So You Want to do Photogrammetry: The Beginning of an Underwhelming Adventure

I don’t remember how it happened, but one day I came across photogrammetry, the process of using 2D photos to make a 3D rendering. It was instant infatuation. Here was something that combined three of my favourite things – photography, cool looking thingamajigs, and not having to acquire extra tat to support the hobby.

So I looked online, and found it was big with archaeologists. Everything from sherds to entire sites were being rendered with photogrammetry.

I wanted in.

Looking around, it seemed so easy. Because, really, how hard is it to match points? My panorama software does it and that software is old. And look! The tutorials make it look so simple!

But what I though would be a fun little project ended up turning out like this:

For those under 30: Don’t lie, you’re not cool enough to not know exactly what this means.

For those of you who don’t follow Pokémon, it means that the end result is awesome but getting there is damn near impossible without extensive third party aid. And by “extensive”, I mean “walking home, up hill, both ways, in a blizzard, with a fractured leg” type investments.

Naturally, this all ended in failure. Repeated failure. Without anyone really there to help, I’ve probably made every mistake one can make without actually setting something on fire.

But you can learn from all my failures! Here I’ll post a chronicle of my trials, tribulations, and experiments in regards to hobbyist photogrammetry, and maybe some other stuff.

As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10 000 ways that won’t work”.

Stay tuned for more, and happy reading!

A Very Basic Overview: Or, Computers don’t understand French surrealism

Toolkit and Setup: Or, professionals need not apply

STEP 1 Taking Your Photos: Or, Playdoh is priceless

STEP 2 Making You Point Cloud: Or, Georges Seurat never had to deal with this

STEP 3 Meshing: Or, the Janitorial Work of Photogrammetry

Step 4 Scultpting and Printing: Or, In Which Making a Hole is Much Harder Than Can Be Reasonably Expected

Cellphone Lenses: Or, Look – you finally have a use for them!

The Evils of Interior Design: Or, How I learned to hate every archaeologist to ever scrub paint off of a statue

Why You Shouldn’t Zoom: Or, A lesson from Alfred Hitchcock

Finding Your Sensor Width: Or, it’s like Hansel and Gretel except the breadcrumbs are factory specifications