Table Of ContentSMALL-FORMAT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
AND UAS IMAGERY
SECOND EDITION
SMALL-
FORMAT AERIAL
PHOTOGRAPHY
AND UAS
IMAGERY
Principles, Techniques, and Geoscience
Applications
SECOND EDITION
James S. Aber
Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, United States
Irene Marzolff
Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Johannes B. Ries
University of Trier, Trier, Germany
Susan E.W. Aber
San José State University, San Jose, California, United States
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Preface to the Second Edition
During the late twentieth century, small-format aerial sites and features we seek. Thus, SFAP is a way to bridge
photography (SFAP) was a niche remote-sensing tech- the gap in scale and resolution between ground observa-
nique, pursued only by selected enthusiasts such as us. tions and imagery acquired from conventional manned
When we wrote the first edition of this book a decade aircraft and satellite sensors.
ago, SFAP had already started a revival based on kites, SFAP enables researchers as well as other profession-
balloons, and model aircraft. Since then, the proliferation als and the interested public to get their own pictures of
of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), both professional the world. Large-scale aerial photographs in many cases
and consumer-grade, together with new photogram- help to state more precisely the scientific question, to im-
metric image-processing techniques have revolution- prove the understanding of processes, and to deepen the
ized image-based geodata acquisition beyond even our knowledge of our study sites. This enables us to monitor
expectations. local changes at the spatial and temporal scales at which
Ultra-high-resolution airphotos have become ubiqui- they occur and to assess their roles and importance in
tous in spatial applications of all kinds, and the scientific a constantly changing world. In many cases, we might
literature on the use of UAS imagery in the geosciences even learn something altogether new.
and related environmental disciplines has literally ex- We began our SFAP efforts in the age of film cam-
ploded. SFAP and UAS surveys have grown into a eras using mainly kites and blimps prior to the advent
remote-sensing method in their own right. The merits of UAS. Since then, digital photography has revolu-
and attraction of the bird’s-eye view from low heights tionized both field and laboratory methods. New
have become obvious to the general public, too, as drone photogrammetric approaches such as Structure from
images and videos are now part of everyday life from Motion (SfM) make fast and efficient reconstruction
Instagram to TV dramas. of surface topography as 3D point clouds accessible
We have always believed strongly in the potential of to the non-specialist. The rapid growth of UAS in re-
large-scale, custom-acquired airphotos for our research, cent years likewise opens new opportunities for SFAP,
and we have followed this development with great which is now a mainstream activity involving thou-
satisfaction. We did not start our SFAP careers, several sands of people, commercial enterprises, and count-
decades back, as dedicated kite flyers, hot-air blimp de- less applications. This second edition reflects the swift
velopers, UAS pilots, or do-it-yourself gadget builders. development and widespread use of small-format
We have become aerial photographers out of necessity, aerial photography and UAS imagery.
because we needed to assess landscapes, forms, pro- We hope that this book may continue to take its part
cesses, and distribution patterns in detail and docu- in the success story of SFAP and UAS imagery. This sec-
ment their changes through time. We required feasible, ond edition has seen minor to major changes through-
cost-effective methods that would adapt to the sizes of out all chapters. In particular, the sections on platforms
the features, the transitory nature of their occurrence, were restructured and revised in order to reflect the con-
and the speed of their development. We needed ultra- siderable development in the field of UAS. The sections
high- spatial resolution and repeated imagery for long- on photogrammetry and image processing have been
term study sites. Furthermore, our research projects updated with new methodologies. Numerous figures
often took us to distant and relatively inaccessible loca- were exchanged or added, with many examples from
tions in various countries, so logistical and legal issues our latest fieldwork. We have also extended the title of
also became important. this book to include UAS imagery as a specific form of
Self-made aerial photographs offer the researcher a SFAP. Although the term UAS (or UAV) imagery is more
maximum of flexibility in field work. Within the tech- often used now in the literature, we prefer to speak of
nical limits of the camera and platform, the photogra- SFAP throughout this book. It is the image, not the air-
pher may determine not only place and time but also craft used for SFAP, that is our main concern, and the
viewing angle, image coverage, and exposure settings. principles and techniques we present are common to
While imagery acquired from external sources may or all large-scale photographs taken with consumer-grade
may not show the study site at the required scale, time, cameras from low flying heights, notwithstanding the
and angle, such tailor-made photos show exactly those type of platform.
ix
x PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Next to drones of all varieties, kites and balloons still and atmospheric conditions, and photographic com-
retain their virtues as non-autonomous, non-motored position. SFAP techniques are elaborated for cameras,
platforms. They are less affected by legal constraints— manned and tethered platforms, unmanned aerial sys-
currently an element of uncertainty for planning UAS tems (UAS), field methods, visual interpretation, im-
surveys, as aviation laws are being adapted for drones in age analysis, and legal issues in Chapters 6–12. Case
many countries. And they have their advantages in sen- studies are presented in Chapters 13–20 with an em-
sitive environments where wildlife might be disturbed phasis on geoscience and environmental applications.
by the noise of motors and rotor blades and rapid UAV Most of these applied examples are drawn from the
movement. authors’ own field work in North America, Europe,
This book is divided into three major portions. and Africa. A final summary Chapter 21 reviews the
Chapters 1–5 cover introductory material, including emergence of small-format aerial photography and
history, basic principles, photogrammetry, lighting looks forward to the future.
Acknowledgments
This book represents contributions from many in- the first edition. Students who helped with SFAP are
dividuals and organizations that have encouraged identified in figure captions. JBR gratefully acknowl-
and supported the authors and helped us to pursue edges the help of Miriam Marzen and Mario Kirchhoff
small- format aerial photography. Among those who with translations and proofreading.
have played significant roles since the first edition, we Financial and logistical support for this second edi-
thank our colleagues and collaborators: Ali Aït Hssaine, tion were provided by Emporia State University (US),
Alivia Allison, Peter Blišt'an, Cornelius Claussen, Gayla Kansas Academy of Science, Nature Conservancy
Corley, Sebastian d’Oleire- Oltmanns, Igor Duriška, of Kansas, San José State University (US), Erasmus+
Jack Estes, Hassan Ghafrani, Maria Górska-Zabielska, Programme (EU), Technical University of Košice
Abdellatif Hanna, Stanislav Jacko, Juraj Janočko, Mario (SK), University of Aarhus (DK), Adam Mickiewicz
Kirchhoff, David Leiker, Holger Lykke-Andersen, Toshiro University (PL), the US Department of Agriculture,
Nagasako, Daniel Peter, Firooza Pavri, Robert Penner II, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Vereinigung der
Alan Peterson, Christopher Pettit, Jan Piotrowski, Marta Freunde und Förderer der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-
Prekopová, Gilles Rock, David and Mary Sauchyn, Steve Universität Frankfurt am Main, Stiftung zur Förderung
and Glenda Schmidt, Jim Schubert, Manuel Seeger, Deon der Internationalen Wissenschaftlichen Beziehungen
Van der Merwe, Dennis Wiley, and Brenda Zabriskie. der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am
Colleagues who assisted with SFAP are named in figure Main, and Forschungsfonds der Universität Trier.
captions.
Many undergraduate and graduate students from James S. Aber
Emporia State University, Goethe University, University Irene Marzolff
of Trier, and the Technical University of Košice have Johannes B. Ries
provided ample assistance with field projects since Susan E.W. Aber
xi
C H A P T E R
1
Introduction to Small-Format Aerial
Photography
Small is beautiful. E. Schumacher 1973, quoted by Mack and it has been employed in recent years for document-
(2007) ing all manner of natural and human resources. The
field is ripe with experimentation and innovation of
equipment and techniques applied to diverse situations.
1-1 OVERVIEW Recent development and popularity of UAS demonstrate
the human desire for low-height, large-scale aerial imag-
People have acquired aerial photographs ever ery for hobby, artistic, and professional applications.
since the means have existed to lift cameras above the In the past, most aerial photography was conducted
Earth’s surface, beginning in the mid-nineteenth cen- from manned platforms, as the presence of a human
tury. Human desire to see the Earth “as the birds do” photographer looking through the camera viewfinder
is strong for many practical and aesthetic reasons. From was thought to be essential for acquiring useful imagery.
rather limited use in the nineteenth century, the scope For example, Henrard developed an aerial camera in the
and technical means of aerial photography expanded 1930s, and he photographed Paris from small aircrafts
throughout the twentieth century. Now well into the for the next four decades compiling a remarkable aerial
21st century, the technique is utilized for all manners of survey of the city (Cohen 2006).
earth- resources applications from small and simple to
large and sophisticated.
Aerial photographs are taken normally from manned
airplanes or helicopters, but many other platforms may
be used, including tethered balloons and blimps, drones,
gliders, rockets, model airplanes, kites, and even birds
(Tielkes 2003). Recent innovations for cameras and plat-
forms have led to new scientific, commercial, and artistic
possibilities for acquiring dramatic aerial photographs
(Fig. 1-1).
The emphasis of this book is small-format aerial pho-
tography (SFAP) utilizing consumer-grade and small
professional digital cameras as well as analog 35-mm
film cameras in the visual and near-infrared spectral
range. Such cameras may be employed from manned or
unmanned platforms ranging in height from just 10s of
meters above the ground to 100 s of kilometers into space. Fig. 1-1 Vertical view of abandoned agricultural land dissected by
Platforms may be as simple as a fiberglass rod to lift up a erosion channels near Freila, Province of Granada (Spain) during a
point-and-shoot camera, as technical as unmanned aerial photographic survey taken with a hot-air blimp (left of center) at low
systems (UAS) for GPS-controlled photomosaic imagery, or flying heights. The blimp is navigated by tether lines from the ground,
camera functions are remotely controlled. Its picture was taken from a
as complex as the International Space Station.
fixed-wing UAV following GoogleEarth-digitized flightlines at ~200 m
SFAP became a distinct niche within remote sensing
height. The blimp takeoff pad at right is 12 × 8 m in size. Photo by JBR
during the 1990s (Warner et al. 1996; Bauer et al. 1997), with C. Claussen and M. Niesen.
1
S mall-Format Aerial Photography and UAS Imagery © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812942-5.00001-X
2 1. IntroductIon to SMAll-ForMAt AErIAl PhotogrAPhy
This is still true for many missions and applications
today. Perhaps the most famous modern aerial artist-
photographer, Y. Arthus-Bertrand, produced his Earth
from above masterpiece by simply flying in a helicop-
ter using handheld cameras (Arthus-Bertrand 2017).
Likewise, G. Gerster has spent a lifetime acquiring su-
perb photographs of archaeological ruins and natural
landscapes throughout the world from the open door of
a small airplane or helicopter (Gerster 2004).
The most widely available and commonly uti-
lized manned platform nowadays is the conventional
fixed-wing small airplane, employed by many SFAPs
(Caulfield 1987). Among recent examples, archaeologi-
cal sites were documented for many years by O. Braasch
in Germany (Braasch and Planck 2005), and by Eriksen
and Olesen in northwestern Denmark (2002). In central
Europe, Markowski and Markowski (2001) adopted this Fig. 1-2 Close-up vertical view of the elephant seal rookery on the
approach for aerial views of Polish castles. Bárta and beach at Piedras Blancas, California, United States. These juvenile seals
Barta (2007), a father and son team, produced stunning are ~2–2½ m long, and most are sleeping on a bank of seaweed. People are
not allowed to approach the seals on the ground, but the seals were not
pictures of landscapes, villages, and urban scenes in
aware of the silent kite and camera overhead. The spatial detail depicted
Slovakia.
in such images is extraordinary; individual pebbles are clearly visible on
In the United States, Evans and Worster (1998) were the beach. Special permission was necessary to conduct kite aerial photog-
among the first to explore the aesthetic aspects of prairie raphy at this site; image acquired with a compact digital camera.
aerial photography from a small manned airplane, and
Wark (2004) published hundreds of dramatic landscape felt by photographers around the world. Many profes-
pictures taken from a small plane across the country. sional photographers, with or without previous expe-
Hamblin (2004) focused on panoramic images of geo- rience in aerial photography from manned aircraft, are
logic scenery in Utah, and Morton (2017) displayed spec- now utilizing drones for their art (Gear 2016). Such im-
tacular geologic features throughout North America. agery has large-scale and exceptionally high spatial res-
D. Maisel has sought out provocative images of strip olution that depict ground features in surprising detail
mines, dry lake beds, and other unusual landscape pat- from unique vantage points difficult to achieve by other
terns in the western United States (Gambino 2008). In means (Fig. 1-2). These photographic views bridge the
one of the most unusual manned vehicles, C. Feil pilots a gap between ground observations and conventional air-
small autogyro for landscape photography in New York photos and satellite images.
and New England (Feil et al. 2005). An ultralight aircraft
is utilized for archaeological and landscape scenes in
the Southwest by A. Heisey (Heisey and Kawano 2001; 1-2 BRIEF HISTORY
Heisey 2007).
Unmanned, tethered, or remotely flown platforms Since ancient times, people have yearned to see the
have come into increasingly widespread use during landscape as the birds do, and artists have depicted scenes
the last two decades. This book highlights such un- of the Earth as they imagined from above. Early maps of
manned systems for low-height SFAP, including kites, major cities often were presented as aerial views, show-
blimps, and UAS (drones). While the focus of the book ing streets, buildings, and indeed people from a perspec-
is on the use and potential of SFAP for geoscientific re- tive which only could be visualized by the artist. Good
search and applications, the merits and attraction of the examples may be found in Frans Hogenberg’s Civitates
bird’s-eye view from low heights have become of gen- Orbis Terrarum (Cologne, 1572–1617). Seventeenth-
eral interest for a far greater range of topics and mo- century artists such as Wenceslaus Hollar engraved re-
tifs. Representative recent kite aerial photography, for markable urban panoramas that showed cities from an
example, includes Wilson’s (2006) beautiful views of oblique bird’s-eye view.
Wisconsin in the United States, Tielkes’s (2003) work in George Catlin was another leading practitioner of
Africa, and N. Chorier’s magnificent pictures of India aerial vantages in the early 1800s (Fig. 1-3). It was not until
(Chorier 2016). the mid-1800s, however, that two innovations combined,
Drone photography has already become a subdisci- namely manned flight and photochemical imagery, to
pline of photography, and photo-sharing communities make true aerial photography possible. Since then, pho-
such as Dronestagram testify to the fascination of SFAP tography and flight have developed in myriad ways
1-2 BrIEF hIStory 3
Fig. 1-3 Bird’s-eye view of Niagara Falls, Canada and the United States. George Catlin, 1827, gouache, ~45 × 39 cm. Adapted from Dippie et al.
(2002, p. 36).
leading to many manned and unmanned methods for to take aerial photographs was made by Colonel Aimé
documenting the Earth from above. Laussedat of the French Army Corps of Engineers
(Wolf et al. 2014). In 1849, he experimented with kites and
balloons, but was unsuccessful. The first documented
1-2.1 Nineteenth Century
aerial photograph was taken from a balloon in 1858
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre invented photogra- by Gaspard Félix Tournachon, later known as “Nadar”
phy based on silver-coated copper plates in the 1830s, (Colwell 1997). He ascended in a tethered balloon to a
and this process was published by the French govern- height of several hundred meters and photographed
ment in 1839 (Romer 2007). The earliest known attempt the village of Petit Bicêtre, France. Later that same year,
