Geometry of Aerial

Photography
Taking Vertical AP: Flying Pattern
Photographic Coverage Along A Flight Strip
 1. Fiducial mark
• Marks on the
photograph
margins used to
locate principal
point in photo.

Fiducial
marks
Fiducial axes
 2. Principal Point
• Geometric center of
photograph. Literally
the point on the ground
in line with axis of
camera lens.
3. Nadir - The Nadir is the
point vertically beneath the
camera center at the time
of exposure.

4. Isocenter - The point on

the photo that falls on a
line half- way between the
principal point and the
Nadir point.
 5. Side lap

• An aerial
photograph mission
will be flown in
strips, shutter timing
set for 60% endlap
(needed for
parallax) and strips
spaced for 30%
sidelap (to avoid
missing bits)
 6. Forelap
• Endlap (or forelap) is the
important bit It ensures
every point on the
ground appears in at
least two photographs
• Distance between
principal point of
adjacent photographs is
known as the “air base”
 Factor affecting aerial photography
The orientation of aircraft is influenced by wind conditions.
Which causes an aircraft to orient in three different rotation
angle namely roll, pitch, yaw.

FIG. DIFFERENT ROTATION ANGLES- ROLL ,PITCH ,YAW 10

Crab & Drift
 SATELLITE IMAGES VS AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Satellite imagery
1. Collecting large amounts of data in relatively
small amounts of time.
2. Hundred kilometers above the earth's surface.
3. Lower resolution than aerial photography.
4. Thin cloud can still have a large effect on the
quality of satellite imagery.
5. Many modern satellites can collect a variety of
data.
6. Data is usually gathered by a digital CCD
camera.
7. The advantage of the CCD is that we measure
quantitatively the radiation reaching the sensor.
8. Image is created line after line; there for, the
geometrical correction is much more complex,
with each line (or even pixel) needing to be
treated as a central projection
9. Satellite images also from satellites.
10. Sensors can be designed to measure radiation
all along the Electromagnetic spectrum.
11. Images are available since the early 1970’s.
12. Images are more difficult to process, and
require trained personnel.
Aerial photography
1. Slow and time consuming process.
2. Closer to the subject, in this case the land.
3. Resolution of between 50cm to 12.5cm per
pixel.
4. can be affected by adverse weather conditions
5. Some aircraft can mount multiple cameras or
sensors and some of the latest aerial cameras
capture different types of data simultaneously
6. Photos are taken by an analog instrument: a
film of a (photogrammetric) camera then
scanned to be transformed to digital media.
7. Photograph is a central projection, with the
whole picture taken at one instance.
8. Aerial photos are usually taken from planes.
9. Aerial photos usually gather data only in the
visible spectrum.
10. In Photogrammetry the main efforts are
dedicated for the accurate creation of a 3d
model,
11. photos provide a longer time span for
landscape change detection.
12. Aerial photographs can be interpreted more
easily.