Basics of Photogrammetry

Janak Raj Joshi

1
 Types of Photographs
• Terrestrial Photographs
– Photographs taken from a
Terrestrial camera on the ground
point or station
– Terrestrial camera can be :
• Phototheodolite:
– A camera combined with a theodolite and
mounted on top of a tripod
– Normally used for terrestrial photography
– The principle is more or less similar to the
plane table survey
• Stereometric camera
– Photographs taken from at least two
different positions are used to fix the
ground position of an object
2
 Types of Photographs
• Ballistic Camera:
– A large camera, fixed over a ground station to take the photographs of the
extra terrestrial bodies
– generally the celestial objects, orbiting satellites with a background of stars
– These photographs are used to calculate the satellite trajectories, shape,
size, gravity of the earth and precise position of camera station
– Camera constants are known from the manufacturer
– The back ground position of the star are fixed and known at the particular
time of exposure from star almanac
– Used mainly to establish worldwide network of control points

• Latest technological development is Lidar

3
 Types of Photographs
• Aerial Photographs
– Photographs taken from a
Aerial camera mounted on a
aerial vehicle
– Used for various purpose,
mainly information extraction
on the ground surface
– The different type of aerial
camera will be discussed
later in a separate chapter
– Analouge/Digital
– Mono/Stereo
4
 Types of Photographs
• Satellite Image
– Images taken from an earth
orbiting satellite
– Images can be acquired from
an optical camera or sensor
– Different types of images can
be acquired from different
types of sensor
– Will be discussed later in a
separate subject called Remote
Sensing
5
 Aerial Photographs
• Aerial photographs can further be
classified as
• Vertical photographs
– These are the photographs taken with
a camera axis as nearly vertical as
possible
– If the camera axis is perfectly vertical
at the time of exposure, the resulting
photographs are called truly vertical
– But because of the disturbances in
the aeroplane motion, it is almost
impossible to keep the camera axis
truly vertical all the time
– Therefore, in practice, truly vertical
photographs are very difficult to take
6
 Aerial Photographs
• Tilted photograph
– These are the most widely
used photographs in aerial
photogrammetry
– The camera axis is
unintentionally tilted with
the vertical line or plumb
line
– The tilt is normally 1-3
degrees
– The tilt is due to the motion
of aircraft and consequently
the disturbance in camera
position

7
 Aerial Photographs
• Oblique photographs
– These are the photographs
taken from a camera of which
axis are intentionally tilted with
the vertical or plumb line
– The tilt is according as the
purpose of the photograph
– If the tilt is kept low such that
the horizon is not visible in the
photograph, it can be said as
low oblique
– If the tilt is high enough to make
horizon visible in the
photograph, it is called a high
8
oblique photograph
 Basic terminology
• Optical Axis
– Optical axis of a camera lens is the
line passing through the optical
centre and front and rear nodal
points
• Camera Axis
– Camera axis is the line which passes
through the optical centre of the
camera lens and it is perpendicular
to the photo plate or negative
– For a well- conditioned and perfect
camera, the optical axis and the
camera axis exactly coincide

9
 Basic terminology
• Image plane
– The image plane is also called a focal
plane or negative
– The plane in which images of the
objects are formed
– It is perpendicular to the camera axis
– The distance of the image plane from
the lens is equal to the focal length
of the camera
• Picture plane
– Picture plane is also called the
positive plane
– It is obtained from the negative plane
– It can be imagined as a plane in front
of the camera lens
– The distance between camera lens
and picture plane is considered as
equal to the focal length
10
 Basic terminology
• Principal Point
– Point of intersection of the camera
axis with the image plane or the
picture plane
• Principal Line
– The vertical line passing through
the principal point
• Principal Plane
– The plane which contains both the
principal line and the optical axis
– It is perpendicular to the image
plane and picture plane

11
 Basic terminology
• Exposure station
• Strip
• Block
• End lap / Forward overlap
• Side lap / Side Overlap/Cross overlap
• Stereoscopic pair or stereo pair

12
 Basic terminology
• Flying height/flying altitude
• Coverage
• Scale
• Resolution
• Pixel size on image
• Ground sampling distance

13