’ve updated the algorithm and it turns out better.

What I notice though is, for example, going from 24 MP to 33 MP, seems like a large jump in detail and resolution. Although the gap there is smaller. But going from 33 MP to 61 MP, the jump doesn’t seem to be as large although it’s about double the megapixels.

There are diminishing returns.

First when increasing MP you need to print larger to see a difference. Nobody is going to be tell on an 8x10 print, but maybe on a 24x36.

Second when you increase MP the individual pixels get smaller and hence noisier. So the quality and detail goes down and you don’t get as much improvement as the pixel numbers alone suggest

Topaz has a specific setting for motion blur in Sharpen AI. Like all AI based tools, sometimes it works great, other times not so much.

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

Ansel Adams

This doesn’t change as you get better or more experienced or you take more photos. Your standards also go up and you become pickier and pickier.

Use internal drives with a dock and store cold. Saves the hassle of dealing with a bunch of cases and power adapters.

For fully on backup all the time use a versioned backup like time machine or a cloud service.

You need a version history or time stamped backups going back far enough that preceeds the issue.

Everyone is saying not to bother watermarking. And nobody who does is any good does it. As a counter example here is a highly successful photographer whose work is fantastic that uses obnoxiously large watermarks: https://cherylwalsh.art/

You can see by her subject matter, her work might be one that is frequently stolen by people who don’t want to pay for prints. Much more so than the average photog selling prints.

The watermark is big enough that it would not be easy to remove by an average person even as tools to do so improve.

thanks, that was very helpful

What is DigiTech? On site IT services? Post production and editing?

Other people have commented on the lens selection and reducing that.

Regarding the bag, it makes a huge difference in carrying weight. You have 10lbs for camera gear and while you can reduce that, it’s not a lot by (non ultralight) hiking standards. My fstop bag is great when its 10lbs but miserable by time the bag is 20lbs.

In general photo bags, even ones billed as outdoor, sport, or adventure are crappy compared to a dedicated hiking bag. They tend to be too heavy, poor fitting, and have a poor harness.

You probably don’t want an ultralight bag because while the light weight is enticing, if you are having any kind of pain or fit problems they will exacerbate the issues.

Take a look at hiking bags like the osprey Atmos. I’m not suggesting you get this bag for photo hikes but people can comfortably carry 50lbs in it for multiple days. That’s because the harness and suspension is great. It is not an ultralight bag.

Figure out the weight you would typically carry then find a bag designed for that weight that fits you well. I can’t understate the importance of fit. You won’t find a photo bag that’s as good as a hiking bag but some may be good enough. Many photogs also prefer to use a hiking bag even though it’s less convenient for photography.

I’d rather they go the other way and make a small but sharp 24-105 f/5.6

Wait til you see what someone paid for a banana

(1) myself, (2) local lab in my city, (3) online places