If you enjoy photography, I'm sure you can appreciate a beautiful photo book.
A couple of weeks ago Saal Digital asked me to review one of their book products... Eager to start seeing some of my images in print, it was a great chance for me to self-publish quickly and easily without the hassle of understanding the ins and outs of graphic design and printing.
Looking through my street photography archive I found a strong collection of images of silhouetted pedestrians meandering through spaces in large cities. The black and white images gave me a sense of people drowning in the urban environments around them. With that thought, a concept was born, and within a couple of hours my first book 'In Drowned Concrete' was being put together by the good people at Saal. Here's a quick run-down of my experience working with them.
Upload
Although Saal gives you the option to download their own software and create everything on their platform, I opted instead to use the 'Professional Zone'. This is perfect for anyone who has basic to moderate graphic programme skills and would prefer to stick to a format that they understand. For me, I simply put my pages together in Indesign and uploaded them straight to the Saal Digital site. I had some trouble determining if my images were centred. It would be helpful if the the object placement snapped to guides to ensure the layout is neat.
Order
I went for an A4 hard cover book with gloss pages. There was a wide range of other sizes and styles I could have chosen, but this was the most basic. It was a little disappointing that there was an additional fee to have the barcode removed from the back page, but other than that the price is super affordable.
Delivery
After placing the order I received an email straight away to say my book was en-route, and just a few days later it was delivered to my door.
Final product
I was super impressed with the final product. The fact that the book is bound flat meant that my panoramic images stretching across a full spread aren't interrupted by an ugly line through the centre.
While I do love the gloss, I think my style of images may have been better suited to matte paper... A thought for next time!
A few pages from the book below.
