I recently took advantage of an invitation to trial a “Professional Line Photobook” from Saal Digital - luckily I had the perfect project all ready and waiting to really test it out.
Last year I visited Thailand with my wife and decided to leave my usual Canon SLR gear behind and instead only shoot with my iPhone XS.
The promise of being able to print a selection of images out on a top-level product and see just what a phone could do was an interesting prospect and so I set to work putting a selection of images together.
Quality binding and finish.
There are a variety of extra options you can go for including a clear acrylic front cover and a presentation box, plus a choice of sizes. I went for a simple classic black leatherette cover as you can see in the first photo. They use a lay flat binding and as you can see above it is all very well put together - it’s going to last.
It’s not just photos you can add to the pages but other graphics images too so I went for a map as you can see on the inside front cover as a nice introduction to where we had travelled.
Don’t waste that inside front cover - I put a map on it.
The lay flat binding I mentioned above is particularly useful for laying out a wide image across two pages for maximum effect. I used this several times and had it in mind when I started this project so knew I had some photographs that would suit this layout.
A good example is this one of Wat Arun, Bangkok’s famous Temple of the Dawn, which as I had planned was just across the river from our hotel offering some great views. We all know an iPhone can take a good clear photo, but would it hold up to being enlarged in this way?
This is a good example of where the lay flat binding allows the image to flow across two pages.
The other key element of a good photobook is how rich the colours are in the finished product. Of course you have to have a good image to start with, but what you don’t want to see is either washed out colours or perhaps even worse, over saturated and obviously false looking images.
This image of the night flower market and it’s amazing orchids was the perfect test and I was very pleased with the accuracy and vibrancy of the colours.
These orchids came out with very accurate colour reproduction.
Overall then I was very pleased with the end result from Saal Digital. Bear in mind this top quality product is aimed at professional photographers who need to deliver excellent results to their clients, not the hobbyist, and the pricing reflects that. However, as long as you recognise that you really do get what you pay for, for a special project like this one, the Professional Line Photobooks really do stand out.
This book came in at £128 (incl. VAT) for 74 pages, approximately £1.73 a page which actually seems pretty good value when you work it out like that.
You can browse all the details on their website at https://www.saal-digital.co.uk/professional-line/
Sunrise on a misty mountain top in southern Thailand.
Thanks for reading,
Paul.