A Retrospective

                             

 

Regular visitors to my blog will have seen some or all of the above pictures before and while I would not normally repeat post pictures (because I have so many unseen images to share) there is a good reason for doing so today.

I recently signed up to test a new product on the basis that I would then post a review about the product once I had received it. 

This is a first for me and probably not something I will do often because the real focus of my blog is the pictures that I love to share, and that is why I have posted a large selection today.

So what was I testing? It was a new photobook from Saal Digital. 

I have created a few photobooks in the past with very different results and so I was interested to see what the guys at Saal Digital would come up with. The pictures above are a selection of the shots I included and I had a great time creating a shortlist and finally narrowing that list even further for pictures to include. I have so many images saved digitally but they always look better in print than on the screen and so I picked some of my favourite shots or pictures that have a special meaning to me. Eventually I had a long list of almost 200 pictures and I narrowed it down to around 70 before settling on the 40 I finally included in the book.

So having made my basic selection I went to the Saal Digital site and got started. This involved downloading the design software which allowed me to upload my images to the project.

There is a range of different options to choose from for example page size/orientation, glossy or matte finish, padded covers, leather covers and the number of pages. There are also lots of good looking and easy to use templates and you can even choose to purchase a stylish gift/presentation box to keep your project looking good.

I chose the 29cm x 19cm landscape format book and I opted to keep things simple and designed my own layout rather than use one of the many templates. I also chose a matte cover but glossy pages.

The whole process was really straightforward and intuitive; adding the pictures was very easy and there is a helpful feature which assesses the quality of the image to make sure it will look good once it is printed and there is an optional grid feature which is really helpful aligning the image on the page.

It is possible to print images across a full double page spread and the book folds flat so that pictures printed in this format look just as good as those on the single page. I used this feature for a few pictures and they look stunning.

It is possible to add text and you can choose different coloured or textured backgrounds either for individual pages or you can apply them to the whole project, whatever you think shows your pictures off best.

I started with a basic 28 page book but added a few extra pages taking it up to 32 in all, I could have added more but I held back because I also opted for the presentation box which comes in either white or anthracite. It is a really sturdy good looking box with foam padding to keep the book secure. It is a really nice finishing touch and would be great if you are getting the book as a gift or for a professional presentation but at £20 I think if I were doing this again just for myself I would add more pages rather than get the box.

Having uploaded the pictures and finalised my project I received an email telling me that my project had been uploaded and from there it was easy to track its progress. I completed my book at 22.03 on a Wednesday evening, the project was released for production at 22.06 and completed by 10.42 the following morning and ready for shipping an hour later. I was really impressed  by that but to be honest I was a little anxious about whether that was too quick and what the quality would be.

A week later the book arrived (coming from Germany and over a bank holiday I thought that was pretty good too) but I always get quite impatient waiting for things so I was pleased when the postman knocked today and I opened up to see my book.

The quality is excellent and the finish is really professional. Pictures are printed on heavy weight Fuji photo paper and the glossy finish means the images pop off the page. As I said before the double page spread works really well and I think this is a great feature so if you are going to create your own photobook then I would recommend trying this out.

I have shown my book to a number of people already and everyone who has seen it has commented on how good it looks, not just because the pictures are good but the quality and presentation is outstanding.

I would happily recommend Saal Digital to anybody. They are not cheap (my 32 page book cost slightly more that £40) but the quality is so good, to my mind it is good value. If like me you take pride in the pictures you take it is worth paying to present them well.