Capturing images
Photogrammetry is unforgiving in one specific way: the quality of your results is decided in the field, not in the software. Sharp, well-overlapping, geotagged photos turn into a clean orthomosaic and accurate elevation models. Blurry or sparse photos produce gaps, warping and noise that no amount of processing can fully repair.
The good news is that capturing good input is mostly a matter of a few habits: fly a consistent grid, keep generous overlap between shots, hold a steady altitude, and let the camera record its position in each photo. MapperTool checks your uploaded set automatically before processing starts, so problems are flagged early — but it is far cheaper to avoid them during the flight than to re-fly a site.
This section covers what actually affects output quality: how to fly, and what your images need to contain so MapperTool can process them.
In this section
Flight basics
Recommended flight technique for drone mapping — grid patterns, overlap, altitude and camera settings that produce clean photogrammetry results.
Image requirements
What your drone photos need for processing in MapperTool — GPS-tagged EXIF data, plus multispectral imagery for NDVI and radiometric imagery for thermal.
This guide is being written. The essentials above are accurate today; the detailed walkthrough lands here soon.