Photographic interpretation is “the act of examining photographic images for the purpose of identifying objects and judging their significance” (Colwell, 1997). This mainly refers to its usage in military aerial reconnaissance using photographs taken from reconnaissance aircraft.
Principles of image interpretation have been developed empirically for more than 150 years. The most basic of these principles are the elements of image interpretation. They are: location, size, shape, shadow, tone/color, texture, pattern, height/depth and site/situation/association. These are routinely used when interpreting an aerial photo or analyzing a photo-like image. A well-trained image interpreter uses many of these elements during his or her analysis without really thinking about them. However, a beginner may not only have to force himself or herself to consciously evaluate an unknown object with respect to these elements, but also analyze its significance in relation to the other objects or phenomena in the photo or image.
Famous quotes containing the words aerial, photographic, satellite and/or image:
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“... the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I know not what the younger dreams—
Some vague Utopia—and she seems,
When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,
An image of such politics.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)