Chapter Two

Elements of Analytical photogrammetry

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 1. Introduction
What is Analytical photogrammetry?
Is a term used to describe the rigorous mathematical
calculation of coordinates of points in object space based
upon:
• Camera parameters,
• Measured photo coordinates, and
• Ground control points
Analytical photogrammetry forms the basis of many modern
hardware and software systems
It includes stereoplotters (analytical and softcopy), DTM
generation, orthophoto production, digital photo
rectification, and aerotriangulation

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Properties of Aerial photogrammetry
Aerial photography is the basic data source for making
maps by photogrammetric means.
The factors determine the quality of aerial photography
are:
• Design and quality of lens system
• Manufacturing the camera
• Photographic material
• Development process
• Weather conditions and
Sun angle during photo flight

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Terminologies in Properties of aerial
photography
Photo nadir point: is the intersection of vertical
(plumb line) from perspective center with
photograph.
Ground nadir point: is intersection of vertical
(plumb line) from perspective center with the earth’s
surface.
Tilt angle: is angle between vertical and camera
axis.
Swing angle: is the angle at the principal point
measured from the +y-axis counterclockwise to the
nadir .
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 Cont…
Principal point: The exact center of an aerial
photograph
Perspective center: The point of origin or
termination of bundles of perspective rays
Focal length: The distance from the front
nodal point of the lens to the plane of
photograph
Fiducial Marks: Marks located in the middle
of the sides of the focal plane opening
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 Cont…
Fiducial centre: The point of intersection of straight line
of joining opposite Fiducial marks
Azimuth: is the angle at the ground nadir measured from
the +Y-axis in the ground system counterclockwise to the
intersection of the camera axis with the ground surface.
Principal line: The intersection of principal plane with
the plane of photograph
Principal plane: is the point of intersection, when aerial
camera captures a photo of ground, the optical axis of
camera will intersect at some point (center) in the aerial
photograph.

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 Cont..
Dia-positive: A positive print (photograph)
on a transparent medium (glass/film).
Negative: an image that reproduces the
bright portions of the photographed subject
as dark and the dark parts as light areas.
Exposure Station: The space position of the
front nodal point (perspective centre) at the
time of exposure,

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 2. Relief Displacement
What is Relief Displacement?
 is the shift or displacement in the photographic
position of an image caused by the relief of the object
A vertical object (such as a building or tree) will
appear to be lying along a line radial to the image
nadir point.
With respect to a datum, relief displacement is:
a) outward for point whose elevations are above datum.
b) inward for points whose elevations are below datum.

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 Figure: Relief displacement on a
vertical photograph

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 `

Eq.
a

Eq.
b

Eq. 7-
11

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  Where:
 = relief displacement
 = height above datum of object point whose image is displaced
 = radial distance on photograph from principal point to displaced
image (The units of and must be the same.)
 = flying height above same datum selected for measurement of

NOTE:
 Relief displacement increases with increasing radial distance to the
image, and it also increases with increased elevation of the object
point above datum.
 Relief displacement decreases with increased flying height above
datum.
 It has also been shown that relief displacement occurs radially from
the principal point.

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  HEIGHTS OF OBJECTS:
 Vertical heights of objects such as buildings, poles, etc.,
appearing on aerial photographs can be calculated from
relief displacements. Eq. 7-
12
 It is necessary that the images of both the top and bottom of
the vertical object be visible on the photograph, so that d can
be measured.
 Datum is arbitrarily selected at the base of the vertical object.
 The above equation is a particular import to the photo
interpreter, who is often interested in relative heights of
objects rather than absolute elevations.

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 Cont…
Example 1: On a photograph taken from a height of 1340m
above the datum, a building has a relief displacement that
measures 5.54mm. If the image of the top of the building is
located 64.55mm from the principal point. Determine the
height of the building above datum.

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 Cont…
Example 2: An airplane flying at an altitude of 820m above the
ground took picture of a tower. The image of the top and bottom
of the tower appears in the picture having distances of its end of
2.08cm and 2.00cm from the center of the photograph
respectively. What is the height of the tower?

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 Stereo Parallax

Is the apparent displacement of the position

of an object with respect to a frame of
reference due to a shift in the point of
observation.
The shift is along the line of movement.
When the shift is along flight direction it is
called x-parallax
The closer the object to the frame, the larger
the shift, so parallax is a function of height.
 Cont…
Stereoscopic parallax for any point such as A and B
whose images appear on two photos of a stereopair
Pa = xa– xa’
Pb= xb-xb’
 Example
Compute x-parallax for points q, r, s if x-coordinates
for these points and their conjugates on left and
right photos respectively are as follows: Image point
q: x’ = 40mm, x” = -50mm, Image point r: x’ = -
20mm, x”= -65mm and Image point s: x’ = 60mm, x”
= -20mm
Solution:
Pq = 40 – (-50) = 90mm
Pr = -20 – (-65) = 45mm
Ps = 60 – (-20) = 80mm
 Parallax Equation

From Figure,
(H- hA) / B = f / Pa;

 ………. (a)
Where , h is object
elevation, H is flying
height, B is Air base,
f is focal length and
Pa is parallax
 Parallax Equation
By using 𝑋, 𝑌, and 𝑍
ground coordinates
formula;
 ……….(b)
By substituting eqn.
(b) into eqn. (a) and
reducing gives;
Example
A pair of overlapping vertical photographs was taken
from a flying height of 1233 m above sea level with a
152.4-mm-focal-length camera. The air base was 390
m. With the photos properly oriented, flight-line
coordinates for points a and b were measured as xa =
53.4 mm, ya = 50.8 mm, xa′ = –38.3 mm, xb = 88.9 mm,
yb = –46.7 mm, xb′ = –7.1 mm. Calculate the elevations
of points A and B, ground coordinates of points A and B
and the horizontal length of line AB.

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Solution

The horizontal length of line AB is

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 Exercise
1. Images a’ and a” on left and right photos have x-coordinates
50mm and -30mm on left photo. Flying height above
average ground height is 1800m with air base , B = 900m
and camera focal length 150mm. Compute object height, h?

2. An overlapping pair of vertical photographs taken with

a150.0-mm-focal-length camera has an air base of 600 m. The
elevation of control point A is 200 m above sea level, and the
parallax of point A is 90.0 mm. What is the flying height
above sea level for this stereo pair?
 Photo Coordinate System
• Rectangular coordinates of imaged points are the
most common type of photographic measurements
which are usually made on positives printed on
paper or digital images.
• Equipment used for photographic
measurements varies from simple scales to
complex machines.
• The rectangular coordinate system has positive
x axis in flight direction.

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 Cont…
Equipment used for photographic measurements are:
Engineer’s scale: is used to measure objects on image
for cases where a low accuracy is acceptable.
Comparators: used to measure with a high level of
accuracy (2~3 µm) in coordinate measurements while
no longer in common use.
Photogrammetric scanners: are used to convert
analog content of photograph to digital form from
which coordinate measurement can take place in
computer environment

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 Cont…

• The origin of the system is the intersection of fiducial lines

often called principal point
• Rectangular coordinates can be used to calculate the photo
distances by using simple analytic geometry:

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 Shrinkage Correction
 Determined by Comparing  xc 
x a  
'
 xa
 Measured Photographic
 xm 
distance between Opposite
fiducial marks  yc 
 Corresponding values
y a  
'
 ya
 ym 
determined in camera
Calibration .
Where
 xc 
 
 x ' a , y ' a  Corrected image coordinate
The ratio  xm  is scale factor in
xa , ya  measured image coordinate
x-direction
 yc 
  xc , yc  Calibrated fiducial dis tan ce
y
 m
x m , y m  Measured fiducial dis tan ce
 The ratio is scale factor in
y-direction
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 Cont…

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 Cont…

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 Correction for Lens Distortion
Causes imaged positions to be displaced from their
ideal position
In Modern Precision aerial camera distortion is 5μm.
Approach: lens distortion fit polynomial curve
function
Δr  k1r 1  k 2 r 3  k 3 r 5  k 4 r7
where :
r  amount of radial distortion
r  radial dis tan ce from PP
k1 , k 2 , k3 ,& k 4  coefficients [calculated by least squares]

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 Cont…
Actual Image
. Location Δr  k1r 1  k 2 r 3  k 3 r 5  k 4 r 7
Ideal Image
Location
y’
δy
∆r

δx
r

y’

x’ x’

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Example
A camera calibration report specifies the calibrated principal point as x p
=0.008mm & yp =-0.001mm. Using these calibration values, compute the
corrected coordinates for an image point having coordinates x=62.579mm,
y=-80.916mm relative to fiducial axes. The least square value of coefficients
in millimeters are 𝑘1 = 0.2296, 𝑘2= −35.89, 𝑘3 = 1,018, 𝑘4= 12,100.
Solution
1. Compute the distance from the principal point to the image point

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 Cont…
Given this value for r and the k coefficients, compute Δr
Δr  k1r 1  k 2 r 3  k 3 r 5  k 4 r 7

Compute δx and δy, respectively.

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 Cont…
Compute corrected coordinates Xc and Yc, respectively.

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Correction for Atmospheric Refraction
Index of refraction of atmosphere decrease with
increasing altitude
Light rays don’t travel in straight line through
atmosphere
Bend according to Snell’s law
Photographic equation assumes light rays=straight
Correction applied
Refraction causes all image to be displaced outward
Refraction distortion occurs from nadir point

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 Cont…
r Angular distortion due to refraction, increases
r’ with increasing flying height and increasing
∆r
a incident angle:
a’  ∆α =ktanα
∆α
α f  K=(2.4x10-4)(H-h)[1-0.02(2H-h)]
 K is function of H (camera elevation)
and h (object elevation)
 H(km) is Flight line above MSL
 h(km) is Object Elevation above

MSL
 r= √(x2+y2) is radial distance from
Principal point (PP)
 tan α= r/f
 ∆α =k r/f
 The radial distance r’ from PP to corrected
B image can be
A  r’= ftan(α- ∆α)
hA  Change in radial distance ∆r=r-r’
 The components of ∆r

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 Cont…
Compute δx and δy, respectively
Δr
 x  x'
r
Δr
y  y'
r
Compute corrected coordinate, respectively

x c  x ' x
yc  y ' y

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 Cont…

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 Cont…

0.008
𝛿𝑥 = 73.287 = 0.005 mm
125.036

0.008
𝛿𝑦 = −101.307 = −0.006 mm
125.036

𝑥 ′ = 𝑥 − 𝛿𝑥 = 73.287 − 0.005 = 73.282 mm

𝑦 ′ = 𝑦 − 𝛿𝑦 = −101.307 − −0.006 = −101.301
mm

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 Earth curvature correction
 The primary problem with the earth curvature correction is
that because of the nature of map projection coordinates,
correcting photo coordinates for earth curvature will degrade
the accuracy of either X or Y object space coordinates,
depending upon the map projection used.
 For example, when a UTM projection is used, application of
earth curvature corrections will yield more accurate
elevations and Y values, but will degrade X values because
the UTM projection does not curve in the X direction.
 Local vertical coordinate system can avoid the need of earth
curvature correction

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