GPS + Google Earth

[ashaughnessy]

I don't think we can do this today but it seems easily believable for the future.

If your pictures are tagged with GPS co-ordinates, altitude, compass bearing (which way you're pointing the camera) and inclination/declination (are you pointing up or down) -
then, combine this information with Google Earth or street view and could a viewer of your photo then compare your photo with the view of the same point in google earth?

And if you could do this, would it be interesting or significant? Might allow the viewer to see how much you've photoshopped the view.
Anthony

[spidermike]

They've already got something similar if a recent article I saw is anything to go by - they can scour facebook, flickr and a load of other sites to find the same scene shot at different times and create a time lapse of how it has changed.

[Tim Lookingbill]

I did just as you described on one image I shot in jpeg back when I was just getting to know my DSLR and not shooting Raw.

See the screenshot comparison below of my jpeg edited rendering to Google maps street view.

I feel the street view looks more real but then it's shot in overcast light vs the sun overhead.

I still can't get the jpeg to look right no matter what I do. It was shot in 2008.

[spidermike]

I've found the article I referred to above. They have actually done it for something called 'timelapse mining'

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/timelapse/

[AreBee]

Tim,

I still can't get the jpeg to look right...

In what sense?

[Tim Lookingbill]

Tim,

In what sense?

It looks too cartoonish in hue/saturation appearance. The unedited version is so much worse in that it's overly warm, dull, dark and flat looking. I've re-edited it so many times starting in CS3>CS5 but it's like wack-a-mole editing back the contrast and definition provided by a bright sunny day without distorting hue/sat. The Google streetview version just looks real but it lacks punch and clarity that would make for a pleasing landscape.

More than likely this one image suffers as a result of a number of things one being shot as a jpeg without more accurate WB during capture especially at noon daylight on top of generally starting out as dull and colorless rendering.

In this case a silk purse is not to be had from this sow's ear of an image.