SAAL PROFESSIONAL LINE PHOTOBOOK REVIEW
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Like many photographers the coronavirus pandemic brought an abrupt halt to getting out and about and capturing the landscapes I love, so along with being furloughed from my "day job" I had unexpected time on my hands.
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I had seen Saal on Facebook and Instagram advertising for professional photographers to apply for a £100 voucher towards creating a photobook from their Professional line range in return for an impartial, honest review once I received the book . So I applied, successfully and started the design process
"The professional line photobook surprises with its superior quality. All products in the professional range are handmade and can be customized with high-quality covers such as the acrylic glass cover. An impressive matching box is also available."
After having a further look on their website and downloading the software from Saal, I settled on the 30 x 21cm format for my book. The selection process for the construction of the pages intuitive. I selected the acrylic and leather cover option with glossy photopaper, no giftbox and no barcode. There are then 3 options for designing the page layouts and I selected the auto layout option just to see how it looked. If I wasn't happy, I could disable the function which allowed me more flexibility in its design. Having decided on 50 pages for the book I then uploaded my images
The design of the page layouts was easy to work with as guidelines ensure that your images are lined up and easy to size. As I was using an eclectic mix of landscape, portrait and square image formats it suited what I had in mind
Once I was happy with the format and had checked it over, I placed the order. It arrived approx 10 days later. On opening, I was impressed with the colours which were very natural and a true representation of how I had processed my images. The lay-flat element of the book made viewing my images much easier too and I would recommend that for panoramic images. ​I was also very impressed with the quality of the cover. I had chosen to go with the acrylic front and slate effect on the binding and back. The acrylic printing was excellent and I would now consider having some of my images printed in this way for display and for selling too.
Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of designing my photobook with Saal and it has been a learning curve, curating the images and using the software. I would definitely use them again, not just for personal photobooks, I would also be happy to use on the wedding side of my business as an album alternative and I will be looking at the other services Saal offer too!
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Their website is https://www.saal-digital.co.uk