This is an open source community effort to develop **simple, low-cost aerial photography** methods for a range of conditions. All accessible hardware and software efforts are welcome here! There are several sub-categories: * [Balloon mapping](/wiki/balloon-mapping) * [Kite mapping](/wiki/kite-mapping) * [Pole Mapping](/wiki/pole-mapping) Also: * [Kite making](/wiki/kite-making) - make your own! * [Balloon Mapping Materials](/wiki/balloon-mapping-materials) - where to get them! * [Camera selection](/wiki/camera-selection) * [Camera triggering](/wiki/camera-trigger) - snap a picture every second * [Photo rigs](/wiki/photo-rig) - connect your camera to your balloon/kite/etc! * [MapKnitter](/wiki/mapknitter) - Stitching images into maps! * [Mapping curriculum](/wiki/mapping-curriculum) - a range of useful resources **You can join in by:** * Reading about goals and [asking great questions](#Questions) * Trying (and adding to) our [community-made how-to guides](#Activities) * Building on others’ work; **adapt, hack and remix** the kits to refine and expand them **** ## Activities [activities:aerial-photography] **** ## Starter Kits Public Lab’s Kits initiative offers starter kits for kite and balloon photography. The point of the kits is to provide a shared reference design for building experimental setups onto. You can also use our guides as a resource for building or purchasing materials of your own. **[Public Lab Store's Aerial Photography and Mapping Kits](http://store.publiclab.org/collections/mapping-kits)** **** ## Questions Ask a question about aerial photography [notes:question:aerial-photography] **** ### Design philosophy These tools are being developed to provide a low cost, easy to use, and safe methods for making maps and aerial images. Over the last few years, we’ve built a global community of mappers who are engaged in discussion around the development and use of this tool and others. Normally aerial maps are made from satellites and airplanes. The balloon and kite ground-based approach introduces an on-demand capability where events or environmental conditions are mapped at a specific moment in time. Our community is particularly interested in applying this to civic and environmental issues. Maps are often used by those in power to exert influence over territory, or control territorial narratives. "Grassroots mapping" attempts to invert this dynamic by using maps as a mode of communication and as evidence for an alternative, community-owned definition of a territory. To date, our tools have been used to contest official maps or rhetoric by enabling communities to map sites that are not included in official maps. In Lima Peru, members of an informal settlement developed maps of their community as evidence of their habitation, while on the Gulf Coast of the US, locally produced maps of oil are being used to document damage that is underreported by the state. ...
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cfastie | "That's a good description of what the Rosco blue filter does. Both the blue and the red channels will have a mixture of visible and NIR light. The ..." | Read more » | over 8 years ago | |||
| Rayishido | "Hi! I was in the filed without internet. I wrote a program that trigger the photo on the second pi when a picture is taken with the first so it is..." | Read more » | over 8 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Do you know how well synchronized the photo pairs are? Do you have to start them both taking photos at the same time, or synchronize their clocks? ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| Rayishido | "I am using 2 raspberry Pis (one camera on each) and I synchronize the shutters using interrupts. I had some strange behavior (one Pi taking more pi..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "The NDVI image in my last comment was made by stretching only the NIR channel. The default is to stretch both NIR and VIS and that usually works we..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| Rayishido | "Hi Chris, to obtain this picture you stretched the histogram of the visible or visible and IR. As far as I understand to make NDVI picture a visib..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Both NDVI images look good. Both seem to have some biological meaning and both have reasonable NDVI values in areas that are shady which is very go..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| Rayishido | "Hi Chris! You assumed right! :D The pictures was taken with the pi noir and the blue filter and turned off the automatic white balance to set my o..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Rayishido, I assume the orangish photo was taken with the PiNoir camera with a blue filter. By calibration I think you mean you used the AWB_gains..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| Rayishido | "Hi! Thank you very much for your answers! I have downloaded Fiji and it's plugin and will test as soon as possible. This weekend I am going to mak..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Hi Rayishido, Nice Pi photos. Claytonb is correct about the shadows. It's a common artifact for dark areas to have very high NDVI values. In your ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| Claytonb | "@Rayishido -the high NDVI values is a normal occurrence with shadows. You will notice that the NDVI values will change in the shadows depending on ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Oh, I like that idea of including some parts in the mapping kits so the user can get started attaching their camera. That could be a nice touch. I ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| tonyc | "Good points. the main thrust of developing extreme low cost rigs is to be able to add them easily to the existing Balloon kit and kite kits, offeri..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Thanks, Tony. I suspect there is going to be great variability in the rotation depending on wind, kite, camera mass, suspension (Picavet vs pendulu..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| tonyc | " This is hacky as all getout, but the general idea of a rig for oblique panos from a kit box is one that @mathew mocked up recently, and this s..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| tonyc | "I wonder how much motion it would get on a simple flight without jostling it at all. This is such a great idea, allowing for chaotic energy to get ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "Thanks Tony, I like the idea of a universal ball head instead of a hinge. That would make it easier to switch between nadir and oblique when using..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| tonyc | "These are both great, and an excellent video summary of the questions you are facing here. My mind goes into a place of splitting the designs into..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| patcoyle | "Nice work. Tradeoffs on user's part on complexity will be in order as to which route will make most sense for them. " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| tonyc | "Awesome ideas, y'all! Mainly I was trying to get the protection centered on the lens, and to get the thing to roll, not resist with rigid protectio..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "McMaster Carr sells aluminum strips 1/16" thick in widths between 1 1/2" and 2" (in various lengths). So a one foot long piece would cost less than..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| cfastie | "I like Pat's idea of bolting through a juice bottle. Removing the neck of the bottle could allow good access to the camera, but the bottle shoul..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| patcoyle | "Tony, I looked at the note in email before I saw the comments from Chris. I like the innovative thinking. The drop test is cool I'd second the poi..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago |