Photointerpretation

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Photointerpretation

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Elements of Photography

• Photographic Films
• an undeformable plastic film coated with a layer of light
sensitive material (emulsion)

• the emulsion consists of a layer of light sensitive silver halide

crystals, or "grains", held in place by a gelatin

• when the emulsion is exposed to light, the grains undergo a

photochemical reaction which leads to forming the so-called
latent image, invisible

• in the development process, the exposed silver salts are

reduced to silver grains, that appear black, thus forming a
visible image

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Elements of Photography

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Elements of Photography

• Photographic Films - Resolution

• Because of the grain of a photographic image, there is a
physical limit to the size of an object that can be recorded;
this limit is called resolving power of a film

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Elements of Photography
• Photographic Films – Geometric precision
– is influenced by:

• the capability of recording smallest details, which is a function of the

relative contrast between objects to be represented, the optical
characteristics of the camera and the lens used, and of the resolving
power of the film. As an indication, some average resolution values
for b/w panchromatic films are the followings:
Average scale of the flight Resolution (m)
5.000 0.1
20.000 0.3
32.000 0.5
64.000 1.0

• dimensional stability of the support;

• planarity of the support.

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Elements of Photography

• Black and white films

– orthochromatic: seldom used, with sensitivity range from
ultraviolet to 0.55 mm (colours: violet, blue, green),
corresponding to natural sensitivity of silver salts
– panchromatic: to cover the whole range of the human eye's
sensitivity, the emulsion is added with dyes, obtaining a
sensitivity range from 0.4 to 0.7 mm, the complete visible
spectrum
– infrared: with appropriate dyes, emulsion sensitivity can be
extended up to 0.95 mm, so covering the whole visible spectrum
and a portion of the near infrared; farther extensions of
sensitivity, even if technically feasible, do not have practical
interest because the resulting emulsions are rather unstable

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Elements of Photography
• Colour Films
• A colour film consists of three different emulsions, each of
them being sensitive to one third of the visible spectrum. As
the natural sensitivity of silver salts is in the region of blue,
between the blue and the green layer an yellow layer is
added to function as a filter; it absorbs the blue light thus
impeding to expose the underlying layers, which are also
partly sensitive to blue

– Blue
– Yellow filter
– Blue + green
– Blue + red
– Support

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Elements of Photography

• Colour Films – Infrared False Colour

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Elements of Photography

• Films Types – Summary

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Elements of Photography

• Filters
• to improve radiometric resolution or contrast
– ultra-violet filters
– yellow filters

• to improve homogeneity of exposure

– antivignetting filters

• required by the film type

– yellow filters with infrared false colour film

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Aerial Photographs
• Photogrammetric cameras

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Aerial Photographs
• Photogrammetric cameras

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Aerial Photographs

• Focal length
– The focal length is very important because it
determines the field of view, hence the amount of
earth's surface that can be framed by a single
photograph.
– In aerial photography, a "normal" lens has f=300 mm,
a "wide angle" has f=150 mm and "super wide angle"
has f=90 mm. Lenses with longer values of f are
termed "telephoto".

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Aerial Photographs
• Photo Scale

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Aerial Photographs

• Taking Aerial Photographs

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Aerial Photographs

• Taking Aerial Photographs

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Aerial Photographs

• Taking Aerial Photographs

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Aerial Photographs

• Taking Aerial Photographs

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Aerial Photographs

• Effect of Relief on Scale

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Aerial Photographs

• Stereoscopy

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Aerial Photographs

• Stereoscopy

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Aerial Photographs
• Some formulas...

– 1) flight base B (ground separation between two consecutive photos):

B = Lf · (1 - p/100)
where:
• Lf = ground distance corresponding to the side of the photo
• P = percent of endlap
– 2) spacing of two adjacent flight lines A:
A = Lf · (1 - q/100)
where:
• q = percent of sidelap
– 3) ground stereoscopic zone Sz:
Sz = A · B = 2Lf · (1 - p/100) · (1 - q/100)
– 4) number of photograms N needed to cover a given area:
N = St / Sz
where:
• St = ground area

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Aerial Photographs

• Characteristic elements of an aerial photograph

Frame number Altimeter Spirit level

Fiducial mark Date and time Client or Company name

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Airborne Digital Sensor

• Example: Leica ADS40

– Three sensors in one — black and white, color and NIR false
color
– High quality DTMs from three-line stereo sensor data
– Reduced ground control requirements
– End-to-end digital flow — no film processing or scanning
– Seamless strip imagery along each flight line

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Photointerpretation

• Principles
• Photoidentification: recognition of objects in a photogram

• Photointerpretation: photographic images analysis for object

identification and their meaningfulness evaluation, to deduct
information that can not be observed directly on the
photograph.

• Of course, as photointerpretation cannot be done without

photoidentification, the term photointerpretation is commonly
used to include both steps

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Photointerpretation
• Principles
• The elements by which
object recognition is possible
are:
– colour and tone

– shape and size

– texture

– shadow

– distribution

– localisation

– association

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Photointerpretation

• Colour and tone

• More than tone, we use tone contrast; it is strongly affected
by atmospheric transparency

• Tone is affected by sun orientation, position in the photogram,

surface characteristics

• Tone is not a fixed property of a given object

• The use of colour greatly increases the possibility of detecting

objects

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Photointerpretation
• Shape and size
• Many objects can be identified also on a single photo, but the three-
dimensional model obtained by a stereoscopic couple provides
much more information

• The minimal size for an object in the image be identified is 0.2 - 0.3
mm, if there is enough tone contrast with surrounding objects or
background

• The stereoscopic threshold, i.e. the minimum height that an object

must reach to be perceived in relief when observed in stereoscopy,
is a critical parameter in photointerpretation. The general formula to
calculate height h of a given object is:

h = H · dp / P
where:
H = flight height above ground
dp= difference of parallax between the top and base of the object
P = absolute parallax of the base of the object

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Photointerpretation

• Parallax

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Photointerpretation

• Shape and size

h/(H-h) = dP/P h = H•dP/(P+dP)

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Photointerpretation

• Photointerpretation keys
• Photointerpretation keys are a valid helping tool for image
analysis
– Selective keys: a series of descriptions and illustrations,
sometimes also with sample stereoscopic pairs. The
photointerpreter selects, based upon his synthetic
opinion, the description that fits better with the object on
the image to be identified
– Dichotomous keys: the photointerpreter is driven through
successive choices, from the general down to the detailed
level, using the presence or the absence of elements that
are identifiable in the image

• A complete dichotomous photointerpretation key is very

difficult to prepare

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Photointerpretation

• Photointerpretation keys

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Photointerpretation

• Photointerpretation methodology

Systematic Free

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Photointerpretation

• The Minimum Mapping Unit

100 m

1 cm

1:10.000

1 cm2 on the map = 1 ha on the ground

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Photointerpretation

• The Minimum Mapping Unit

100 m

1 cm

1:50.000

1 cm2 on the map = 25 ha on the ground

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Photointerpretation
• The Minimum Mapping Unit
• thematic cartography always implies a certain amount of
generalisation to produce an information that is coherent with final
user's demand ( ---> the scale)

• given a final scale of the work, there is a limit to the minimum size of
an object that can be represented on a map
– theoretical limit, beyond which the human eye is no more able to
distinguish an area from a point
– technical limit, relating to cost and precision of the printing
process
– practical limit

• at IAO we adopt as minimal mapping unit:

– an area of 4 x 4 mm at the final scale for objects more or less
polygonal in shape
– for linear objects, the limit is a minimum width of 2 mm, with at
least 7-8 mm of length

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Photointerpretation

• The Minimum Mapping Unit

100 m

0.4 cm

1:25.000

1 cm2 on the map = 6.25 ha on the ground

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer
– An aerial photograph cannot be overlaid onto a
topographic map, even after enlargement or reduction to
the same scale

Orthographic vs. Perspective projection

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer
Radial distortion

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer
Vertical displacement

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer
Tilt displacement

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer - orthophotos

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Photointerpretation

• Transfer – other methods

• At sight,
– on a map
– on a photomosaic
– on a satellite image

• Using optycal systems

• Using photogrammetric devices

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Photointerpretation
• Satellite images
– stereoscopic viewing (with some exceptions) is not possible: relief is
"interpreted" rather than viewed, and this asks for a certain degree of
experience
– variation of scale and relief deformation are almost null in satellite
image, because of the very high flight height and the narrow visual angle
– so, if the satellite image has been georeferenced, interpretation and
transfer are a single operation
– the role of colour becomes very important: satellite images very often
have non-real colours (FCC, False Colour Composit), each of them with
its own significance in term of reflected wavelength
– all those elements that indirectly help in object identification, such as
texture, association, site etc., become more important
– image quality for photointerpretation purposes is strongly influenced by
the processing procedures, especially filtering and contrast enhancing:
the photointerpreter should always take part to the processing of the
images that he must interpret

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Photointerpretation
• Satellite images
– linear features and limits between objects, are almost never clearly
defined, at least at scale between 1:50.000 and 1:250.000; only at this
latter a Landsat TM 30 x 30 m pixel shrinks to 0.1 mm in size, so that it
is no longer perceived by the human eye as a separate bi-dimensional
object
– satellite images allow synoptic vision of large portions of land, so
recognising many small scale elements that would be otherwise too
fragmented in a set of aerial photos: due to this reason, for example,
satellite images are very appreciated by geologists (identification of
faults, structures, etc.)
– satellite images can provide several spectral bands, and observations
can be repeated after a short delay; images can be taken in different
moments of the year, thus providing multi-temporal information
– using satellite images, comparisons are now possible with a rich series
of historical data (first MSS images date back to 1972); this give
valuable information about phenomena that are continuous and very
extended in space and time, such as desertification or deforestation
(global changes)

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