How can I align two photos of the same building taken years apart?
Asked 9/26/2017
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I have two photos of the same building taken about 100 years apart. I want to line up the newer photo so it matches the position, scale, and proportions of the older one as closely as possible, so they can be overlaid for comparison.
The photos are similar, but they were likely taken with different cameras, lenses, and slightly different shooting positions. Is there software that lets me use the old photo as a fixed reference and then resize, align, and possibly warp the new photo to match it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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I'm guessing the pictures similar but not perfectly aligned, ie not the same lens / camera combination and not the exact same camera position? They will need aligning and warping then outputting as separate images. I've never tried this myself, but Hugin should be able to do this with a bit of messing about. It's actually an open-source GUI for a package of tools to create panoramas, focus stacks and image blends and is highly adaptable. This also makes it a little tough to get into at first but the web pages have plenty of tutorials, and there are many more on the web in general.
As I write this though I can not access any of the hugin web pages, the connection is just timing out. The wiki gives a nice overview though.
Originally by user60903. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user60903
8y ago
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Yes. If the camera position and lens were not exactly the same, simple resizing and moving usually won’t be enough—you’ll likely need both alignment and some warping/perspective correction.
A good tool to try is Hugin. Although it’s mainly known for panoramas, it can also be used for manually aligning images and adjusting geometry so one image matches another more closely. You can treat the old photo as the reference, then transform the newer one to fit.
Keep in mind that a perfect match may be impossible if the viewpoint is significantly different, because perspective changes can’t always be fully corrected after the fact. But for many building comparisons, careful alignment plus warping can get very close.
Hugin is powerful, though a bit technical at first, so tutorials will help.
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