Saal Digital Professional Photobook Review
- Bekka at Fae Photographics
- Jul 13, 2020
- 4 min read
So I was recently given the opportunity to work with Saal Digital UK and test out their new professional line photo book.
Saal Digital produce an amazing range of photo books suited to a wide variety of consumers. As well as calendars, posters and wall art. This is my first time working with them and yes while they paid for the making of this book, all thoughts and opinions in this review are completely my own.
To start us off I’d like to talk about the initial 'how to get started.' When I received the email informing me of this opportunity the information given was very straight forward and easy to follow. All I had to do was download the software they provide, and find which product from the range I was looking for. The programme itself it also quite easy to use and allows you to be very custom with your choices but also gives you guidance if needed. You get a choice between gloss or matte paper and can choose from a selection of surfaces and textures for the outside of the book. You also arrange exactly how many pages you would need. And, don’t panic like I did when I ran out of pages, because you can always go back and change this throughout.
For my book I chose the 30x30 from the professional line range and selected the ‘wood look taupe’ surface with matte photo paper and 50 pages.
I began the image placement process by using the pre-made layouts displayed on the right as seen above, to give myself a base understanding and starting point for how they advise the photo book be set out. I then went on to use the file explorer as seen on the right, to find the folder within my computer the images for the book were in. This is much like using the file explorer on your windows computer. It's then simply a drag and drop process from there. I found that even though i had a lot of help with the basic layouts i could still customise and work it how it best suited me and my image. This program also, shares a feature from Adobe Photoshop where you can drag guides out from the rulers so you can ensure photos are all equal or exact sizes.
Other interesting features made available and good to remember for future use:
Create and save your own templates
Instant feedback on printing quality based on the image resolution
Creating a PDF preview of the book
Whilst you can tell that this programme has a lot of similar functions to that of Photoshop, PowerPoint and InDesign, I don't see this as a bad thing. Because, as photographers and creators most of us use these types of software on the daily and its nice to be able to go into something new and not be completely overwhelmed by a dozen new mechanics.
Now for me this was the most nerve wrecking part. Adding to cart and essentially handing over your baby for print. There’s always those questions that gnaw in the back of our mind throughout this stage; Have I forgotten something? Is it going to look as good as I think? And, what if it doesn’t look the same as the monitor displays? Once I got over this (what felt like 100 hours later) I confirmed everything and went on to order. Now I am going to be completely honest I don't quite remember much of this part because of the aforementioned gnawing, but what i can is that this was also just as easy to follow and once all details were filled out and sent I received a confirmation email shortly after giving me piece of mind.
Now, with everything going on in the world I was expecting delivery to be pretty slow but to my surprise I got the package 4 days later. Which, I found incredibly reasonable especially for something made to order during a global pandemic.
The package I was received was surprisingly light, it had a few minor damages that I assume happened in transit but no damage to the book itself as it was in a protective sleeve as well as wrapped in a plastic sleeve and finally the acrylic cover had a layer of film on it. I did slightly panic when I saw there was a label attached to the front but quickly found it was on the film and not the book. Upon further inspection I found what I assumed to be some paper dust and very gently brushed this away but found that just the touch from the top of my nails (not the ends) had created some lines on the acrylic that I cannot get rid off. This I would say is the only downside to this book as overall I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the design and the paper. When I chose to go with matte paper I was slightly concerned that it wouldn't pick up the details in the dark parts of my images. Luckily, it has and each image is exactly as I pictured. The book lays perfectly flat so the images aren't obscured by a bent page or reflections, sometimes the pages are a bit difficult to turn often turning 2 at once without knowing. I assume this is down to the thickness of the pages but also human error, in that when turning you are trying to touch as little as possible to avoid fingermarks. Fingermarks are a photographers worst nightmare for their prints but I think Saal Digital has eased my mind slightly because unless you have particularly dirty or oily fingers, it is hard to leave a mark. Minus the acrylic cover which of course attracted fingermarks quite easily.
Overall, this is an amazing book at a reasonable price. I strongly recommend Saal Digital Professional Line Photo Books. The print quality combined with the excellent offered services and fast delivery times make Saal Digital a great choice for any photographer. I look forward to making more images and creating another photo book with Saal Digital in the future.
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