Photo & Document Preservation
Preserving the things that tell our stories.
My work preserving local history through the Fade to Blue project has brought me into contact with thousands of photographs, documents, publications, and pieces of ephemera, materials that often exist in only one place.
MHT Studio now offers careful, high-resolution digitization of photographs and historical materials for families, collectors, schools, churches, community organizations, and others who want to preserve the things that matter to them.
Each item is handled individually and returned unchanged. Digital files can be prepared for long-term preservation, family sharing, research, publication, or archival-quality reproduction.
A selection of photographs, school publications, certificates, programs, and memorabilia from the MHT Studio historical collection.
Preserve Your Family's History
The photograph with no negative. The marriage certificate tucked into a drawer. A grandparent's letters. A scrapbook no one else has.
Digitization creates a high-quality record that can be preserved, shared among family members, researched, and reproduced without repeatedly handling the original.
Family photographs, handwritten correspondence, certificates, and keepsakes spanning generations of one family’s history.
Careful Digitization
Photographs, letters, certificates, newspaper clippings, and other flat paper materials are individually scanned at high resolution.
Standard digitization includes careful capture, cropping and straightening, basic exposure, contrast and color balancing, simple file organization, a high-resolution preservation file, and an easy-to-share digital copy.
From Original to Archival Reproduction
Digitization doesn’t have to end with a digital file. Photographs and documents can also be reproduced using MHT Studio’s archival pigment printing process, creating high-quality copies for display, family sharing, research, or preservation.
Original photographs can be reproduced at their original size or enlarged to a custom size, depending on the quality and resolution of the source material.
For larger family, community, or organizational collections, digital files can also be organized by person, place, date, or subject, with custom folder naming, basic identifying information, and simple collection inventories available as needed.
Light Digital Cleanup
Some photographs need a little more attention after digitization. Light digital cleanup is available for selected images with minor dust, small scratches, mild fading, discoloration, or other modest surface blemishes.
The goal is not to make an old photograph look new, but to improve clarity while preserving the original image’s character, tone, and history.
Light cleanup may include:
removal of minor dust spots
repair of small scratches or surface marks
mild fading or discoloration correction
basic tonal improvement
cleanup of minor edge or background blemishes
MHT Studio does not provide major image reconstruction, extensive portrait retouching, compositing, replacement of substantially missing details, or black-and-white colorization.
Before and after light digital cleanup, removing a distracting glass fracture while preserving the original photograph’s character.
Examples of Digitized Materials
Examples of digitized photographs, documents, publications, and family materials from the MHT Studio collection.
