Photographic Documentation Approaches &  What Do Photographic Guidelines Have in Common?

 © 2023 Stephen D. Schafer  •   www.habsphoto.com

HABS, as the Historic American Buildings Survey is informally called, is arguably the most respected documentation program in the world for historic buildings. Established in 1933 as a make-work initiative for struggling architects, it was originally intended to be a four-month program to create measured drawings of vanishing colonial-era buildings, the founders quickly embraced photography as a documentation tool and expanded into other historical eras as well. Conscious of the view that HABS would record "a complete resume of the builder's art," ranging "from the smallest utilitarian structures to the largest and most monumental" as proclaimed in the original HABS circular #1 from December 1933, the program proved so valuable that it has endured to this day and spawned two other documentation programs. In 1969, the Historic American Engineering Record – HAER – was established to record America's pioneering, but rapidly vanishing, industrial and engineering history. The Historic American Landscapes Survey – HALS – was founded in 2000 to record the historic gardens, parks, cemeteries and cultural landscapes that did not fit into the architecture or engineering collections of HABS and HAER. Soon after establishment of the HABS program the photography parameters settled on large format film and the quality standards emphasized clarity, sharpness and measuring scales in each view.
 

"A complete resume of the builder's art"

HABS documentation follows the Secretary of the Interior's Guidelines for Architecture and Engineering Documentation (codified in the Federal Register in July 21, 2003). Therein the goal is made explicit: The goal of HABS/HAER/HALS documentation is to provide architects, engineers, scholars, preservationists, and interested members of the public with comprehensive information on the historical, architectural, technological, or cultural significance of a building, site, structure, object or landscape. To that end, everything transmitted to HABS is free of copyright and placed in the Public Domain for all to use. Many state and local documentation guidelines are similar to HABS | HAER | HALS and most are just appropriated or modified versions of the HABS guidelines and specifications (often called HABS-Like projects). The other National Park Service guideline for photography is not a documentation standard at all, it was drafted and updated to nominate properties to the Nation's list of historic places. National Register of Historic Places – NRHP – nomination photos are captured to protect and save a property while HABS photographs are often being used to mitigate the demolition or alteration of properties. The difference between the intent of two programs is clear, nomination vs. documentation. National Register photos are created to supplement nominations of eligible historic properties that should remain to be documented again someday, contrast that with the goal of HABS documentation, to provide a lasting public record of comprehensive information. A HABS photographer may be the last person to see a building or bridge standing and must record it to the highest standards possible. Charles Peterson, and early organizer of the HABS program, argued in 1933 that:

  “It is the responsibility of the American people that if the great number of our antique buildings must disappear through economic causes, they should not pass into unrecorded oblivion.”

NRHP guidelines allow for capture with a 2 megapixel camera, but luckily you'd have trouble finding a 2 MP camera in this decade. The current (2013 update) NRHP photo standards were written to be accessible, so the specifications were simple and basic and appear to be the lowest standard in the world I have found. Photographers are not required to release their copyright to the photos, so while they can be viewed as part of the Register data, they cannot be used by the public. Even the best practices section, which calls for 6 megapixel or greater resolution, is only enough data to create an 8x10" print. Worldwide standards from Australia advocated a 10+ megapixel standard two decades ago, and in 2003 English Heritage's digital standards were 16 megapixels (back when this seemed like super-massive resolution). NRHP photography standards were very demanding before 1995, but they were also daunting for members of the public wanting to nominate and protect buildings. The standards were changed in 1995 and again in 2005 to allow the public to deliver digital photo submissions. While making the registration of sites easier, this change had the unintended consequence of allowing low quality photographs on some recent nominations. For this reason very significant properties should still be recorded at resolutions that exceed the NRHP standards or if the site is highly significant it should be recorded to the HABS/HAER/HALS level 2 standard or a digital equivalent above 36 megapixels. Prepare for yet another change – the future may include digital NRHP submission through an online submission portal and this may require yet another discussion of photo resolution and compression.

HABS | HAER | HALS | CEQA  An Overview
 © 2023 Stephen D. Schafer  •   www.habsphoto.com

 

HABS | HAER | HALS (H3) documentation usually consists of measured drawings, large-format photographs and written data that highlights the significance of a resource. There are three levels of recordation that generally break down into:

(1) Level One - Measured line drawings (architectural plans), historic drawings, detailed large-format photographs, copies of historic photos, full written data package. 

(2)  Level Two - Numerous detailed large-format photographs, full written data package. 

(3)  Level Three - General large-format photographs, with a written data package.

As Richard O’ Connor, Chief of Heritage Documentation Programs, wrote in 2015, “ Data on historic sites, regardless of the manner of acquisition, serves three primary functions: the preservation and stewardship of the sites themselves; the creation of a permanent record of significance; and their presentation and interpretation to the public.”  This documentation acts as a form of insurance against fires and disasters by permitting the repair and, if necessary, reconstruction of historic resources damaged by such disasters. It is also used for scholarly research, interpretation, and education, and it often provides the basis for enforcing preservation easements. HABS | HAER | HALS documentation is often the last means of preservation of a property. When a property is to be demolished, documentation provides future researchers access to valuable information that otherwise would be lost.

CEQA | EIR | MND

It should be noted that it is very common for HABS | HAER | HALS standards to be appropriated as a basis for mitigating adverse impacts under the local ordinances or through EIRs and MNDs resulting from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance.

These Local-HABS, HABS-Like and HABS-Lite standards usually require large format photography of important properties and may include a somewhat lesser standard for points of interest or less significant or subordinate buildings. Most of these local surveys are not transmitted to the Library of Congress, but are submitted to local museums, libraries, archives and historic societies. Since every city and county develops and adopts their own ordinances requiring photography mitigation standards, each mitigation documentation is different and should approached with the local goals in mind.

In order to make documentation mitigations more meaningful, Schaf Photo has advocated making additional copies of documentations that are cheaper and easier for libraries and museums to deal with. In addition to the formal HABS/HAER/HALS negatives and archival prints sets sent to the SHPO and LoC, we have been creating Print On Demand (POD) books that include the H3 reports, reduced size copies of the measured drawings and all the photographs from a documentation. Often we (like in the case of the Lovelace Garden HALS book) include color digital field photos in the POD books as well, along side the black and white photos. The beauty of the BOOKS is they can be printed on demand often for around $50 each and distributed to local libraries and archives that have a familiarity with storing and sharing books, but may not have the facilities or ability to store and share negatives, loose archival prints or full size drawings. This allows interested individuals local access and even the ability to stumble on a book that they did not previously know existed in the architecture or engineering section of a library. The printer we use for these books is HP Magcloud and an additional benefit of MagCloud is that the books are available digitally online for free download to a computer or a tablet as an E-Book. If someone wants to have their own printed book they just need to order it from the Magcloud website and it will be printed and shipped to them On-Demand for $30 to $100 depending on the size of the book. Look at samples of complete HABS documentations here and download digital versions:
LINK TO OUR SAMPLE MAGCLOUD BOOKS


More info about HABS HAER HALS photography is available by searching these terms:

Excerpted HABS/HAER/HALS Photography Guidelines

(Guidelines updated June 2015 (current to 2019)

FOUND AT: nps.gov/hdp/standards/PhotoGuidelines

Excerpt From: Heritage Documentation Programs HABS/HAER/HALS Photography Guidelines From Heritage Documentation Programs

(HDP) establishes the standards for the production of drawings, histories, and photography, as well as the criteria for preparing documentation for inclusion in the Collection currently recognized as the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Architectural and Engineering Documentation (hereafter referred to as Secretary’s Standards). The resulting documentation comes from three sources today. The Washington Office produces documentation in-house directing field teams (made up primarily of students) all over the country. HDP also receives documentation from the mitigation program satisfying Sections 106/110 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This material is often generated by the individual states plus regional offices of the National Park Service... A third source of documentation comes from donated documentation from interested members of the public... The following guidelines are intended to provide an overview of the large-format photographic component of the documentation.

General Guidelines - Film:

Film continues to be the best way to store visual information about architecture and engineering for the long term, which is why it is still the standard in the HABS, HAER, and HALS collections. Photographs taken and printed for HABS, HAER, or HALS, in accordance with the Secretary’s Standards are made from large-format, black and white film. The images are perspective corrected in the field at the time of capture using a view camera.

Large-format (4x5, 5x7, and 8x10) refers to the size of the negative in inches, not the print. The large-format negative is preferred for two reasons: longevity of the film and clarity of the image. The material stability of cut sheet film satisfies the archival requirements for longevity (500 years), while the clarity of the resulting image comes from a high level of resolution not possible in smaller film formats. Film can always be digitized but exclusively digital information may not always be recoverable due to the vulnerabilities of digital data including media degradation, hardware and software obsolescence, file format migration, proprietary formats, etc. In addition, maintenance of digital archives is much more expensive than maintenance of film archives. 

PDF Found here: NPS.gov/hdp/standards/PhotoGuidelines

Creating Archival Digital Print Cards for HABS Documentation

Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) has developed the following procedure to produce digital contact prints (instead of wet contact prints) that meet both HDP standards and the archival requirements mandated by the Library of Congress. The basic suggested procedure is the same for both black-and-white prints and color transparencies.

This process creates a print card that mimics the photo mount cards HDP has used for decades. HDP photographers developed this method as an efficient way to produce digital print cards. Results may vary based on hardware, software, and scanning environment.

Creating the digital file:

•Scan image emulsion side facing light source on a flatbed scanner with Anti-Newton glass.

•Crop scanning area to include film margins.
•Scan images at a resolution of 5000 pixels across, about 800 ppi for 5x7 negative, to yield a file roughly 18-20 MB for a black & white image and save as an uncompressed TIFF.

Creating the digital print (e.g. photo mount card with image):

•Create a new folder with copies of images for mounting. 

•Downsize all images to 400 ppi, for printing ease. •Mount images upon a 400 ppi black canvas (i.e. 4.75" x 6.76" image area upon a 5" x 7" black canvas) for size uniformity, then flatten to reduce image size. 

•Create a new canvas with the dimensions 8.5" x 11" at 400 ppi and copy the image onto that canvas. The image should be centered and the actual image size. 

•Using horizontal text tool (Times New Roman, 12 pt., black font) on the overlay grid, create a text box in the upper right-hand corner. The following is an example of what the box must contain:HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS No. CA-42-1. Do NOT flatten after this step in case you need to modify the text.

Printing:

•The print quality should be set to the highest, neutral monochrome settings (unless it is a color image).

•Batch all print cards in one folder and print from folder as “full sheet fax” to prevent image compression and to maintain actual size.

•Print entire folder or use rip software. 

  Note: digital print card scanning, formatting and printing is generally not faster than traditional wet darkroom printing, but it allows people without a darkroom to create contact-type prints. If you plan to submit to HDP digitally, these are only partial instructions. Call and speak to the HABS/HAER/HALS staff directly about the latest changes to the process and materials, they are very helpful and happy to give you detailed information over the phone. We use a digital pigment printer because it exceeds all the quality and longevity standards set up by HDP.

TRANSMITTAL GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING
HABS/HAER/HALS DOCUMENTATION (June 2015)

Documentation for the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Historic American Engineering Record, and the Historic American Landscapes Survey, (HABS, HAER, HALS) must be prepared using specific archival materials and archival processes in order to be comply with the permanence standards that govern the collection. By adhering to these standards, even the earliest HABS records from the 1930s are still available for researchers and will be into the future. Non-archival materials deteriorate for two principal reasons: they are attacked by harmful substances in the environment, and/or their physical and chemical composition is such that it will deteriorate regardless of how it is stored.

PDF Found here:NPS.gov/hdp/standards/Transmittal.pdf

Here's information about mail irradiation at the Main Interior Building. Let's make sure that surveys continue to arrive in DC in archivable condition.

1. Only use UPS, FedEx, or DHL to send surveys to Washington, DC The HABS/HAER/HALS office moved to the Main Interior Building in Washington, DC. in April 2017.
All U. S. Postal Service (USPS) mail sent to Main Interior is subject to irradiation. That process is likely to damage survey materials. There is concern about the prospect of damaged negatives or hand-drawn sheets that can't be recreated, but irradiated paper and CD/DVDs would also be a problem.

2. New shipping address (starting April 10, 2017) Heritage Documentation Programs National Park Service 1849 C Street NW, Mail Stop 7408 Washington, DC 20240

•