What lurks in a Staffordshire GardenDaily Photogrammetry Challenge, Week Two
Posted on 10 April, 2020Doom was the thematic bond between last week’s entries to my Daily Photogrammetry Challenge.
For week two, I’ve chosen something very similar – our garden.
I’ve been outside maybe four times since Coronavirus became a thing people were taking seriously. Obviously by people, I’m not including the inbred troglodytes who are continuing as normal.
This little challenge seemed a good excuse to get myself some fresh air. There’s also plenty of interesting crap in both our front and back gardens.
So, without further adoo…
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Heavy Garden Table
April 3rd 2020
What worked: Overall geometry and texture quality, generally consistent level of detail throughout.
What didn’t work: Finer details on surface (better angles and focus would’ve helped), inconsistent colour (needed to adapt camera settings for each angle), underside (couldn’t get low enough).
- Photocount – 271 (252 accepted)
- Photo positions/angles – 7
- Photo time – 15 minutes
- Post processing – None, lazy
- Total reconstruction time – 1.5 hours
- High detail polycount – 44.5M tris
Bird Table
April 4th 2020
What worked: Consistent level of geometric detail, underside of table, material, managed to capture many of overlapping geometry and really fine details.
What didn’t work: Inside of roof (more coverage needed), same level of detail could’ve likely been achieved with considerably fewer photographs.
- Photocount – 298 (298 accepted)
- Photo positions/angles – 6
- Photo time – 15 minutes
- Post processing – None, lazy
- Total reconstruction time – 1.5 hours
- High detail polycount – 38.2M tris
Barbeque
April 5th 2020
What worked: Overall shape, material (considerating how much shine), base and fine areas such as bolts.
What didn’t work: Lots of errors between geometry and around edges (needed considerably more closeup coverage).
- Photocount – 298 (298 accepted)
- Photo positions/angles – 6
- Photo time – 20 minutes
- Post processing – None, lazy
- Total reconstruction time – 1.5 hours
- High detail Polycount – 59.5M tris
Lawn Mower
April 6th 2020
What worked: Material came out great, overall shape captured well, lots of fidelity in really tricky areas (motor cage, cables, fabric).
What didn’t work: Wheels (not enough coverage), holes in fabric (poor coverage), many photos ignored due to poor focus, finer details lost in decimation (better settings required).
- Photocount – 267 (225 accepted)
- Photo positions/angles – 6
- Photo time – 15 minutes
- Post processing – None, lazy
- Total reconstruction time – 2 hours
- High detail polycount – 71.9M tris
Pot of plants and stuff
April 7th 2020
What worked: Built on approach used in lawn mower by focusing more strategically on key details. Twigs, leaves etc all came out really well, super high detail on some of the stones and even a couple of leaves/stems.
What didn’t work: Holes in pot (more coverage needed), stems (moved too much in wind, better to isolation), leaves (needed better focus in photographs).
- Photocount -350 (323 used)
- Photo positions/angles – 8
- Photo time – 25 minutes
- Post processing – Shadow/highlight removal, sharpening
- Total reconstruction time – 2 hours
- High detail polycount – 62.8M tris
Sun Dial
April 8th 2020
What worked: Again used approach from lawn mower, thus really fine geometry came out well and the metal dial, especially as well as the overall shape. Grass shaped up pretty well, too.
What didn’t work: Underside still weak (more coverage needed, struggled to get underneath), too many photos (likely an excessive amount for the detail I captured. Would’ve been wise to invest more time on weaker areas).
- Photocount -324 (316 used)
- Photo positions/angles – 10
- Photo time – 30 minutes
- Post processing – Light balance (sort of), shadow/highlight removal, sharpening
- Total reconstruction time – 2 hours
- High detail polycount – 59.7M tris

Owl Statue
April 9th 2020
What worked: Limited myself to fewer than 20 photos, overall shape turned out well by being very particular about photography angles/positions.
What didn’t work: Back area (needed better focus/positioning), material (needed tweaks)
- Photocount -14 (14 used)
- Photo positions/angles – 2
- Photo time – 2 minutes
- Post processing – None
- Total reconstruction time – 4 minutes
- High detail polycount – 6.1M tris
Garage door and random crap
April 10th 2020
What worked: Limited my photo count again but focused on a more complex area, detail generally pretty good, same with materials.
What didn’t work: Massive holes (needed better coverage of certain areas), details (more strategic use of angles would’ve likely resolved)
- Photocount -30
- Photo positions/angles – 3
- Photo time – 3 minutes
- Post processing – None
- Total reconstruction time – 6 minutes
- High detail polycount – 14.7M tris