Aerial photography means taking pictures of the Earth from the sky. Long ago, people used balloons and airplanes to do this. Today, we use satellites and drones. This way of taking photos has changed the world. It helps us make maps, watch nature, and share powerful images. Velikiy Media tells the story of this change. We celebrate how aerial photos help us see and understand our world better.
History of Aerial Photography and the Resolution of Glass Plate Cameras
A Short History of Photography
People understood how to show depth in pictures from the late 1400s. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer used this in their drawings and paintings.
In the 1830s, different people started trying to capture images. They used chemicals, early cameras, and simple lenses to make pictures.
Niepce and Daguerre
In 1830, Joseph Niepce made a method that worked. But it took 8 hours to make one picture. In 1837, a Frenchman named Jacques Daguerre made a better method. He called it the “daguerreotype” image. His way was more successful.
Wet Colloidal Process
By the late 1840s, people used a wet process to put images on glass plates. This helped scientists working with photography. They created a method called photogrammetry.
In 1525, Albrecht Duerer made a wood picture in his book. It showed how to draw a 3D object in 2D using lines and shapes.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a method to measure real things using photos.
The word means “light drawn to measure.”
A French man named Aime Laussedat is called the “Father of Photogrammetry.” In 1849, he climbed church towers in Paris. He took photos using glass plates. He measured the distances in the photos. Then he used them to make a map.
Another man, called Nadar, took the first photos from the sky over Paris.
The Birth of Aerial Photography
“Nadar” – The Father of Aerial Photography
An extremely colourful character in France from the 1850s was Gaspard Felix Tournachon, always referred to as ‘Nadar’.
Always a ‘showman’, the late 1850s studio-based portrait of ‘Nadar’ (above) illustrates how he went aloft over Paris to take the first aerial photographs, made by the use of a ‘mask’ which slid across the negative glass plate to expose 8 separate images.
He realised the enormous potential for aerial photography (and photogrammetry) and ascended 80 metres in a hot air balloon over Paris to take the first aerial photographs in 1858.
The first aerial photographs of Paris by “Nadar”, made by the use of a ‘mask’ which slid across the negative glass plate to expose 8 separate images.
Military Potential
The military soon saw the potential.
Reconnaissance photography from balloons (and kites) was used by the Americans in their Civil War (1862) and by the French in campaigns against Spain and Prussia by the 1870s.
This photograph shows a tethered balloon being inflated with hydrogen (a dangerous process in itself) before being taken aloft by Union Soldiers in the American Civil War in 1862 to take aerial photographs over Confederate lines.
The Use of Kites
Unbelievably, up until the development of the aeroplane, kites were used in aerial photography as the main technology to get a photographer airborne.
Lawrence Hargrave in Australia had experimented with man-lifting box-kites since 1885.
Captain Baden-Powell had invented and perfected his ‘Levitor’ kite in England by 1894 and it was taken to South Africa for use in the Boer War, but arrived there too late to be used.
The ‘Man-Lifter War Kite’
Samuel Francis Cody patented his ‘Man-lifter War Kite’ in 1901.
This was an improved version of Hargrave’s design and was large enough to comfortably support a man. They were kept air-borne by being released from the decks of ships which steamed along at a steady rate. The photographer was raised up to 500 metres in the air to allow coastal defences to be photographed for later analysis.
Samuel Francis Cody’s ‘Man-lifter War Kite’ (1901).
The Invention of Roll Film
Roll film for cameras was developed by George Eastman in 1884.
This saw the development of the Eastman Kodak company and the general public could join in the photography ‘craze’ after the early mass-produced Brownie box-cameras became available.
Note that although there were usually 8 photographs on the reel of film, in the early days from the 1890s, the entire camera had to be returned to a Kodak agency for it to be extracted from the camera, developed and printed and a new roll of film installed!
Aerial Photography in Australia
By 1930, there was an aerial survey company known as Adastra Aerial Surveys which ‘flew’ out of Mascot Aerodrome in Sydney.
By the time it was sold up in the mid-1970s, there were several aerial photography companies throughout Australia, mostly responding to the demand of the ‘Mining Exploration Boom’.
These companies took the photographs and made the subsequent measurements and maps for the planning of roads, railways, mining leases, etc.
A Simple Explanation
Let’s explain this in a simple way.
Think of a photo on a 10-inch by 8-inch glass plate. Now compare it to a photo from a modern digital camera.
The glass plate photo needed a longer time to take. The photo was made using silver grains. Each grain was very small, about 1 to 3 micrometres (that is 0.001 to 0.003 mm).
To put this photo into a computer, we scan it. The scanner turns it into tiny squares called pixels. Each pixel can be 10 micrometres wide.
This means that in 1 mm by 1 mm, there are 100 by 100 pixels. That is 10,000 pixels in each square mm.
The glass photo is 10 inches by 8 inches. That is 250 mm by 200 mm. So the area is 50,000 square mm.
If each mm² has 10,000 pixels, then the full photo has 500,000,000 pixels. That is 500 Megapixels.
The Digital Camera
About 20 years ago, most digital cameras were just 1 Megapixel. Now, in 2021, many cameras have 10 to 20 Megapixels. Even phone cameras have this much.
But an old glass plate photo, made over 150 years ago, can hold 50 times more detail. It can also be made much larger without losing quality.
This is a simple explanation. There are other things to think about too, like lens problems, how easy the camera is to use, how heavy or big it is, and how well it works with computers. These things are why glass plates and film cameras are no longer used today.
How We Use Aerial Photography Today
Today, aerial photography is used in many ways. Cities use it to plan roads and buildings. Real estate agents use it to show houses. Scientists use it to study nature and climate change. Archaeologists use it to find old sites. We also use it with GIS (Geographic Information Systems). These systems help us measure and map land. But there are also rules. People worry about privacy. Some places have drone laws. Velikiy Media always follows these rules and respects privacy.
Conclusion
Aerial photography has come a long way. It started with balloons. Then planes, satellites, and now drones. Each step helped us learn more about the Earth. We now use it in science, business, and art. In the future, AI and smart tools will make it even better. Velikiy Media will keep leading in this field, sharing stories from the sky.