The Saga Museum Blog!

Picture quality and completeness are the two main areas in which The Saga Museum will shine brighter than any previous Star Wars guide.

To date, most Star Wars collectible books have provided an abundance of content while the accompanying images seem to be dragged along as an afterthought.  With manufacturers pouring as much thought, time, and money into sensational package design as they do into the product itself, it is easy to see why many collectors are drawn to Mint in Sealed Box (MISB) and Mint on Sealed Card (MOC) items.  Star Wars packaging uses a host of visual stimuli such as shape, color, character/accessory placement, eye-catching text, and exciting movie stills to tantalize the eyes of consumers.  Unfortunately, prior volumes' minute reproductions of this packaging have done an injustice to both the collector and the collectible itself. You simply cannot enjoy the stunning presentation and detailed character sculpts to the level they were intended when you have to strain to look at them. If you cannot enjoy the visual impact of the piece, then your journey thumbing through a collectible book could be very disappointing, leaving too much to the imagination.

Images shown in previous guides share many of the same problems: oddly-skewed perspective shots, dark imagery, blown-out (bright) imagery, multiple light glares, deep shadows, strong yellow or blue tints, or boring, non-descript black-and-white.  It is also not unusual to see images crooked, blurry, over-cropped with edges cut off, or under-cropped with distracting backgrounds (wht/blk/gry foam core, shag rugs, bed sheets, wood/tile floor, towels, etc.).  In addition, many show only 40% - 60% of the items categorized in the text.  Sadly, this has become the accepted norm in our niche of the hobby.  The Saga Museum, however, promises to spoil readers with more than 99% of every item ever made pictured in large, breathtaking, full-color images. This book guarantees not to tease you with an item listing and category number only to leave you frantically searching for an image that is not shown.

Since the beginning of this project, it has been my belief that a new level needs to be attained visually for Star Wars enthusiasts. Collectors and fans deserve to be treated to the gorgeous presentation of these items as the manufacturer originally intended. The Saga Museum will not follow in the footsteps of earlier guides. Rather, it will introduce the Star Wars collecting community to a new "coffee table" standard in picture quality, making the illustrations of its predecessors a painful eyesore. 

Below you will see a typical thumbnail-size image in proportion to the gloriously large example that will grace this book:

Vintage - Outdated Thumbnail-Size Image...

 ...Updated The Saga Museum Image:

Modern - Outdated Thumbnail-Size Image...

 ...Updated The Saga Museum Image:

When Steve, the photographer, was asked what post-production steps he takes to deliver the final images to the designer, his response was the following:

“I start up the hard drive, open up photoshop, open up the raw file and set my initial exposure/color temperature, straighten the image according to a grid overlay, check various points in the image to ensure accurate color rendition and remove any color shifts, check the levels for correct density in light and dark areas, make a selection around the item and delete the background, save the layered file as a master psd file, flatten the file and add a mild amount of sharpening, and save the finished file as a tiff.”