Aerial Photography and Locating Underwater Objects

[itmaiden]

Having spent a great deal of time through the years on aerial photos, satellite images etc, it is clear that some images are worth paying for and some are not.

There seems to be very definite differences in photo quality and type of camera, angle and height of the shoot, the skill of the camera person etc.

The utmost importance is photographing on a good visibility day. Some companies seem interested in just "doing the job" , and "getting "A" photo" of some type rather than quality images that meet the needs of the consumer.

Whether the images require purchase or are free, there are a wide range of differences from one company's photos to another.

I cannot believe that any aerial photography company would waste time, energy and money photographing the ground or anything else when the cloud cover is so bad it obscures what is being photographed, but they do.

For shipwrecks and debris, there are incredible differences in the photo quality and what can be seen. My present experiment is going to be to see if I can use tracing paper (very very thin paper) over a digitalized image to draw underwater debris for divers.

I really feel that with the better quality images that there can be aids to enhance what shows in those images. One of my thoughts are in regards to taking a photo, developing it on ultra thin film paper, and then putting it on a fluorescent lighting board like those used by medical personnel for xrays to see what else may turn up in the image.

Anyone know if this has been done ?

itmaiden

 

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[FISHEYE]

If you want to see whats underwater like shipwrecks and debris and ballast stones,the only way you are going to do it is with color infrared film photography useing a bunch of different colored filters.I went to the university of hawaii and majored in oceanography,one of my assignments was to map the living and dead reefs on the windward side of oahu.Since i was already a pro photographer at the time.I got my dad to fly me over the reefs at 1000 feet with me shooting color infrared kodal slide film in my 35mm nikon with a wide angle lens.We made several passes shooting with 20 different colored filters.If anything is living like live coral or algae and growing on any man made or natural object,it will show up in the photos.Some sat companies offer infrared photos,but you have to pay thier price.And it wont be as good as the film as they wont have the filters i use.It would be cheaper to have someone fly you over the area you are interesting in.You better do it quick.Kodak will be phasing out film in about a year.You will have to develop the film yourself,its kodak ecktachrome and is a E-6 slide developing process.I have everything here to do it.Then the slides can be scanned on my 19,000 DPI slide scanner for a digital image.I have friends that are pilots and can fly anywhere as long as the plane and fuel is paid for.

Doing what you want to do on thin photo paper wont show anything.no one makes thin paper.Its not xray film.A high DPI digital image made from film will show more detail then any sat image.I do have a xray machine but the range is less than a foot.Its only good for seeing whats inside encrusted objects.Or other things like it was made for.

The tracing paper is a good idea,but can be done better with photoshop if you have it wired.Im not good with it at all,I have a friend that mastered it so i get him to do what i want.

 

[itmaiden]

Thanks Fisheye,

I was wondering about how good Infrared would be for shipwrecks. Never see anyone talk about it. Found the ballast stones from 2 with some old night photos that were taken. The rocks showed up as bright white.

Of course, they were in shallow water.

So why don't you list your fees/costs, or do you have a website ? I am sure many would be interested in taking you up on that.

itmaiden