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Learn photogrammetry.

Sixteen plain explanations of measuring from photographs, with animations to play with rather than diagrams to squint at: what it is, how a model comes out of pictures, how accurate it is, how it compares with lasers, and the drones, cameras, scanners and robots it is done with. For anyone; no sign-up.

Loading the quarry…
A real survey, replayed: 347 photographs of a quarry from a fixed-wing drone, and the 3D model they became. Drag to turn it. Every page below explains a piece of how this happened.

Learn photogrammetry

What it is, how a model comes out of photographs, and how to do it yourself.

5 pages · 50 minutes

  1. What is photogrammetry?The science of measuring from pictures: the idea, the history, and what a survey comes back as.9 min read
  2. How it worksFeatures, matches, bundle adjustment, dense cloud, mesh, orthomosaic: each step, with what can go wrong at it.11 min read
  3. Photogrammetry 101Plan, capture, control, process, check, deliver: the whole job, with the numbers to plan it by.12 min read
  4. Types of photogrammetryAerial, close-range, satellite, underwater; stereo and structure from motion; which fits which job.8 min read
  5. GlossaryGSD to tie point: the vocabulary of photogrammetry, each term in a sentence or two.10 min read

Compare and judge

Against LiDAR and scanning, how accurate it is, where it fails, what the software does.

5 pages · 53 minutes

  1. LiDAR vs photogrammetryLaser against camera: what each sees through trees, what each costs, and the cases where one wins outright.11 min read
  2. Photogrammetry vs 3D scanningCamera or scanner for a 3D model: range, accuracy, speed and colour, side by side.10 min read
  3. How accurate is it?The centimetres, where they come from, and how to make a survey hit a tolerance rather than hope to.12 min read
  4. LimitationsVegetation, water, glass, doming, rolling shutter, moving things: every failure, with its cause and its fix.11 min read
  5. SoftwareWhat happens inside the software, the kinds there are, and the questions to ask before you pick one.9 min read

Equipment and uses

Drones, cameras, scanners, robots, and the industries that measure with pictures.

6 pages · 56 minutes

  1. EquipmentThe kit, from a phone and a scale bar to an RTK drone and a scanning robot, and what each buys you.10 min read
  2. DronesMultirotor, fixed-wing or VTOL, with or without RTK: which drone maps which site.9 min read
  3. Cameras and sensorsSensor size, shutter, lens and calibration: the parts of a camera that decide the survey.9 min read
  4. Laser scanners and LiDARTime of flight to point cloud: the scanner types, their ranges and accuracies, and what each is for.10 min read
  5. Robot dogs and ground robotsQuadrupeds with scanners on their backs: what they do on a site, what they cost, and where they beat a drone.8 min read
  6. Applications and industriesFrom quarry volumes to crime scenes and film sets: who uses photogrammetry, and for what.10 min read

Then measure on a real one.

Explore is free: the same quarry, surveyed, with every measuring tool live on it. No card and no expiry.

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