Panoramic Views and Small Format Aerial Photography
By
Jake Stevenson
| Earth Science Department 
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| Earth Science Department
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Table of Contents
The class was involved a field trip to Kansas City whose purpose was to
use Small Format Aerial Photography to document the Nelson-Atkins Museum.
For this task the class deployed a helium blimp on the south lawn of the
museum and attached to it, two camera rigs with different lens attachments
for each camera. Many images were taken using all view angles from
vertical to nearly horizontal, as well as with different lenses to achieve
desired effects. One such lens is called a fish eye, it is given this name
because the images it produces provides a large distorted viewing angle.
After the field trip all pictures were made available for use with D-Joiner
and other photo programs. The following images show some of the possible
mistakes that can be made along the way to that perfect picture. First one must decide on what pictures he or she will be using to join.
Remember to use pictures that have a common local in them so that you can
align them later. Also make sure that the resolution is the same between
all the pictures or else D-Joiner will not work. The following picture shows a line of picture with common points plotted
using D-Joiner. The image is a screen capture that has been cropped. Originally I had planned to use 10 or 11 picture to have a complete 360
degree view of the park and Art Museum but while the images worked well in
D-Joiner I was unable to export the composition and preserve a good picture.
The reason for this I believe, was due to having trying a 360 degree
rotation. When expressed on a flat surface you are unable to show the image
without large distortion. As seen below.
The next picture allows you to see other portions of the panorimic view that
were later removed in order to achieve a better quality of picture. Once you are confident with the merger. Export the image as a flat and
bring the image into a program which you can change values and rotate the
images such as Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop. You'll want to rotate
the image so that the horizon is level. You can see that this has been done
on the first image of the page. Changing the colors in the image, as well,
often helps with the visual appeal of picture. When you are manipulating
the images with the program it is useful to erase blemishes caused by the
merging of the images. In the first image on the page you can slightly
notice the blimp's tether wire located in the center of the image running
the height of it. This is one such feature that could be erased and is
present due how D-Joiner works.
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There are wonderful things that you can do with Small Format Aerial
Photography, and when you combine that process with other exciting
techniques such as the panoramic views the possibilities are endless.
Back to the table of contentsIntroduction
The field trip to the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri was a great opportunity to show
what Small Format Aerial Photography is capable of. The weather was just
about perfect, not much wind, but the slightest overcast. Too much sun and
the photos are too bright. The following is a representation of the
pictures taken on the field trip and how they can be manipulated, using
software program called D-Joiner, into panoramic views. The following
picture is the result of this process, it includes 4 pictures merged into 1
image. Image shows views to the south/southeast of Nelson-Atkins overlooking
a park.
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Process
Results
Related Links
Emporia State
University Earth Science at
ESU
Small Format Aerial Photography
Southern Ballon Works
D Joiner Adobe Photoshop