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How to View Drone Photos on a Map or Satellite: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to view drone photos in a map or satellite view for free, using Reality Capture software.

Article By: Tom Ayre
Last Update: July 2024

Viewing Drone Photos by Map or Satellite: A Step-by-Step Guide

In this blog article, we will show you how to easily view your drone photos for free using a map or satellite view. This method makes it simple to see exactly where your photos were taken.
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Table of Contents

Benefits of Viewing Drone Images by Map

  • Precise Location Tracking: Easily pinpoint the exact location where each photo was taken, ensuring accurate data collection and site analysis.
  • Enhanced Visualisation: Overlay photos on satellite imagery or maps for a comprehensive view of the surveyed area, aiding in better decision-making and planning.
  • Improved Project Management: Organise and manage your drone photos effectively by associating them with specific locations, streamlining workflow and increasing efficiency.
Reality capture screenshot - satellite view.

Step-by-Step Guide

Prerequisites

  • This guide assumes you are using a Windows machine. Mac users will need to find a similar method.
  • Drone photos must be geo-referenced. Check your drone settings or the photo properties for longitude and latitude information (most DJI drones have this by default).
  • A reasonably powerful PC or laptop with 64-bit Windows and at least 8GB of RAM.

Step 1: Download and Organise Drone Photos

Transfer your drone photos from the SD card to a dedicated folder on your PC. Ensure the folder contains only photos from your current project to avoid confusion in the Map View. Remove any photos that are not relevant or of poor quality.

Step 2: Download & Install Reality Capture

  • Visit Capturing Reality and click the “Download Launcher” button.
  • Once downloaded, install the launcher, then open it and create or log in to your Epic Games account.
  • Navigate to the RealityCapture tab in the Unreal Engine section and click the install button to download the latest version.

Step 3: Open EPIC Games Launcher

  • Open the “EPIC Games Launcher” from the Start menu.
  • Navigate to “Library” on the left-hand side and click “Reality Capture” to launch the program.

Step 4: Set Up Reality Capture View Windows

  • In Reality Capture, look at the top bar and select the “1 + 2 layout”.
  • In the top right window, set the view to “MAP” by clicking the top right button and selecting “MAP”.
  • Set the bottom window to “2D” using the same method.
Reality capture screenshot - setting up layout
Reality capture screenshot - setting up map layout
Reality capture screenshot - setting up view type

Step 5: Configure Satellite Imagery

  • Go to the “MAP” tab and then “View”.
  • In the “Map Source” tab, select “Mapbox Satellite” from the “Map Provider” dropdown.
  • If prompted, set up an account at Mapbox, which is free for personal use.
  • After registering, go to “Access Tokens” and click “Create New Token”. Use the default settings and name it “Reality_Capture”.
  • Copy the generated token and paste it into the “User Token” field in the “Map Credentials” window. Your satellite imagery should now be loaded.
Reality capture screenshot - change map view.
Reality capture screenshot - aerial map provider credentials
Reality capture screenshot - aerial map provider tokens

Step 6: Import Drone Images

  • Go to the “WORKFLOW” tab and select “Folder”.
  • Choose the folder containing your drone photos and click “Select Folder”.
  • Your drone photos will load and appear in the “Images” window on the left-hand side.
  • Zoom into the survey area to see your drone photos overlaid on the satellite images. Click on the dots to view the corresponding photo.
Reality capture screenshot - drone photo map

Step 7: Save Your Project

Once you have completed everything you should now save your project by going to the top left hand button and clicking “Save As”.

By following these steps, you can easily organise and view your drone photos on a map or satellite view, making it straightforward to see where each photo was taken.

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