Structure from motion or photogrammetry is an exciting method for documentation within the preservation field. The process is as easy as taking a photo! Yes, it is so easy that even someone like me who has difficulties printing documents can do it!

               So, what is photogrammetry? Well, to put it plainly, it is “the process of making surveys and maps for the purpose of documentation, especially aerial photographs (Smith, Carrivick, & Quincey).” Photogrammetry has many useful applications to the field of historic preservation. It can be used for “historic documentation, digital preservation and conservation, cross-comparisons, monitoring of shape and colors, simulation of aging and deterioration, virtual reality/computer graphics applications, repositories and catalogs, web-based computer geographic systems, computer-aided restoration, multi-media exam exhibits, visualization, and so on (Smith, Carriviuck, & Quincey).”

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            Laurel Grove Cemetery is located at 802 West Anderson Street in Savannah, GA. Laurel Grove Cemetery North is named after the indigenous laurel oak trees which once predominated the site (Savannah.gov). The land was once the site of The Springfield Plantation (Savannah.gov). It was developed into a cemetery to fulfill the need for additional burial grounds as older cemeteries in Savannah such as Colonial Park Cemetery reached capacity (Savannah.gov). The interesting thing about Laurel Grove is though it was founded in 1850, the majority of the plots were sold during the Victorian era (Savannah.gov). To date, Laurel Grove “has the highest concentration of Victorian period cemetery architecture in the southeast (Savannah.gov).”

 

              This method of photogrammetry is useful for documenting objects and sites to have a record of them digitally. If the user has access to a drone, then they are able to document expansive sites without being invasive to the site. My class began our exploration of this method in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, GA. On April, 4th of 2018, we spent a class wondering the cemetery grounds to find our victim for documentation. Mine came in the form of a wonderful cast-zinc Eastlake style grave marker (pictured below). Our eyes met across the row and that was it! I would like to think that the Dannenfelsers would be ecstatic.

 

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Dannenfelser Family marker, 1888

 

               Again, the process was simple. It consisted of snapping some pictures. I used my digital camera, a Nikon Cool Pix model for anyone interested. Some students were able to use their cell phones! For smaller objects it only requires one go-round of photos. However, for taller pieces (the Dannenfelser piece is a tall drink of water), then the process is much more involved. While standing on tippy toes (FYI I’m 6’4’’), I made sure to take two rows of photos in a three-hundred and sixty-degree fashion. While taking a panorama it is important to get at least fifty percent overlap in the pictures for rendering. Below are some other contenders from our cemetery visit which piqued my interest.

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                We were each left with copious amounts of photos from our excursion. We uploaded the photos and sorted them on our computers. The program we used is Auto Desk Photo. According to Auto Desk, it is important to have at least twenty photos to produce a high quality rendering.  After opening up the program you have the option to either select “aerial” (for a drone) or “object.” After selecting object, we were then able to begin uploading the photos. This process is simple but it takes a lot of time. I learned that it helps to rename the pictures you are going to use and to group them in a new and separate folder. The best part of this process is that Auto Desk automatically does the rendering. It does take several hours but you do not have to do a thing once your photos are uploaded. The process is done elsewhere on the Auto Desk Server so you do not even have to babysit your computer. Auto Desk sends an email to your address when your rendering is complete. Now that is service!

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                   This was definitely a learning experience. I was intent on doing the Dannenfelser marker. However, Autodesk had other plans in mind. My recap photo came back a muddled mess the first go around. I almost think I had added too many photos. We tried again with another marker that had intrigued me in the cemetery. The second time we sent off pictures of Ellen Gertrude’s marker. It is a beautiful Victorian era marker that has a sculptural quality. It consists of an angled shaft covered in small fish scale shingle-like shapes.  This shaft is wrapped with a ribbon which has Ellen’s name raised on it. On the top of the shaft is a pedestal with a beautiful little bird perched on top of a pile of flower buds. This second marker rendered beautifully.

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                     Once it was completed, the image needed to have the surrounding background cropped. Anything that I did not want to have printed needed to be cut. Once this was done then the image needed to be exported as a file on the computer. This new file needed to become a zipped file, otherwise it would have been too large when it was uploaded onto Sketchfab. This zipped file included the jpeg image and the Autodesk file. Once it was uploaded onto Sketchfab we had an opportunity to play around with the various settings. It was important to reset the axis of the image so that when viewed it would be standing up straight. There were also many different backgrounds and lighting conditions to choose from. I chose a neutral background to allow the piece to stand out. For the lighting I went with the “outdoor glassed café” setting. I ended up re-uploading the image at a higher resolution because once it was published it was not as sharp as it could have been. Luckily, this process was a simple matter and could be done in a way that allowed me to retain the format changes which I had painstakingly come up with. Below is the Sketchfab image and a link to view it the site.

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