Ag|AgCl, with the lowest values observed for the Pt-AHP derivatives. The free-base AHPs exhibit sharp Soret bands and apparent three-humped Q bands. The metal complexes in contrast exhibit intricately structured Soret and Q features, as expected for a low-symmetry macrocycle. The Pd complexes exhibit strong absorption in the orange-red region of the visible spectrum (570-650 nm), while the Q bands of the Pt and Mn complexes taper off past 700 nm, i.e., in the near-infrared. The lower-energy absorption of the Pt[X-AHP] series, relative to Pd[X-AHP], is consistent with the slightly lower electrochemical HOMO-LUMO gap for the Pt series.