Photogrammetry

Part II
 Photogrammetric terms
• flight line or flight strips:
– Aerial photographs are taken using a camera fitted
at the bottom of a aircraft along a line is termed
as flight line or flight strips

• Nadir line :
The line traced on ground directly beneath the camera
• Focal length: The distance from the front
nodal point of the lens to the plane of
photograph, as the distance Lo in the Figure 1

• Exposure Station: The space position of the

front nodal point (perspective centre) at the
time of exposure, as the point L in
the Figure 1.
• Flying Height: The elevation of aircraft/front
nodal point/exposure station at the instant of
exposure above mean sea level or any
reference datum.

• Principal point: The point where the

perpendicular dropped from the front nodal
point meets/strikes the plane of photograph,
as the point O in the Figure 1.
• Nadir Point: The point, where the plumb line
dropped from the front nodal point meets the
plane of photograph, as the point n, in the
Figure 1.
– It is the point on the photograph vertically
beneath the exposure station.
• Tilt: The angle formed between the optical
axis of the camera and the plumb line, as the
angle oLn in the Figure 1.

– It is also the angle which the plane of tilted

photograph makes with the plane of vertical
photograph.
• Iso-centre: The point where the bisector of angle
of tilt meets the plane of photograph, as the
point i in the Figure 1.

• Principal Plane: The vertical plane containing the

optical axis, as the plane Lno in the Figure 1
• Principal Line: The intersection of principal plane
with the plane of photograph, as the line ‘no’ in
the Figure 1.
• Axis of symmetry (Isometric parallel): The line
in the plane of photograph perpendicular to
the principal line and passing through the
Isocentre
• The axis of tilt is a horizontal line as the line
perpendicular to the principal line.

• Crab: The condition caused by the failure to

orient the camera with respect to the track of
aircraft.
– In vertical photograph, crab is indicated by the
edged of photograph not being parallel to the air
base line.
 Crab
• Crab is the angle formed between flight line
and the edges of the photographs in the
direction of flight. It reduces the effective
width of photographic coverage. This can be
rectified by rotating the camera about the
vertical axis of camera mount.
 Drift
• Drift: The lateral shift or displacement of the
aircraft from its course, caused by pilot error
or the effect of wind on the aircraft.
• Dia-positive: A positive print (photograph) on
a transparent medium (glass/film).
• Photo base: It is the distance between the
principal points of two adjoining vertical
photographs
 Endlap
• End lap: In aerial photography, the aircraft
acquires a series of exposures along each strip
of multiple flight lines. Successive
photographs are generally taken with some
degree of overlap, which is known as end lap
– Standard end lap is 60%, which may be 80-90% in
special cases such as in mountainous terrain
• Side lap: The photograph is taken with some
overlap of photographs of a strip with the
adjacent strip, known as side lap
– It varies from 25% to 40% to ensure that no area
of the ground is missing out to be photograph
 Tilting of photographs
• A truly vertical photograph is rarely obtained
because of unavoidable angular rotations or
tilts, caused by the
• Atmospheric conditions (air pockets or
currents),
• Human error of the pilot fails to maintain a
steady flight and
• Imperfections in the camera mounting
 Types of Tilting
• Tilting forward and backwards (pitch)
• Tilting sideways (roll)
• Tilting in the direction of flight (yaw)
 Tilt displacement
• Tilt displacement is the shift in an object's
image position on a tilted photo from its
theoretical position on a truly vertical photo.
– This results from the photo plane being tilted with
respect to the datum plane at the time of
exposure.
Distortion in Aerial
Photos
 Ideal condition
• From ground, the light radiates in the form of
clear spherical waves.
• No refraction or Bending and no deflection
• At the lens, No optical Distortion.
• At the film, No contraction or shrinkage also
distribution of image is uniform through out.
 Actual condition
• No point source as in ideal condition.
• Waves not in spherical form, by the distortion
due to refraction, deflection and other
environmental disturbances also due to
density difference with respect to altitude.
• Turbulence and haze.
• Lens distortion: Light rays will get bend
 Film distortion:

• Due to tilt
• Non uniform surface film emulsion
• Vignetting effect: where non uniform
distribution of image over the film causes
higher density image distribution at the corner
when the light waves deviates more from the
optical axis of the lens.
• Image motion or image displacement
• Distortion – “…any shift in the position of an
image on a photograph that alters the
perspective characteristics of the image.”

• Displacement – “…any shift in the position of

an image on a photograph that does not alter
the perspective characteristics of the
photograph”