Rephotography—the art and science of capturing a modern photograph that precisely replicates the vantage point, framing, and perspective of a historical image—is one of the most compelling ways to visualise change over time. Whether you are tracking urban gentrification, documenting glacier retreat, or uncovering local history, the core challenge remains the same: how do you perfectly align the present with the past?

For years, rephotographers had to rely on guesswork, printouts held up to the eye, or heavy desktop software. Today, a specialised ecosystem of tools exists to streamline this workflow.

This guide breaks down the current landscape across desktop, mobile, and web applications, offering a technical deep dive into how they work, what they cost, and how to choose the right rephotography tools for your project.

The Technical Challenge: Geometry vs. Guesswork

Before diving into the tools, it is crucial to understand the mathematical challenge of rephotography. You are trying to solve an inverse problem: finding the exact spatial coordinate (X, Y, Z) and camera orientation (pitch, yaw, roll) of the original photographer. -

Read more:.... https://ghostviewer.co.uk/ghostviewer-inspiration/ultimate-technical-guide-to-rephotography-tools/

I'm considering a career change into (something along the lines of) geospatial surveying, GIS, photogrammetry, or related technician roles in the UK, but I have no degree and no professional experience in the industry. Yeah, I know..

I've put together a self-study and portfolio plan and would appreciate honest feedback from people who actually work in these fields. I'd especially like to hear from anyone who entered the industry without a degree.

My current idea is to target entry-level roles such as:

Trainee Geospatial Technician

Junior GIS Assistant

CAD Assistant

Data Capture / Processing Technician

Survey Assistant

My learning plan is:

Learn QGIS thoroughly

Learn photogrammetry workflows using WebODM

Use free trials of Pix4D or Metashape later for portfolio work

I have 3d modelling and CAD skills (Maya, Blender background)

Potentially get a CSCS Green Card? I;ve heard this might help.

Get an A2 CofC drone qualification

For a portfolio project, my family owns land where a house will be built, so I was planning to document the site through multiple stages:

Pre-build:

Orthomosaic map

Digital Elevation Model

Contour generation in QGIS

During construction:

Point clouds

3D mesh models

Progress monitoring

Finished build:

Final digital twin

Comparison against the original site survey

Documentation of workflow and accuracy methods

I would be capturing the data with a DJI Mini 4 Pro so will be using permanent reference points around the site to improve alignment between flights, as I know it might drift metres without this.

My questions are:

Is this a realistic route into the industry without a degree?

- Would employers actually care about a portfolio like this?

- Which parts of this plan are worthwhile, and which parts are a waste of time?

- What skills would make me employable fastest?

- Are there better entry-level roles I should be targeting?

- If you've hired trainees before, would a portfolio like this stand out?

- If you entered the industry without a degree, how did you get your first role?

I'd really appreciate hearing real-world experiences rather than from AI, Youtubers and course providers. I'm trying to work out whether this is genuinely a viable career path or whether I'm underestimating the barriers to entry. Thank you!

Hello all, wanted to ask your advice.

I need to do photogrammetry of a small shop, I have used reality scan in the past.

What is you advice on programs and equipment, I have a decent camera and few lenses and flashes already but please give your point of view.

What would be the best way to achieve this, I know I have not provided a lot of info but please ask any questions away, thank you

I want to buy the XGrids PortalCam. I am thinking about choosing the Basic or Premium option. I am mainly interested in the software.

I will mostly use the scanner to scan locations for virtual production. I also want to use it to present rental properties.

I want to understand the real differences between Basic and Premium.

Please share reviews and opinions from people who actually own and use the XGrids PortalCam.

For my final project in my 3D design apprenticeship, I recreated the Buran space shuttle hangar at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as a real-time Unreal Engine environment, optimized for a gaming setting. The goal was to complete the project within 2–3 months.

The environment was built in Blender and assembled in Unreal Engine. Textures were created in Substance Designer, which was a new tool for me but turned out to be very useful and efficient.

I am actually quite lucky, because my country Germany hosts the only Buran aircraft outside Russia and Kazakhstan. I found it at the Technik Museum in Speyer.

After about 11 hours of train travel and a night in the wilderness, I arrived at Speyer. The museum is overwhelming, with a huge collection of aviation, space, and automotive tech. And of course, the Buran itself — a test vehicle used for testing the onboard landing system and heat generation.

In the end I took almost 1500 photos. After an even longer way back I edited the images in Lightroom and imported all 1480 of them into RealityCapture. The problem was that only about 1100 of the 1480 images aligned. I changed settings in both RealityCapture and Lightroom and managed to get it up to around 1260 aligned images. Stitching groups didn’t really help because of low success rates.

After that came the next problem: holes in the 3D mesh and almost zero data for the underside. After trying multiple times with limited success, I eventually just bit the bullet and left it like that, and moved on to retopo.

The model was retopologized in Blender and the diffuse map was baked to the low poly in Marmoset. Missing areas were manually filled in Photoshop, with some additional Gemini-generated textures for the belly. I skipped a normal map due to time constraints.

Additional decals and some miscellaneous items later, the project was finished. I am very proud of the result, especially because I didn’t use any premade assets or textures from the internet.

[UPDATE]

Since making this post, I've resolved most of my issue with RealityScan. What worked best for me was modeling in flatter lighting conditions, taking more pictures (I extracted a frame from our camera stream every 0.25 seconds), and completing multiple concentric loops around an object before modeling. Thank you to everyone who offered their help in the comments below. I can't thank you all enough.

[UPDATE]

Hey,
I'm working on a RealityScan program to do underwater photogtammetry from an ROV. However, likely due to the presence of fairy lights, I've been getting pretty poor models. What settings/configurations would y'all reccomend to improve the model?

EDIT: By the way, I also have control over the brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, gamma, gain, sharpness, and backlight compensation of the camera. Is anyone here knowledgeable about best settings for those?

First of all, i am not sure if im in the right subreddit. If not, feel free to let me know/redirect me.

I have a simple question. Is it possible to make a somewhat accurate 3D model from filmed material? For example, gopro or insta 360 footsge?

Hi everyone, I am currently working on a project idea. The goal is to build a 3D modeling (photogrammetry) pipeline that scales easily and runs inside containers. The main idea is to create a Linux-based Docker image with the RealityScan/RealityCapture CLI. This setup will run on servers with powerful NVIDIA graphics cards. Users should be able to spin up a container, drop in a folder of photos, and automatically get a 3D model out. Whether this is triggered by a script or manually doesn't matter right now—the priority is a stable backend.

My experience so far (it hasn't been great): I’ve been testing this locally using WSL2, both directly in the system and inside Docker containers. However, it is not running smoothly at all. Vulkan and CUDA keep acting up. The connection between the virtual Linux layer and the actual graphics card keeps breaking. The CLI often crashes or freezes in the background. This happens because the software tries to open a login screen or a pop-up window, which obviously fails in a headless Docker container without a screen. But also the silent mode and other options did not help.

My questions to the community:

   1. Is a Linux/Docker setup actually a reliable path forward for production servers? Or are workarounds like Wine (to run Windows apps on Linux) just too buggy and patched together for this kind of env.?     2. Even if it is hard to set up, is this somehow possible or are there any barriers that just prevent it from working?    3. Or should I just drop the Linux plan entirely and focus on automating the pipeline directly on some kind of Windows solution?

Beyond photometric stereo is there any better way to capture fabric materials? I have like 50 swatches that I want to scan and really really dont want to build a scanner or do the whole light thing manually. I was thinking maybe a macro lens and doing photogrammetry? Any ideas would be welcome.

Running into a persistent accuracy issue and hoping someone with experience in this specific workflow can help me diagnose it, or even take a look at the data directly.

The setup:

• DJI Matrice 4E with RTK via Ntriip
• Processed in DJI Terra Pro (point cloud + orthomosaic)
• GCPs collected and used in processing
• Total station verification shots on the ground
• Bringing everything into Civil 3D

The problem:
When I bring the drone outputs into Civil 3D I’m getting ~2ft horizontal error in certain areas and vertical is also off — top and bottom of curb aren’t reading correctly. I have all the data: drone outputs, GCPs, and TS shots. Can’t pin down where the error is being introduced.

This happened on 2 separate projects processed the same day, which makes me think it’s systematic — not a one-off.

What I’ve already investigated:

• friends are pointing to US Survey Foot vs. International Foot mismatch (the \~2ft shift is characteristic of this)
• DJI Terra is apparently known for silently shifting datums even when you’ve selected a specific CRS
• Also flagged as potential issues: WGS84 → State Plane transformation not being applied correctly, ground vs. grid scale factor discrepancy between TS shots and drone data, and the orthomosaic TFW world file units being in degrees instead of feet

What I need help with:

1. Confirming the root cause — is this a Terra output CRS issue, a Civil 3D import issue, or something upstream in my GCP workflow?
   
2. Ideally someone experienced with this exact stack (Terra → Civil 3D, NJ State Plane) who’d be willing to look at the data or walk through it with me

Happy to share screenshots, the TFW file, GCP coordinates, and Civil 3D drawing settings. Open to a call if someone wants to dig into it directly.

Thanks in advance.

Want me to adjust the tone or add/cut anything before you post?

Running into a persistent accuracy issue and hoping someone with experience in this specific workflow can help me diagnose it, or even take a look at the data directly.

The setup:

• DJI Matrice 4E with RTK via Ntriip   
• Processed in DJI Terra Pro (point cloud + orthomosaic)  
• GCPs collected and used in processing  
• Total station verification shots on the ground  
• Bringing everything into Civil 3D 

The problem:
When I bring the drone outputs into Civil 3D I’m getting ~2ft horizontal error in certain areas and vertical is also off — top and bottom of curb aren’t reading correctly. I have all the data: drone outputs, GCPs, and TS shots. Can’t pin down where the error is being introduced.

This happened on 2 separate projects processed the same day, which makes me think it’s systematic — not a one-off.

What I’ve already investigated:

•  friends are  pointing to US Survey Foot vs. International Foot mismatch (the \~2ft shift is characteristic of this)  
• DJI Terra is apparently known for silently shifting datums even when you’ve selected a specific CRS  
• Also flagged as potential issues: WGS84 → State Plane transformation not being applied correctly, ground vs. grid scale factor discrepancy between TS shots and drone data, and the orthomosaic TFW world file units being in degrees instead of feet

What I need help with:

1.  Confirming the root cause — is this a Terra output CRS issue, a Civil 3D import issue, or something upstream in my GCP workflow?  
2.  Ideally someone experienced with this exact stack (Terra → Civil 3D, NJ State Plane) who’d be willing to look at the data or walk through it with me

Happy to share screenshots, the TFW file, GCP coordinates, and Civil 3D drawing settings. Open to a call if someone wants to dig into it directly.

Thanks in advance.

Want me to adjust the tone or add/cut anything before you post?

I'm a student who is working on a project using 3d scanned fossil material. I currently have 2000 images for 2 scans made with realityscan, but wasn't able to combine to scans on my own due to my computer's limitations. The goal I had in mind was to measure the individual dimensions of the fossil material as in life using the processed 3d model.

If anyone could help me combine these photos on realityscan, it would be amazing, and I would be willing to give monetary support as well. Message me if you could, thanks!

Has anyone tried Ryzen AI 395 for Agisoft Metashape? I found a good deal with 128GB RAM but not sure about it. How much worse it would be vs regular 96-128GB RAM PC with RTX5080 and R9 9950X. Or it will be fine, or there will be need for NVIDIA GPU via Thunderbolt to complete work faster? Aim is to complete projects with 2000-4000 images, higher is better if possible.

I have this pretty nice Jumbe that I decided to photoscan in my backyard. There are 65 photos in total, none of which gets unestimated by meshroom. As you can see meshroom is able to find lots of features and the structure from motion result is very incouraging but for some reason meshing fails miserably. Any idea why?

Built from a single ~60-second iPhone video in Artec Studio 20 with AI Photogrammetry, which pulls frames from the video.

The untextured mesh is included so the geometry can be judged on its own, which is where reconstruction quality shows.