OT: anyone use aerial photographs?

[2]

Just a shot in the dark here. Does anybody else use aerial photographs? I used to order them from the Alberta government and they would send them on 8.5 * 11 paper. I would use a felt marker and labels to mark up the features I wanted to note. They are now no longer offering paper prints are switching to all digital. Now they send me a photo of the whole 6 mile * 6 mile township in MrSid format and I need to zoom in to find my 300 foot square lease. I don't know how to keep scale accurate when it comes to printing or what software to use to 'mark up' the photos. Any advice?



Thanks in advance



Olaf

 

[Todd Z]

I can just print good shots from MSN maps...



Todd Z

 

[2]

I need historical ones at specific time intervals, that is why I can't use stuff like google earth etc.

 

[Todd Z]

I know we have programs at work for that, I Can look into it for you..

Todd Z

 

[2]

Thanks Todd, I would appreciate some software names. I have tried google to find the software I would need to use but am not really getting anywhere. I tried using photoshop but am having scale and user issues. My girlfriend was the graphic designer so I didn't worry about that stuff. She was going to teach me what I needed to do, but too late now.

 

[Dale Carlson]

Have you tried local government online? My county has a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) section on their website for any number of mapping purposes, including showing property details (which is also tied into the public property tax assessment records). They use stitched aerial photos for the "real" birds eye view. It looks like they only take the pictures every 5-7 years, so the shot of my property isn't exactly up to date.

 

[2]

kefguy-I can still order them from the same place I was before, just working with them is my issue. Before it was a hard copy piece of paper, easy to draw on, now they come in digital format from an FTP site, I have to do all my scaling etc. myself. That is where the problems come in. I have been playing with photoshop all night now and am making some progress. Still some resolution issues I have to work out. I was mainly curious to see if there is some kind of GIS software that would make this easier?

 

[Casey B]

Always make a copy to play around with and leave the original intact. Even with photoshop you can just select the area you want, cut it and manipulate it. As long as you are not altering the original you can try again. I'm sure photoshop will do what you want if you play with it long enough.

 

[2]

C, yes, I think I am just discovering that. I have been looking up how to do each part one at a time. I guess I was being lazy trying to get it to scale for me, but with using the rulers in photoshop I can set my scale manually. The text I need to add is awful in photoshop so I am making that in illustrator and then I can save it as an image and put it into photoshop. Kind of nice having all this software left to me, too bad she isn't around to teach me how to use it anymore.

 

[2]

Okay, update, after spending 6 hours tinkering and look stuff up I have my desired product by using photoshop and illustrator. I think I wrote all the steps down so hopefully it will go faster from now on.



C, that was a good point about leaving the original intact and working from copies.