(2017) HABS HAER HALS Photography guidelines slideshow

Stephen Schafer www.habsphoto.com
Stephen Schafer M.S.U.
www.HABSPHOTO.com
USC July 23, 2011
H3

HHABS HHAER HHALS
HABS-CA-48, March 1934 HABS-CA-2830, March 2010
ABSABS AERAER ALSALS
Photographic Documentation of Historic Resources
HH3

Historic American Buildings Survey 1933
Historic American Engineering Record 1969
Historic American Landscape Survey 2000
What’s HABS HAER & HALS (HWhat’s HABS HAER & HALS (H33)
The National Park Service Documentation
Programs at the Library of Congress

HABS HAER & HALS Photography
Large Format 5x7 or 4x5 inch
Large Format Film
Perspective Correction & Levels
Best Resolution
Archival Stability
“Truthi-est” Perspective

HH3
Surveys
Have Multiple
Parts
A. Written History
B. Measured Drawings (Plans)
C. Large-Format archival B&W ﬁlm photographs
(ﬁeld photos & copies of historic prints and plans)
Plus Field Notes, Sketch Maps, GPS, & Color Photos

HH3
Documentation
Has Three
Levels
I. Full Monty
( Full written historic report, measured drawings, copies of historic
photos & plans and detailed large format field photos)
II. Detailed field photos & full written report
III. General field photos & general written report
I, II & III

Stephen Schafer www.habsphoto.comStephen Schafer www.habsphoto.com
Why take the ugliest photo of the Kaufmann House?

M
a
D
MATERIALS
DESIGN
FEELING
LOCATION
ASSOCIATION
WORKMANSHIP
SETTING
F
L
A
W
S
The
7
Aspects of
Integrity
(MaD FLAWS)

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
a
MMATERIALS

M
a
D
a
DDESIGN
F
L
A
W
S

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
D
L
FFEELING

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
F
A
LLOCATION

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
L
W
AASSOCIATION

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
A
S
WWORKMANSHIP

M
a
D
F
L
A
W
S
W
SSETTING

MAX DATA

Adds perspective distortion
Tilted
Camera
Film and lens
@ angle to
Building

Perspective straightened
Leveled
Camera
Film and lens
parallel to
Building

Leveled
Camera
Lens raised
& parallel to
Building
Perspective corrected

Building distortion from digital camera angled up

Building distortion corrected in PHOTOSHOP

Building distortion corrected in CAMERA

Wide angle perspective
What Lens?
Wide Angle?
Telephoto?

Perspective compressed with telephoto lens

Use the most
“NORMAL”
lens angle possible

Wide Angles
are necessary

What if wide angle lenses aren’t wide enough?
Multi-part panoramas with overlap

Near
Context

Overall

Detail

What order?
Context > Overall > Details > Interiors > Interior Detail
CONTEXT

Context > Overall > Details > Interiors > Interior Detail
What order? Interior Detail

NASA AMES RESEARCH - 7’ x 10’ Wind Tunnel #2
HAER Documentation - October 2010

Secretary of the Interior's Standards
for Architectural and Engineering Documentation
Standard I. Documentation Shall Adequately Explicate and Illustrate What is
Signiﬁcant...
Standard II. Documentation Shall be Prepared Accurately From Reliable Sources...
Standard III. Documentation Shall be Prepared on Materials That are Readily
Reproducible, Durable and in Standard Sizes.
Standard IV. Documentation Shall be Clearly and Concisely Produced...
...legible and understandable, and... must contain scale information and location
references.

5x7 =
35 square inches
35mm =
1.5 square inches
Large format B&W film is silver on polyester
Size does matter
Size = Resolution
Stable 500+ years
More durable – heavier film base
Sheets of film easier to handle, label & catalog

HH3
Deliverables
HH3 Now accepts digital PRINTS
Archival Negatives
in Buffered Envelopes
&
Traditional Fiber Mount
Cards “Corner Cut”
or
Archival Fiber Digital
Mount Cards
&
Field Notes & Maps

HH3
Deliverables
Field Notes & Sketch Maps
How Long does it take?

PROCESS FILM
LIGHT
FILM NEGATIVE IS
STORAGE MEDIA
DUPLICATION
&
DIGITIZATION
FOR
ACCESS
&
BACKUP
RESCAN FILM IF BACKUP FAILS
DUPLICATION
DIGITIZATION
FILM
CAMERA
OPTIONAL
Built-in Redundancy

Reproducible, Durable and in Standard Sizes.
Digital data must be preserved & sustainable
• Seek data resiliency – Known error rate of ﬁle formats
• Minimize media degradation – Bit-Rot
• Predict required migration – File formats change
• Widespread adoption of media, standards & availability
• of software/hardware
}
Forever ???
Negative Life Expectancy 500+ Years
Fiber Print Life Expectancy 150+ Years

DATALIGHT
Digital Camera
DIGITAL
DATA STORAGE
DEVICE
Du JOUR
BACKUP
BACKUP REDUNDANCY
MIGRATION
ERROR
CORRECTION
DATA
PROCESSING
COMPUTER
DATA

Digital Preservation has many unknowns
Film Life Expectancy = LE-500+
Digital Life Expectancy = ???
Few digital preservation success stories – many horror stories!
High cost of high-resolution digital cameras & equipment
(Replacement 3-5 years)
IT Digital storage costs are approximately TEN fold.
NARA archives = $5m for analog archives ($80m and $50m for ERA)
No standards exist for BORN-DIGITAL archival photo surveys
HABS/HAER/HALS would need to establish those new standards

Main Street, Downieville, Sierra, CA
HABS-CA-48, March 1934 (77 years)HABS-CA-2830, March 2010
Dining Room, The Ahwahnee, Yosemite Valley, CA

Required: Eyeball & Light
Viewing HABS
1930s
Analog
Photographs

Viewing HABS
1930s
Analog
Photographs
Required: Eyeball & Light + INVERT

Hyperfocal helmet attachment
Required: Sight-augmenting visual perspectivity
scrutinization apparatus (steam-assisted)
What If ?
1930s
Digital
Imagery
Viewer

Superior Standards
Public Access
Keyword Searchable
LE-500 Storage
Online access to HH3collections at LOC
H3
The HAER was one of the
ﬁrst collections digitized at the LOC
because of its exceptional K-12 educational value
Approximately 50K visitors per month
@ 800,000 page views per month
Library of Congress, Washington DC

Library of
Congress
American
MemoryMemory

James Ennis House
Chaffee County Colorado
c. 1885

Governor Johnson Ennis House
Baldwin County Georgia c. 1838

Ennis House, Los Feliz
Photogrammetric Elevation 1969

Ennis House, Los Feliz
5x7 HABS Photographic Documentation
January 2011

Not Real Standardz
Rarely Accessible
Not Searchable
Storage Lacking
HABS-Like
HABS-LITE
Diet-HABS
HABS-Like is popular
as CEQA mitigation
BEST Practices
1. Follow H3 Specs
2. Ensure longevity
3. Find accessible archive
4. Ensure public beneﬁt
X
Not Real Standardz
X
Not Real Standardz
Rarely Accessible
XRarely Accessible
Not Searchable
XNot Searchable
Storage Lacking
XStorage Lacking

HABS-Like
BEST CASE
SCENARIO
IS
DONATION
Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village HALS donated to LOC
5x7 Negatives + one set of prints
+ “Short Form” historic report
•Location
•Description (200 words)
•History & Signiﬁcance (450+ words)
•Sources (NR nomination + primary sources)
•Name of Historian

MYTHS About HAbout H3
1. LOC wants
only landmarks
2. NPS reviews
HH3 donations
XX1. LOC wants
X1. LOC wants
Xonly landmarks
Xonly landmarks
XX2. NPS reviews
X2. NPS reviews
Xdonations
Xdonations

May 2010
HH3 Speciﬁcations
Google “HABS Transmittal”
Jan 2010 NRHP
Speciﬁcations
Google “National Register
photo fact sheet” $70 John A. Burns
May 2010NEW
$70 John A. Burns
OLD
All H3 Specs online as PDFs

The
End
Stephen Schafer
Ventura, California
www.HABSPHOTO.com

(2017) HABS HAER HALS Photography guidelines slideshow

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (13)

Featured

Featured (20)

(2017) HABS HAER HALS Photography guidelines slideshow