Some months ago I responded to a call from Saal Digital, a German printer who were looking for people to review their photo books, so I jumped on board. I have previously ordered some of their products so I was expecting a quality product from them, but the proof is always in the pudding as they say.
Their online system is fairly easy to use, with no real issues, as usual if you are new to the product there is a learning curve but honestly it’s not rocket science, upload your images, drop them in the layouts, choose your layouts, cover and you are good to go.
I decided to go with an acrylic cover, a little risky as it can get scratched fairly easily so one has to be careful, it does come with a a protective film when you receive it, and does actually look really good.
Now the pages are nice and thick so it’s a good feeling when you turn the page, the quality of the printed page is outstanding, rendering a depth to the image that makes you really appreciate the detail in that image. I chose the Professional line of books which gives you several options to your final product and yes that does affect your overall price, so you can decide. Pricing is fairly moderate starting at £64.99 for 26 pages if you have chosen the acrylic cover, and can end at £150,99 with 130 pages, so you can see you have a very large choice in the number of pages, it’s also important to note that this is not your magazine type print, the images are high quality photo prints, so your images really do look awesome in the book, very different if you went with a publisher.
So what images would you put in this book, well I would say only your best images should go in there, use it as a portfolio book, show only your best images I say, and when people see these images they can totally be blown away by the detail, and depth they will see. You do have the option for a linen cover if you would like and were I to make another book I think my choice would be a linen cover, it’s just longer lasting and far les likely to be damaged.
Should you get a book like this….absolutely, you want people to see your work in the best possible way, and you certainly can not go wrong with this product, give them a try I am confident you will not be sorry and I am sure that If there happens to be a fault with the book they will certainly be more than willing to sort it out for you.
Now having just said that I did have a problem with the top left corner of almost all the right side pages, there were some bubbles under the pages, now this may have been a one off problem with the machine or it could have been because this book was printed and sent the next day after I uploaded it, perhaps rushed. I can say for certain though had I paid full price for this book I most certainly would have asked them to fix it, and sure they would have done so, that side the book is still fabulous and certainly should not put you off, the printing truly is spectacular.
#saaldigital
#photobook
