Can I overlay grid lines to a photograph?

[Rupert49]

I wish to photograph my front garden from an upstairs window so that I can use the resultant picture to draw lines and diagrams on to facilitate discussions with building and driveway contractors. Ideally I would like to be able to overlay some grid lines so that reasonably accurate measurements can be assigned to my plans.

Is there any way that one can place grid lines onto an image? Hopefully they might also take account of the converging verticals that will inevitably result from the use of a 24mm focal length lens.
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Rupert

[LargeFormat]

What you seem to wish to end up with is a plan of your front garden. I'd suggest taking the photograph from as vertical position as you can. Then correct the perspective using the tools available in most editing software. That will give you a rectangular plan that will probably be squashed in one direction or another. Take some key measurements of width and length and stretch the photograph to the right proportions. Then print it to the scale you require.

If you bring the resulting photograph into a drawing package like CorelDRAW you can size it and add any grid lines you want.

[Rupert49]

On reflection your solution would seem to be the simplest way forward - thanks!
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Rupert

[Malcolm_Stewart]

Good luck with your project - I tried something like this years ago when I was into surveying stone circles, and I thought I might save time by snapping them from my camera mounted at the top of a long pole. My trial results were awful - let's hope you do better. (I ended up buying traditional surveying equipment and teaching myself surveying - very rewarding.)

[PhilW]

What you seem to wish to end up with is a plan of your front garden. I'd suggest taking the photograph from as vertical position as you can. Then correct the perspective using the tools available in most editing software. That will give you a rectangular plan that will probably be squashed in one direction or another. Take some key measurements of width and length and stretch the photograph to the right proportions. Then print it to the scale you require.

If you bring the resulting photograph into a drawing package like CorelDRAW you can size it and add any grid lines you want.

Perhaps including a square thing on the ground (1m x 1m bit of paper) would help you know when the perspectice correction is correct i.e. when it is square.

Also could be used to add an approximate 1m grid working off it?

[Wheelman]

Do you have a CAD/drawing package?

One solution would be to buy an Ordnance Survey extract in a CAD format,DXF or similar (usually about £20) import that into your drawing to use as a basis and then run a few check dims as the OS can be a bit out. Print out at 1:50 (or even better 1:20) making sure to include a linear scale-job done.

If it were me however... I would just measure and draw it up in Autocad but that is pert of what I do for a living

[Nod]

How about using a tape measure, some string and a bag of cheap flour to measure, lay out and mark a grid to whatever dimensions you want? Measure out your 1 metre (or whatever) squares and mark the ends with pegs, stretch the string between the corresponding pegs them mark along the strings with the flour (snip a small hole in the bag to let a small stream of the flour out). If you'd rather not have slimy flour residue on the garden, use dry sand instead - on the gardeny bits, it'll get absorbed by the soil and on any hard landscaping (drives, paving etc) it'll wash off. Of course, you could use line marking sprays but they're a bit more permanent.

Alternatively, mark the ends of the lines with something bright (yellow tennis balls work well) then join the appropriate dots in PP.

[Pontoneer]

Why not just download the satellite image of your garden from Google Earth or multimap.com

This will give you an overhead view taken from a satellite with scale markings on one edge - you can then draw grid lines with measurements onto your print .

[rob_marshall]

If you use Photoshop why not just switch on gridlines with the image loaded (CTRL/') that's a single quote mark. Then do a save screen print to a JPEG. You can change the grid line layout in Photoshop parametr settings. Mine are set to rule of thirds.

Like this

[fiona77]

I just want to say thank you for the information.
It is very valuable for me..newbie here and encountering the same situation.
Thanks and keep up the good work..

[Rupert49]

I just want to say thank you for the information.
It is very valuable for me..newbie here and encountering the same situation.
Thanks and keep up the good work..

Hi Fiona, just seen your post on the end of my rather old thread! Welcome to the Forums, we're all here to help each other - even the most experienced members post questions here, just remember to use the correct forum section!

Don't forget to post some photographs in the Appraisal forum either (remember to resize to 800px on the long edge and no larger than 200kb, via Photobucket is the preferred way) .. there's no better way to learn!

Enjoy your photography and keep posting!