Saal Digital Photobook Review

Welcome back readers!

I hung my head in shame when I realised how long it had been since I last caught up but university and general living got in the way. Do not worry though, on the third official day of my summer holidays I have returned with something incredibly exciting.

For years I have been OBSESSED with photography and my Canon 650D has been my trusty companion for nearly 6 years now. I love taking photos wherever I go and am well known to take hundreds and hundreds on just one outing. A few years ago now, I was very honoured to win a photography competition and now one of my photographs is displayed on a wall in my local hospital. It’s not every day that that happens really is it?

Most of the photos from my childhood have been documented in photo albums. However, now I’m older I find that instead of printing off my photos as keepsakes they just stay on numerous different memory cards instead. Please tell me I am not the only one?

I have been looking for a way to ‘showcase’ my favourite photographs for a while and a few weeks ago I was scrolling through Instagram and saw an advert for ‘Saal Digital Photobooks’. After getting in touch and they reached out and gave me a voucher to spend on their products, specifically their photobooks, in exchange for a review (which you’re reading now). I was SO excited!

The way it works is very simple:

• First, download the design software which you use to design your product (linked at the bottom of this post).
• Secondly, get designing! It’s that simple!

My Photobook details:

• The photobook I went for is the ‘Hardcover Photobook’, sized 15 x 21 (A5).
• The cover finish is ‘glossy’.
• The cover is padded (at an additional cost of £5 – it’s worth it!)
• The spreads are printed on ‘photo paper glossy’.
• I also chose not to remove the barcode from my photobook too.
• My photobook is 28 pages, 15 double page photo spreads, including the cover. I have included photos of some of my favourite pages.
• I paid for a couple of extra pages as I was indecisive in which photos to include. Don’t worry though the standard number is still plenty.

The easy to use software allows you to either create your photobook how you want. It can also automatically insert your photos into a layout. You can have multiple photos on one page or have a full page spread of your photos. Plus, the book lays flat so you can fully appreciate the photo too! There are numerous different options for the make of your book too, from glossy covers to matte, to unpadded or padded covers and different sizes depending how big you want your book to be. You can design it in any way you please with minimal hassle.

My Order:

After placing my order it was shipped in just two days and arrived a couple of days after that. Whilst I was designing my photobook I was unsure whether I wanted to pay extra for the padded cover but in all honesty I am so glad I did. The quality is outstanding and it just makes the book look even more professional than it already does. It is a keepsake for me too so I am glad I made it extra special.

As you will be able to see from the photos included in this post, I chose to only go for double page spreads. This was just personal preference as I liked the way my photos looked as a larger print. However, after researching the company I have seen lots of people who have designed their books to be multiple photos on one page and they too look amazing. I know I’m biased but I think it makes my photographs look amazing!

The Photobook itself:

The quality of the book is a lot better than I expected. I suppose I was just slightly skeptical as the deal seemed too good to be true. The addition of the text on the front cover, at no extra cost, makes it personal to me. Although I chose not to remove the barcode, it is only small and I barely notice it anyway.

Overall, I am absolutely blown away by not only the quality, speed of service and finished product of my photobook. I am not sure what I was expecting but this has by all means exceeded my expectations. I genuinely cannot express how pleased I am, if only I recorded the Skype call to my Mum when I first received it as that says it all! I’m already gathering my photographs together to design another one. The fact that you can make them so personal to you means they would make great presents too.

Plus, I have NOT stopped showing everyone I can, sorry if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have already been spammed with photos!

For you:

I will include the link to the Saal website so you too can have a look at the products, not just photobooks, which they sell and let me know in the comments below what you think of mine and if you end up purchasing one. At the moment they have a welcome promotion of £15 off their photobooks, with a minimum order of £24.95 and the voucher is valid until 30/06/2018. It’s a bargain and you get an amazing product out of it too!

I hope you have liked this post, I appreciate the stigma around ad’s but I wouldn’t promote it so highly if I didn’t think it was worth it and as I have said previously the finished product is outstanding.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments! x

(All photographs featured in this blog post are my own, taken on my Canon 650D DSLR).

Website: https://www.saal-digital.co.uk/

Software download: https://www.saal-digital.co.uk/software-download/download/