Review: Shiny Prints – My First Metal Prints!

I’ve always liked the idea of printing photos as it seems cool to think about taking a moment that you captured with your camera and making it into a physical thing that you can hold or hang on a wall. I’ve played around with a bit of printing in the past at Costco, which is a cheap and easy way to get photos printed, but I’ve always been really intrigued by going a bit further and getting a more professional job done.

In particular, I’ve been really pulled in by the idea of metal prints. In fact, I can still remember the first time that I ever saw a metal print in person. I was at a rec centre in Canmore called Elevation Place and on the first floor just inside the entrance to the building they had a room filled with a photo exhibition. On the far wall was a photo by a well-known Banff photographer named Paul Zizka. The photo was of a local lake with the Aurora shining above. I couldn’t get over how bright and colourful the photo was. I looked at it for a while and loved how it looked so clean and crisp. I especially liked that there wasn’t a frame and that it stood out from the wall slightly. There’s also something about printing on metal that resonates with my inner engineer for whatever reason. I know it’s a bit nerdy, but I find the idea super cool!

So when I read a review by Dan Carr on a company called Shiny Prints I was really interested. I love finding companies that you instantly trust, offer a good product, and have good customer service. Every now and then I stumble across these companies that are doing things a bit different and are easy to get behind and support. This happened when I found a few other companies such as Rhino Gear and Peak Design to give you a few examples.

What are Metal Prints?

If you’ve never heard of metal prints before, here’s the quick rundown on what they are and how they work. First of all, the metal that is used for printing is aluminum. It’s super thin, shiny, and can be cut into all sorts of sizes and shapes. It also holds its shape by itself so you don’t need a frame or anything. They typically just have a mounting bracket on the back which makes them sit ½” to 1 ½ ” off of the wall so that they look like they’re floating.

There are a few different ways that the photo is actually put onto the metal, and at Shiny Prints, they use a process called Dye Sublimation. It sounds high-tech and I don’t know much about it except that the print is first done on a piece of special paper that is then transferred onto the aluminum panel with heat. The inks on the paper are turned into a gas from the heat and absorbed into the surface of the aluminum panel.

This process ends up giving the metal prints the vibrant colours, 3D look, durability, and detail that they are known for.

Why Shiny Prints?

A while back, I reached out to Shiny Prints to price some things out, find out a bit more about the process of getting prints done, and discuss some options. As full disclosure, after that discussion, they offered me a $300 coupon to be used towards some prints in return for a post or review. I like to be completely honest, so I won’t let this incentive influence my opinion of the company or the product, but instead I thought it was a good opportunity to create a post to share the process and results with you.

Like I had mentioned before, I really like finding companies that I can trust and resonate with, and that’s exactly what happened with Shiny Prints. Here are the reasons that I am big fans of them:

• Their website is modern, easy to use, and informative.
• Their customer service is awesome, and when you reach out to them you get great answers and feedback quickly.
• They make it easy to ship to Canada, which is a big deal for me!
• They offer a bunch of different sizes, and can even do custom sizes or shapes.
• They work directly with you to make sure that everything is done right.
• Their prices are up front and listed directly on their website which makes it easy to figure out what things are going to cost.
• They have lots of information about different finishes and mounts.
• Their quality is supposed to be the best available.
• Their prices are the best possible and they will price match any of their competitors.

For all of these reasons above, I’m really happy to have found Shiny Prints and I can’t wait to get my first metal prints done!

Here’s What I’m Getting Printed!

So we’ve just moved into a new apartment in Fernie, BC and the walls are looking a bit sparse and barren so I decided that this was the perfect time to get some pictures printed up. It’s also a good opportunity to try and test things out to do some printing for friends, family, and customers in the future.

I spent some time going through my collection of photos and found a few that I wanted to send through for printing. We wanted one of New Zealand after having spent 15 months in the country, two from our other international travels (Scotland and Myanmar), one from my brother’s wedding that we planned to give to them as a gift.

We settled on the pictures below:

The Quiraing, Scotland:

This is a photo that I took on the Isle of Skye in northern Scotland. We had visited this place the day before I took this picture when we were driving around the island and checking out different things to see, like the Old Man of Storr, Neist Point, Portree, and the Fairy Pools. You know, the typical tourist things. In typical Scottish fashion, however, it was windy and rainy, so I wasn’t able to get photos quite the way that I wanted to. The next morning, however, I woke up early to drive back out to the Quiraing for sunrise. It was about and hour’s drive, but it was our last day on the island so I only had one chance to get the photo. It was raining still when I woke up, and it continued to rain for the first 45 minutes of the drive. There were many times that I almost stopped, turned around, and headed back to our hostel for the comfort of bed. Just as I got close, however, the rain miraculously stopped, so I hurried to get there as quickly as I could in case the rain was close behind me. I was able to make it to this spot, however, and get the photo with some decent light and most importantly, with no rain or wind. It involved a bit of scrambling and clambering on the rocks, but I think the shot ended up being pretty cool. It’s always been one of my favourites, probably because it felt like so much work and luck are hidden within the photo.

The plan is to print this one at 16″ x 24″.

The Wanaka Tree, New Zealand:

After living in New Zealand for 15 months, the place feels like a second home. The town that we worked in, Wanaka, especially feels this way, so we decided that we wanted a photo from there to hang on our wall. I decided that this photo, of the famous Wanaka tree that I took one winter morning in July would be a good representation of our time there. It shows the lake and the mountains that we spent so much time admiring, climbing, or swimming in.

For this photo, I stitched together a bunch of photos to make one giant megapixel monster, which I then cropped into a panorama. Since Shiny Prints does custom sizes, I thought that it would be worth trying something wide and narrow. I plan to print this photo at 36″ x 15″.

The Temples of Bagan:

At the end of 2017, Hilary and I took a trip to Myanmar and it ended up being one of our favourite countries of our whole Asia trip. And within Myanmar was a place called Bagan which is a giant plains with ancient temples scattered everywhere across it. And like a true Russian Nesting Doll, within Bagan, was a temple called Bulethi where we caught one of the best sunrises of the trip. And that’s where this photo was taken from.

We wanted a photo from Myanmar, so we decided to go with this photo showing the temples of Bagan. I plan to print this guy at 32″ x 15″. 

Keep Posted for the Review:

Once I have the order placed and delivered, I plan to post a follow-up review telling you everything about the ordering process, the different frame mount options, the shipping, final costs, and of course, the final product!

So keep posted right here for the review when it comes out. And while you’re at it, check out Shiny Prints for yourself by clicking the buttons below!

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This site is my place to share everything that I know about photography and travel. I'm not an expert, I'm just a guy who loves this stuff and I want to share everything that I learn, as I learn it, with complete honesty and transparency. So, whether you're looking to improve your photography or you want to learn more about travelling to a new place, I want to help you on your journey. Check out my about page to find out more and get in contact with me. I'd love to hear from you!