How do you shoot and stitch together large acreage of property into one image?

[cknipp]

Hello Folks!

Part 107 pilot here shooting some real estate and property for developers.
I have a question.

Here is my question:
How do you shoot and stitch together large acreage of property into one image?

A real estate broker wants several acres of property into one shot. She asked if I can fly the drone high enough to get all of the property into one image. I obviously could not do that without transgressing the 400 ft rule.
It's over 180 acres.

How do you shoot and stitch together?

I appreciate insight on this.

Thanks,
Chris Knipp

 

[UAV Ernst]

Hello Folks!

Part 107 pilot here shooting some real estate and property for developers.
I have a question.

Here is my question:
How do you shoot and stitch together large acreage of property into one image?

A real estate broker wants several acres of property into one shot. She asked if I can fly the drone high enough to get all of the property into one image. I obviously could not do that without transgressing the 400 ft rule.
It's over 180 acres.

How do you shoot and stitch together?

I appreciate insight on this.

Thanks,
Chris Knipp

Just a thought, one that doesn’t involve UAV’s, maybe just do a screen grab or series of screen grabs from Google Earth Pro?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

This is where you need something like Drone Link to create something like that if you cannot do it in Adobe Lightroom.

Dronelink can do 1800 pictures or more and create a 3D model as well.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Land on the Water.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I've done it with Maven (if you're an iOS user) on an Air 2. I would think Litchi would work as well, depending on which model you're flying.

 

[PHZ]

This is clearly a mapping shoot. Even for DroneDeploy this is a large map. You may want to consider two maps. I don’t think the Air2s supports waypoints, so you will need a drone that does, such as the Mavic Pro, Mavic 2 Pro, Inspire 1 or 2, or Mavic 3 Enterprise. And a mapping app, such as DroneDeploy, Maps Made Easy, DJI’s Ground Station Pro. Bring lots of batteries.
Or, call a friend or reach out to a local through this forum who has done this before. This is a serious project if done properly, so you may want to ask the realtor what it is worth to him/her. A map will give you the current status of the property with detail, Google Maps is dated, so may not be representative of the current property. My guess would be that it may not be worth as much as you should charge.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Air 2S supports waypoints in 3rd party apps, just not natively, unless you're doing a survey of some kind, there's no need for ground stations or GCPs. If the client just wants one big photomosaic of the property, given enough overlap, an Air 2S can do the job.

 

[millbah]

In such case I use a dronelink mission which grabs a whole lot of photos, then Agisoft to stitch photos together in a flattened orthomosaic. May have to do in 2 takes depending on land area, then combine the chunks in Agisoft.

 

[Parkerjh]

As others have said, with that drone, your best bet is using DroneLink. Make a single grid mission flying at 400' with 70% side and front overlap. Then upload all the images to MapsMadeEasy. Depending on size, it'll either be free or a couple of dollars that you'll have to buy credits for. Message me with any additional questions

 

[mrsr71]

Easy - do a sphere.

 

[James in the Desert]

Use

Just a thought, one that doesn’t involve UAV’s, maybe just do a screen grab or series of screen grabs from Google Earth Pro?

Use Drone Deploy easy peasy.

 

[EaglePrecision]

DroneDeploy or Map Pilot for capture then upload and process to Maps Made Easy (you only pay for the processing based on the # of photos uploaded). You can also use the Pix4D React which is only $35/month for simple maps such as this (up to about 1,200 photos I think).

 

[Meta4]

It's over 180 acres.

I just set up a dummy mission for 180 acres in DroneDeploy.
At 400 ft and default overlap settings, it would require around 400 images.
Stitching would take a few hours (if you had the rather expensive software to do it.)
If you aren't experienced in drone mapping, you'd be best telling the client that it's beyond your expertise.

 

[tls3601]

Great topic. I have a similar dilemma, during the week of this upcoming Labor Day I have a 128 acre parcel I wish to shoot from above. However the area is very remote and well further than 35 miles to the nearest airport. Thinking I can legally go up much higher than the traditional 400 feet.

 

[Parkerjh]

Thinking I can legally go up much higher than the traditional 400 feet.

Sure you can. If it's uncontrolled airspace and you are near 100' tall trees, you can go to 500'. If you are Part 107, you can apply for a waiver.

 

[Meta4]

Great topic. I have a similar dilemma, during the week of this upcoming Labor Day I have a 128 acre parcel I wish to shoot from above. However the area is very remote and well further than 35 miles to the nearest airport. Thinking I can legally go up much higher than the traditional 400 feet.

If you are thinking of flying high enough to fit the whole property into a single photo,think again.
Assuming the land was a suitable shape (not too long and thin), some rough calculation shows that you'd have to climb to something like 2000 feet to fit it all in.
Apart from the technicalities of flying that high, from that distance, you aren't going to see any detail at all.

 

[tls3601]

If you are thinking of flying high enough to fit the whole property into a single photo,think again.
Assuming the land was a suitable shape (not too long and thin), some rough calculation shows that you'd have to climb to something like 2000 feet to fit it all in.
Apart from the technicalities of flying that high, from that distance, you aren't going to see any detail at all.

Land is of a rectangular shape, but yes you make a good point. Thanks for your input

 

[Meta4]

Land is of a rectangular shape, but yes you make a good point. Thanks for your input

To crate a good orthophoto takes a lot of images.
I used 380 images (with big overlaps) to create this one for a 120 acre site.
The resulting image is huge 32000 x 24000 pixels and has tons of detail.

 

[MS Coast]

Sure you can. If it's uncontrolled airspace and you are near 100' tall trees, you can go to 500'. If you are Part 107, you can apply for a waiver.

No. Trees are not structures and don't justify an altitude increase above 400' AGL. And you must have a Part 107 ticket to take advantage of the 400'-above-if-within-400'-laterally altitude allowance over structures.

 

[BetterBizWorks]

Hello Folks!

Part 107 pilot here shooting some real estate and property for developers.
I have a question.

Here is my question:
How do you shoot and stitch together large acreage of property into one image?

A real estate broker wants several acres of property into one shot. She asked if I can fly the drone high enough to get all of the property into one image. I obviously could not do that without transgressing the 400 ft rule.
It's over 180 acres.

How do you shoot and stitch together?

I appreciate insight on this.

Thanks,
Chris Knipp

Mapsmadeeasy.com You only pay for the pictures you add. It will mape 2d and 3d renderings. You can also use lightroom if you just need at 2D rendering. Right click a group of photos, hit photo merge, panorama merge. Good luck.