Many great people have contributed to the development of photogrammetry. From the explanation of mathematical principles, the inventions of camera hardware and constant innovation of data capturing methods, each and every discovery lead to the modern digital photogrammetry that we know today.
In order to investigate the history of photogrammetry, one must first define exactly what photogrammetry means. According to the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, photogrammetry is the: “art, science, and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment, through processes of recording, measuring, and interpreting images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant energy and other phenomena” (ASPRS,2010).
This principle was later detailed by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1490. Camera obscura refers to a “darkened room” which was originally a room that was sealed from light with the exception for a tiny hole in one wall. An image could be projected, reversed or upside down, onto a wall or on a white screen opposite the opening. The image could then be traced on translucent paper (Hemphill, 2003). Perspective and projective geometry is considered to be the basic principles from which the theory of photogrammetry is developed (Klinkenberg, n.d.).
The next significant development was made in 1759 by John Heinrich Lambert, a Swiss polymath. He developed the mathematical principles of perspective imagery using space resections to find points in space from which the picture was made. This is relevant because later on the relationship between projective geometry and photogrammetry was explained by R. Strums and Guido Hauck in 1883 (Klinkenberg,
The first cycle, plane table photogrammetry, began in 1850 by Dr. Albrecht Meydenbauer. Meydenbauer had an accident where he almost fell down from the side of a cathedral while he was documenting it for an architectural survey. From this he realised that direct measurements from the façade of the cathedral could be substituted by indirect measurements obtained from photographic images. This was where the basic concept of photogrammetry was formed. Meydenbauer, from this point, devoted his life to the comprehension of this concept (Albertz, 2007).
Meydenbauer began designing cameras that had all the main components that are required for photogrammetric instruments. These included the integration of a coordinate system for the image (which was created by crosshairs that projected on the photoplate during exposure) as well as a fixed focus used to define the principal distance or focal length (Albertz, 2007). Despite all this, Meydenbauer’s method of indirect measurements from images was not accepted and only after an abundance of technical improvements to his camera design and practical experiments did he succeed. This was 25 years after his original idea of the use of photographs for the survey and documentation of buildings (Klinkenberg,
"History of Art: History of Photography." History of Art: History of Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2014. .
.... 'It is a moment when the visible escapes from the timeless incorporeal order of the camera obscura and becomes lodged in another apparatus, within the unstable physiology and temporality of the human body'. Crary further demonstrates the shift in vision's location from camera to body by examining the way in which it was reproduced in various optical devices invented during this same period, specifically the stereoscope, the kaleidoscope, the phenakistiscope, and the diorama. His examination is based on a provocative premise: 'There is a tendency to conflate all optical devices in the nineteenth century as equally implicated in a vague collective drive to higher and higher standards of verisimilitude' (110). According to Crary, such an approach tends to neglect entirely how some of these devices were expressions of what he calls 'nonveridical' models of perception.
For many years the only way to capture an image required one to paint or draw the model or object. This was until 1814 when Joseph Nicephore Niepce a French inventor, took the first picture in history. Even though the picture was a permanent print the image known as “View from the window at Le Guas” took eight hours to expose!
The first type of using light to make a picture was the daguerreotype. Both Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce, who passed away before the public was introduced to the daguerreotype, founded this type of picture taking. However, before this Louis Daguerre made a "theater without actors." Beaumont Newhall explains that this was an illusion made by extraordinary lighting effects that made the 45 ½ foot by 71 ½ foot pictures appear to change as one looked at them (2).
Schaaf, Larry J. Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot & the Invention of Photography. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1992.
Prior to the invention of the daguerreotype, the Camera Obscura was the main optical instrument that was used to project images onto paper. The Camera Obscura was a device in the shape of a box that allowed light, which was being reflected from the images that the user was intending to capture, to enter through an opening at one end of the box to form an image on a surface and an artist would then trace the image to form the most accurate impression of an image at that peri...
The vast influence of observation was highly apparent in paintings during the Scientific Revolution particularly for artists like Jan Vermeer (Fiero, 120-121). According to, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Vermeer was intensely preoccupied with the behavior of light and other optical effects such as sudden recessions and changes of focus (Liedtke).” In Vermeer’s painting The Geographer, I think he pays attention very well to the light in this particular painting. It is obvious the source of the light is coming from the window next to the man in the painting. He captured the way light hits various objects in the room and the shadows they create in a very realistic manner. It is also, apparent Vermeer’s precise technical abilities and careful observation to everyday human activity that support in the realism of this particular painting. I like how he captures this individual briefly taking a moment away from his work to possibly double check something as someone would do to check their own accuracy. Jan Vermeer captured everyday life in his impressive realism paintings, which showed people a different world that existed around them. Similar to, the art influencing different viewpoints of the world was new literature of Enlightenment
In the early 1400s, Italian engineer and architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, rediscovered the system of perspective as a mathematical technique to replicate depth and form within a picture plane. According to the principles, establishing one or more vanishing points can enable an artist to draw the parallels of an object to recede and converge, thus disappearing into a “distance”. In 1412, Brunelleschi demonstrated this technique to the public when he used a picture of the Florence Baptistery painted on a panel with a small hole in the centre.3 In his other hand, he held a mirror to reflect the painting itself, in which the reflected view seen through the hole depicted the correct perspective of the baptistery. It was confirmed that the image
What are some ways in which linear perspective is expressed in the Renaissance? The use of linear perspective showed the emergence of science and mathematical observations in the physical world. When viewing paintings, you can see one point perspective in the work itself by seeing a focal point.
Missing Figures A Brief History of Telescopes Although telescopes have been around for several hundred years, there has been great discrepancy as to who invented them first. Here is the author's opinion. Lippershey was a Dutch spectacle marker during the early 17th century (approximately 1600).
He was very dedicated about precise measurements and the idea of using photography which led the combination of both that we use today. He helped develop this usage of photography with a scale to allow investigators to document the crime scenes. Before photographs, investigators used to sketch the crime scene. In forensics class, we learned that part of the steps in todays crime investigations involves the usage of both techniques. Locard was influenced by his instructor and formed the basis of forensics science (Locard’s Exchange Principle.
The idea for photographing came around in 1814 when Joseph Niépce wanted an image of his son before he left for war. He succeeded in making the first camera in 1827, but the camera needed at least eight hours to produce one picture. Parisian Louis Daguerre invented the next kind of camera in 1839, who worked with Niépce for four years. His camera only needed fifteen to thirty minutes to produce a picture. Both Niécpe’s and Daguerre’s cameras made pictues on metal plates. In the same year Daguerre made his camera, an Englishman by the name of William Henry Fox Talbot made the first camera that photographed pictures on paper. The camera printed a reverse picture onto a negative and chemicals were needed to produce the photo up right. In 1861, color film came along and pictures were produced with color instead of being just black and white. James Clerk Maxwell is credited with coming up with color film, after he took the ...
Camera History.The first camera like devices can be seen as far back as Ancient Greece and China. This piece of early technology was called the Obscura, the invention of this was an important part in developing cameras and photography. A camera Obscura is a dark closed space that is shaped like a box with a hole on the other side of it. The light that comes through the tiny hole projects an image that meets the wall of the box. The image was then drawn by an artist; however, the image was projected upside down.
There was a time when the only way to capture a moment or surrounding was by a painting. Joseph Nicephore Niepce created the first photograph ever in 1827. Photography went thru many beneficial changes since then only improving and
Thanks to his studies, especially after the translation of Kitâb al-Manâzir (The Book of Optics), many scholars and scientists were inspired. Later European scholars were able take what he had discovered and further our knowledge about cameras and optics in general. Alhazen’s creation of the pinhole camera is the reason why cameras and other important inventions were created, such as eye-glasses, magnifying glasses and telescopes were created, as scholars and scientists knew how images are reflected in our eyes. He especially influenced Isaac Ne...